The Unmapping by Denise R Robbins

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✦ BLURB ✦

4 a.m., New York City. A silent disaster.

There is no flash of light, no crumbling, no quaking. Each person in New York wakes up on an unfamiliar block after its buildings rearrange their positions overnight. The power grid has snapped, thousands of residents are missing, and the Empire State Building is on Coney Island—for now. The next night, it happens again.

Esme Green and Arjun Varma work for the city of New York's emergency management team and are tasked with managing the disaster response for "The Unmapping." As Esme tries to wade through the bureaucratic nightmare of an endlessly shuffling city, she's distracted by the ongoing search for her missing fiancé. Arjun focuses on the ground-level rescue of disoriented New Yorkers, hoping to become the hero the city needs.

With scientists scrambling to find a solution—or at least a means to cope—and mysterious "red cloak" cults cropping up in the disaster’s wake, New York begins to reckon with a new reality no one recognizes. For Esme and Arjun, the fight to hold the city together will mean tackling questions about themselves that they are too afraid to ask—and facing answers they never expected. With themes of climate change, political unrest, and social justice, The Unmapping is a timely and captivating debut.

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✶ PRE-READING ✶

I read the blurb and was immediately drawn in - I love a good disaster novel or movie. I was expecting a surreal disaster novel - something in the vein of Station Eleven or The City We Became - where the world turns sideways and characters fight to survive and adapt. The concept of a city reconfiguring itself overnight promised urban surrealism, and I was prepared for action, tension, and a hint of the apocalyptic.

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✶ POST-READING ✶

As I thought... Yes, this is a disaster story - but not in the typical sense. There are no explosions, no zombies or invasions. Instead, it’s about how systems falter when reality itself becomes fluid. It reminded me a little of When We Were Real in that way. The logistical and emotional toll of navigating a city in flux was deeply immersive, and the worldbuilding felt alarmingly plausible despite its surreal core.

It surprised me by...How introspective and philosophical it is. The physical rearrangement of New York mirrors an inner unmapping for the characters: grief, identity, and the illusions of control. Esme’s struggle isn’t just about finding her fiancé - it’s about understanding who she is without certainty. Arjun's hero complex isn’t just noble; it’s a shield. Arjun's anxieity was painful to read about at times, showing how well the author had represented it on the page. The book pushes you to ask what maps we rely on - personal, societal, political - and what happens when they fail.

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✦ RECOMMENDATIONS ✦

Book Recommendation: Severance by Ling Ma – for the introspective take on disaster and systems decay

TV Recommendation: The Leftovers – for the mood of grief, cults, and existential aftermath

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✧ VIBE CHECK ✧

🎨 Colour Palette: Misty grey, fire escape red, neon blue, the yellow of a dim streetlight

🎵 Soundtrack: “Everything in Its Right Place” by Radiohead – disjointed, hypnotic, unsettling

🍁 Season: Late winter – brittle, disordered, with a sense that spring might never come

🌀 Mood: Disoriented yet lucid; a dream you can’t wake from but feel everything inside of

🌫️ Scent: Wet concrete, static electricity, and the faint trace of ozone before a storm

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★ TAROT CARD PULLED ★

The Hanged Man – Light Seer’s Tarot
A luminous figure dangles upside down in calm surrender, bathed in soft light - a moment of pause not forced by helplessness, but chosen for clarity. In The Unmapping, this card reflects the heart of the story: a need to release the illusion of control and embrace a radically new perspective. For Esme and Arjun, the path forward isn’t found by clinging to old maps but by hanging still long enough to draw a new one.