What do readers think of The Map of True Places by Brunonia Barry? Write your own review.

I have not read this type of book in years; I am tired of protagonists who are depicted as being somehow larger than life. I was looking for a different kind of protagonist; Zee a likable character with a tortured soul presents as a different kind of protagonist, she and the other characters are not larger than life but represent the very essence of life with all of its flaws. That is why I choose to read and review this book and I am extremely glad that I did. I was hooked from the first line. Born and raised on the Texas Gulf Coast I felt immediately drawn into this delightfully surprising story. The secret formula for good fiction is character plus conflict equals drama. Barry's characters are believable and conflicted; the drama leaps off the pages as the reader feverishly reads on to discover what happens next. The story moves like a freight train through a seamless plot that finally ends, leaving the reader with the sense that this is not really the ending for Zee but rather just the beginning.

I enjoyed this book. It's a fast, fairly light read with interesting characters. The literary connections, the setting of Salem, MA, and the details related to caring for an ailing parent add to the appeal of the book. I had no expectations (not having The Lace Reader) when starting this book, but was pleasantly surprised.

This is a complex tale of self-discovery that really resonated deeply with me. It's not the kind of story that wraps up neatly and then evaporates. It sticks with you and demands answers and self exploration.

This is a very hard book to put down once you start reading and I liked it far better than Barry’s first book, The Lace Reader. Perhaps because for me the magical realism within The Map of True Places carried a bit more realism than fantasy. Zee Finch, with her funny name and motherless childhood kept my interest at speed as she searched to find her own way through her past, the present and finally centering on what she wanted to aim for in the future.

The complex characters, the atmospheric foray into Salem’s historical past and Zee's father's developing struggle with the onslaught of Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s all added to the complexities of life that kept shining throughout this novel.

Brunonia Barry's character development draws one immediately into the lives of the characters themselves. Her ability to navigate from present to past and back again seemss to flow neatly; fiction and fact and fantasy blend sometimes without the reader even realizing it. I loved all the allusions to Hawthorne and Melville and Old Salem. For all these reasons, I thoroughly enjoyed the book and am recommending it to my book club for this coming year.

Having read and enjoyed "The Lace Reader" I was looking forward to reading "The Map of True Places" and hoping for twists, turns and surprises once again and was not disappointed. Though I felt the story moved a bit slow in the beginning, I couldn't read fast enough for the suspenseful conclusion.

The characters are well developed and I feel like I want to know what's next for them. Well done.

Brunonia Barry's intertwines many lives together very well while telling the story of how Zee Finch learns the truth about her family. The author concentrates on Zee's life and intersperses the story with other characters as necessary. This technique makes the story move at a nice pace while telling just enough background information.

This is a well-written book that mixes psychological and interpersonal issues with enough suspense to keep the reader interested in the unfolding of the story. The changes that the heroine of the story goes through also challenge the reader to examine his or her own life story.