“If there’s one thing I know how to do,” said Darnell Slant, “It’s win.”
This time, Merry did flash her teeth. Then she sat down at the table nearest the bar and said, “Let the game begin.”
Darnell Slant laughed. “It already has.”
The Map of Stars by Laura Ruby is the final book of the York trilogy. It concludes the story with a bang—but the aftermath is a confusing shrapnel field. I’ll explain why in this review.
Table of Contents
Plot
It was only a few days ago that Tess Biedermann, Theo Biedermann, and Jaime Cruz, along with a mysterious figure from the past, managed to survive an assault on the location of the latest clue in the Morningstarr cipher—and, in the process, made a shocking discovery about their own connection to this one-hundred-sixty-year-old enigma.
Now the friends are divided. Tess and Theo have no idea what the photo they found in Greenwood Cemetery means, but Jaime is convinced that they do, and that they’ve been keeping their own secrets from him. As the city continues to break around them, suddenly solving the greatest mystery of the modern world seems less important than saving their own friendship.
The stakes of completing the cipher, however, have never been higher. Darnell Slant, real estate developer and owner of all the Morningstarr buildings, knows that they hold one last secret: a power that even the Morningstarrs themselves never revealed. The world has rested on a precarious balance of power for generations; now Slant and his shadowy business partners aim to unbalance it.
It’s up to Tess, Theo, and Jaime to uncover the Morningstarrs’ final mystery in a desperate attempt to set things right. The world—theirs, and possibly others—depends on it.
If you’ve read my reviews of The Shadow Cipher or The Clockwork Ghost, you know how I’ve praised Ruby’s suspenseful, gripping plots that kept me reading when I should have been working. Few books have caused me to completely clear my schedule like the second two books of this series did.
The majority of this book matched in quality with the previous two books. As the friends near the end of the Old York Cipher, solving the clues becomes increasingly risky, and the consequences of failing become larger each time.
But a good beginning and middle do not translate to a good end. While I liked some parts, the climax is so melodramatic, disjointed, and confusing that it prevents me from recommending this series to anyone. I can’t elaborate much without getting into spoilers; the following paragraphs will contain light spoilers for the end. But to be honest, all of these things are foreshadowed early on. They’re not surprising, and that’s part of the problem. If they are surprising, it’s more the “What was the author thinking?” kind of surprise.
<spoilers begin>
Early in this book, the characters discover evidence of time travel. This possibility kept my eyes glued to the pages. Such sci-fi didn’t really fit with the series, and I was desperate to know how the author would bring everything together.
However, it’s just time travel. No twists. No surprises. The big mystery is just what the characters suspected it to be all along. This significantly weakens the mystery aspect that carried the entire series forward. Time travel can be confusing enough if thoroughly explained, but the author provides little in the way of explanation, neglecting to account for many details. I still don’t know exactly what happened in the climax.
The series’ villain, Darnell Slant, is completely absent during the final confrontation. He’s sleeping somewhere in New York City. Instead, another villain comes out of nowhere and monologues about his quest for immortality. He might have been an interesting antagonist if he hadn’t come in at the last minute.
An overgrown mutant shark with arms and legs appears and fights a massive robot bird for absolutely no reason as the characters stand around and watch (in case you’re wondering, yes, this is as weird in context as it sounds). As more and more characters from throughout the series show up, the climax gets bogged down in an unending standoff as each person waits for the other to move first.
<spoilers end>
Characters
I’ve raved about this series’ characters plenty already in previous reviews. Their interactions are so humorous and realistic, and I kept a list of funny quotes from various conversations. Not even the mess of a finale can make me dislike them. For example:
Tess went silent the way Tess went silent; that is, she didn’t say anything, but the very air around her was filled with questions, all flapping around like bats with wonky sonar.
And so on. For a few hundred pages.
Theme & Content Warnings
This book is on par with the others in this category. God’s name is used in vain once that I recall. A passing mention says people on an island are wearing bathing suits. A boy walks past the protagonists saying “words he shouldn’t know.”
Once again, the book touches on current social issues. Jaime sits next to an elderly woman who clutches her computer bag close, and Jaime internally monologues about how mistreated black people have been and how some people are still jerks. A few scenes show support for climate change.
Overall
In my review of The Clockwork Ghost, I said this:
This sequel sets up the series to become one of my all-time favorites.
The Map of Stars, for me, failed to complete that. It took an incredible story off the rails and squandered the momentum it had going.
Would I recommend it? If you’ve already started the series, read this book. In most ways, it’s just as good as the others. If you haven’t started the series but it sounds interesting, at least know that you’re in for, in my opinion, an unsatisfying end.
Thanks for reading!
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