A Map of the Known World

A Map of the Known World by Lisa Ann Sandell

Loved it!! Read it in one sitting! Have a ton of sticky notes pasted to pages that need to be reread and enjoy yet again. This book reminded me of how teens are often searching for some kind of escape - from old friends, from the small town that is suffocating, from being labeled a certain kind of person, from the pressures placed on them from parents, families, histories, teachers. I know I was definately one of those teens, longing for the day when I would strike out on my own, discover that far off place and escape into the person I wanted to be. This book captured all of that.

Here's the summary.

Cora Bradley dreams of escape. Ever since her reckless older brother, Nate, died in a car crash, Cora has felt trapped in her small town. Her parents are increasingly overprotective, and even her best friend, Rachel, has begun to slip away.

So Cora seeks solace in art, drawing elaborate maps and envisioning herself in exotic locales. Then Cora's mapes lead her someplace unexpected: to Damian, the handsome, brooding boy who was in the car with Nate the night he died. Cora forms a tentative bond with Damian - himself an artist - who reveals to her the truth about who her brother really was. As Cora begins to piece together the fragments of her life, she finds herself falling for Damian. But will she have the courage to follow the chart of her heart?

Here's some of the quotes I flagged.

"They say no land is left to be discovered, no continent is left unexplored. But the whole world is out there, waiting, just waiting for me."

"Kids stream by me, swiftly dodging and moving past in circling eddies, like a river will wash around a tall rock of log."

"Cliques seem to gather their members, the way a magnet will draw filings of iron."

"I will map the world that I know better than anything. The world, the places I've shared with Nate. And I will finish his last, unfinished piece with this map of the known world. I'll draw the places we used to go and the kids we used to be. Then I will mount this map on the pedestal Nate built."

"We sat around the table, five of us, my grandparents, parents and me, caught in a silence as thick as an oil spill and twice as deadly

I know this will be one that I will rave about for a while.

Read On.