Title: The Atlas of Us
Author: Kristin Dwyer
Genre: YA, Romance, Fiction
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ times infinity

When her father dies, Atlas begins to lose her way. She gives up on school, on her friends, on her family and on herself. In a last ditch effort to pull herself out of her grief Atlas begins working on a community service program rehabbing trails in the Western Sierras. Real names are forbidden on the trail so now she’s Maps and along with King, Books, Junior, and Sugar she heads into the wilderness. What she finds there isn’t her old self, but a new version of her…and now she needs to figure out which one she really is.

I don’t even know how to start writing this review. How do you begin to talk objectively about a book and characters that you fell in love with for 336 pages? This book had absolutely everything. Adventure, self-discovery, found family, and romance. This will be a book I reread over and over and over again, finding and loving new pages with each reading. Seriously, I’ve already pre-ordered my real copy for my bookshelf.

There is not one single character to not like. They are all so REAL. Every single one of them. Their growth and self discovery throughout the pages was paramount. They broke down. They fought. They got angry. They screamed and cursed at each other. But they also laughed. And hugged. And were vulnerable. And let out their little truths and realities bit by bit for each other, hoping that they would still be loved at the end of their journey. You are rooting for each of them every single step of the way, even when they make their mistakes. Even when they seem unlovable.

While this book is YA, think about it as more YA adjacent. I get the same feelings from this book that I got from Check & Mate by Ali Hazelwood and Tilly in Technicolor by Mazey Eddings: heartbreak and longing, angst and hope, and pure undiluted love.

There are no other words. This book is pure perfection. I wouldn’t change a single thing.

A very special thank you to NetGalley, Harper Collins, and the author for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

After losing her dad, a girl goes on a life changing trail program in the Western Sierras where she will find a way to connect to her dad as well as find a family of her own and a love she never expected. When Atlas's dad dies from cancer, her world is stained in grief, and in a last ditch effort to pull her life together she starts working on a community service program rehabbing trails in the Western Sierras. Her father loved it and it's a way for her to find him again. Using real names is forbidden on the trail so she becomes Maps, and on this new trail she meets new friends as they work together.... yet the closer they become the more she dreads returning to her old life. Atlas experiences healing on this trip as well as facing her grief, and then there is King, someone she is drawn to who keeps pushing and pulling her to him. King is hiding something but when she finds out his secret, can she still forgive him and want to be with him? This was a book heavy on dealing with grief. It's a slow read for sure but I think if you are looking for healing/emotional character journeys, this would be perfect for you. It really focuses on found family and support systems as well as the pains and struggles that we deal with when we are grieving a lost one. The romance was a nice touch and the story had an overall nice ending. Overall, I think if you enjoy slow reads with lots of emotional themes, this would a good one to add to your tbr.

*Thanks Netgalley and HarperCollins Children's Books, HarperTeen for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

The Atlas of Us by Kristin Dwyer is an emotional yet beautifully crafted story.
This new YA/NA contemporary had me thinking and feeling all sorts of different emotions.
A beautiful coming of age story with characters dealing with grief, loss, love and anger.
The way Dwyer writes her characters was very compelling. The characters are so relatable and imperfect.
I loved reading and watching their journey unfold. Kristin Dwyer’s prose is both evocative and thought-provoking.
I couldn’t have loved this story any more than did!

Thank You NetGalley and HarperTeen for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

Kristin Dwyer knows how to weave in emotions in a way that hit you hard but doesn't feel like too much. I felt for Atlas/Maps so much in this book and could also relate to the feeling of being annoyed with yourself for being caught in your emotions.

Dwyer also nailed the setting and characters. I loved getting to know Maps, Sugar, Books, Junior, and King, and it was like I was on the hike with them all. The romance was a bit hot and cold for me, which was probably the point, but it lessened my enjoyment a smidge. I appreciated how the story resolved.

I'm not really sure how I'm supposed to work in words the myriad of emotions this book made me feel, but it's absolutely no surprise that I read the bulk of it in one sitting. I'm talking didn't even leave my bed or look at my phone one sitting.

After the death of her father, Atlas joins this summer hike volunteer program as a tribute to him, and there she meets four people who will change her life forever.

This was such a poignant story about loss and grief and trying to fill the hole in our life our loved one once occupied. But it was also a deep dive into the mind of the bereft, and the ways in which Atlas dealt--or didn't deal--with the loss of her father. I absolutely adored her character arc, and how she ended the month-long hike not any less lost in the wake of the death of her dad, but more adept at leaning on people. At crying when she needed to, and knowing it was okay to laugh and love and live even with him gone.

I loved the nicknames aspect, and how everyone was allowed to be a different version of themselves--maybe the most TRUE version of themselves--beneath the masks of their fake names. King, Books, Sugar, and Junior all became family for Atlas to not replace her dad, but to lessen the sting of him being gone from her life.

Not to mention, Dwyer's writing is utter perfection, every word and sentence and chapter carefully constructed to fully pull us into the story and make us live these things alongside her characters. This one will stay with me forever.

“𝙃𝙄𝙆𝙄𝙉𝙂 𝙃𝘼𝙎 𝘼 𝙎𝙊𝙉𝙂. 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙧𝙝𝙮𝙩𝙝𝙢 𝙤𝙛 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙥𝙨 𝙤𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙜𝙧𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙙. 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙨𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙙 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙬𝙞𝙣𝙙 𝙞𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙩𝙧𝙚𝙚𝙨. 𝘽𝙞𝙧𝙙𝙨 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙗𝙪𝙜𝙨 𝙩𝙚𝙡𝙡𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙞𝙧 𝙨𝙚𝙘𝙧𝙚𝙩𝙨.”

ummm, i absolutely loved this book. was it perfect? no, but i think that’s why i loved it so much. it hit me in all the feels at the right time. it was so raw and real and emotional. it took me back to 18 years old and all of the angst of being a new adult. i also want to go hiking now. 😂

“𝙄’𝙢 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙪𝙙 𝙤𝙛 𝙢𝙚. 𝙄 𝙨𝙪𝙧𝙫𝙞𝙫𝙚𝙙. 𝙏𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚 𝙞𝙨 𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙛𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 𝙞𝙣𝙨𝙞𝙙𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙢𝙚. 𝙄 𝙬𝙖𝙨 𝙗𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙣, 𝙗𝙪𝙩 𝙄 𝙬𝙖𝙨 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙗𝙧𝙤𝙠𝙚𝙣.”

atlas/maps — ughh my girl went through it; losing her father to cancer at a young age and dealing with the aftermath. i’ve been fortunate to never lose a parent, but i feel like this story portrayed the loss so well. i couldn’t help but hurt for maps. i felt her loneliness and how she felt like she couldn’t get anything right. her growth on the hiking trail was amazing. i loved the blue group — books, junior, sugar and king. each one stood apart on their own, but i loved when they bonded and came together for each other. it wasn’t without a lot of tears, fighting and anger, but it was so worth it.

“𝙆𝙞𝙣𝙜’𝙨 𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙙𝙨 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙖 𝙩𝙧𝙪𝙩𝙝 𝙖𝙗𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙢𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙝𝙚 𝙘𝙖𝙣 𝙨𝙚𝙚. 𝙄 𝙛𝙤𝙡𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙢 𝙪𝙥 𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚 𝙖 𝙡𝙤𝙫𝙚 𝙡𝙚𝙩𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙝𝙞𝙙𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙢 𝙞𝙣 𝙢𝙮 𝙝𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙩.”

and then maps and king…ughh the small touches and secret glances. the longing and slow burn and want. but also the secrets. it was all so much and i felt it. i loved it. the popsicles, the journal, base camp, waterfall jumping. there is so much goodness in this book. a beautiful story about accepting grief and knowing that it’s okay to feel what you feel. it’s okay to cry, to be angry and to even be happy. i can’t recommend this enough.

content: vague open door, language, cancer/death of a parent

thank you to harper teen for an advanced copy. my thoughts are my own.

In a beautifully vulnerable and raw follow-up to her debut, Some Mistakes Were Made, Dwyer takes her characters and readers on a journey of grief, growth, and every kind of love there is. Dwyer’s incredible ability to create flawed, relatable, characters is front and center in The Atlas of Us.

Even lost and unmoored, I found Atlas's character compelling and real. It's not every day that a narrator admits to being a liar in the first chapter of a book. And while that should've translated into making her an unreliable narrator, it only made me like her more.

Some Mistakes Were Made felt like a gaping wound getting poked repeatedly until, after MUCH SCREAMING, it was eventually stitched back together. The Atlas of Us feels like watching someone put used gauze over a bullet hole and expecting it to heal on its own.

But, love is the medicine here. And that's why this book is so beautiful.

I'm telling you to read this book!

I really enjoyed this title! It’s a moving story about friendship and family and how our mistakes shouldn’t define us. Definitely going to recommend to my students!

This is a great YA! It’s on the more mature side (the characters are 18-20ish) and there’s some “adult” content, but nothing worrisome.

I liked this more than I thought I would. Dwyer captured the messiness of grief very well. I love following Maps and her group on the trail, and I also appreciated seeing the story continue after they finished. I will say that the romance was probably my least favorite part, but I didn’t hate it.

4.25⭐️

Kristin Dwyer's The Atlas of Us explores a teenager's (Atlas/Map's) grief and anger over her father's death, the friendships she forms on a 4-week community service project reclaiming trails in the Western Sierras, and, eventually, her ability to move forward supported by these friends who know and love her.

Apart from the relative absence of meaningful adult input, Dwyer depicts her protagonist's experience of loss realistically, and the romance that develops between Atlas/Maps and her 20-year old team leader, King, has the feels that appeal to a YA audience.

A well-written novel that will engage the target audience.

this is one of my favorite YA books coming out next year. This book was so good. Well written, can't put it down and just overall has a grip on you! A wonderful YA!!

Kristin Dwyer is queen of emotion. She captures it and manages to not only make it real for her characters but for her readers as well. This is such a character driven story that I feel as though these are real people and if I find myself on a hike in the Sierras there thry will be. Laughing, crying. Looking up at the stars. The main character, Atlas/Maps is grieving the dewth of her father who died from cancer recently. At 17, she's reeling from the loss and unsure how to carry on. Who she is, what she wants, and how to love those still with her. She's angry, she's hurt. As a gift to her late father, she decides to complete a bucket list item he didn't get a chance to do with her. Hike and reopen a train he loved that was closed after wildfire. As part of a community service program she's assigned a group with four others who embark on a month long trek that will ultimately aid in self discovery, healing, and develop lifelong friendships and romantic relationships that effect the rest of their lives. All five of them leave forever changed. Poignant, introspective and romantic this story will leave readers ruminating too and yearning for more.

I so wish I had this book at 17! But the next best thing is having it now 🤎 The Atlas of Us is a book that's all heart. There's friendship, and grief, and love in so many forms. It's tender and emotional and honest and raw. On a long hike through the Western Sierras (which become almost a character in their own right), our heroes hide their names but show their hearts in a way which only happens by a camp fire, under the stars, when you're seventeen.

What an emotional roller coaster in the best and most healing way possible. A book I wish I had in my high school years as I was navigating the world after losing a parent. Beautifully written and full of heart and emotion.

This is "Grief is like that. It slowly stabs at you, burrowing itself inside, until eventually your body tries to get rid of it, and it ends up tearing through me."

Atlas has felt a bit lost ever since her dad passed away from cancer. She dropped out of high school, lost her part-time job, and her mom doesn't know what to do so she enrolls Atlas at a month-long hiking program at Bear Creek, that her dad's best friend Joe runs. At this camp, you aren't allowed to share your real name or past, so her name becomes Maps. She meets the rest of her group, Junior, Sugar, Books, and King, and they have to hike the hardest trail together. She begins to connect with King especially, but "fraternization" is vehemently against the rules, along with drinking, drug usage, and violence. Maps wallows and navigates her grief as she lies to the group about her background, as everyone tries to heal amidst this challenging hike. All of the kids are from somewhere in Northern California, like Vallejo (Books), Redding (Junior), Tahoe (King), Sacramento (Maps), etc.

I have been lucky enough to not lose a parent yet, but I deeply felt Atlas's grief and loss of purpose; Dwyer had that come through the page so masterfully. Atlas's indifference and apathy towards anything besides memories of her dad felt so bittersweet. Dwyer clearly wrote this with great care! Dwyer masterfully showed readers how quick quips that assume about someone's background can be harmful at worst, and insensitive at best. I thought it was clever how Sugar or Junior would assume something about Maps, and as she is silently suffering and drowning in despair, she simply lies to play into their assumptions, because the emotional labor to explain her trauma is too much. For example, one of the kids mentions, "I bet you had a sweet sixteen," and Maps thinks about how when she turned sixteen, her dad was going through chemo treatments. This is a great reminder to maybe ask more open questions, rather than guiding questions or making assumptions.

Maps' connection with King left me wanting a bit more, because so quickly he tells her that he can't be trusted around her, and it felt a lot like instalove, which I recognize can be realistic for young/new adults too. I did come around to it though, once the big reveal happened towards the end and once I began to see King's softness and kindness come through a bit more, like when Maps has an emotional moment, and he: "didn't say anything. He didn't rush me. Or ask. He... let me have the moment." Now that is a beautiful display of emotional intelligence!

I do wish there wasn't a homeless joke in here, it felt flippant and glib: "The head of the program, and my dad’s best friend, stands behind his messy desk with his hands on his hips and his eyes narrowed. The blue bandanna around his neck is sweat stained and his cargo shorts have a gaping hole toward the bottom. Joe doesn’t look like the director of a million-dollar state-funded park program. He looks homeless."

I would say this is moreso new adult rather than young adult, because the characters' ages range from 18 to 20. As far as representation, Junior, Books, and Sugar are queer, but I don't know ethnicities of any of the characters. The on-page sexual content is quite tame though, so I'd still say the steam rating is a 1.5/5.

Overall, I felt the friendships between these kids is what shone through the brightest, their banter was adorable and so loving, and I absolutely loved this found family representation. I would read more from KD in the future!

cw: grief, death of a parent, cancer, terminal illness, fire/fire injury, abandonment, tame sexual content, cursing, underage drinking

**Review will be published on my site and socials January 4th!**

A GOOD READ.

I really enjoyed this book. I do want to note this fits into the new adult category and not young adult. The characters are 18-20 and there are some vague open scenes.

Anyways

This was a messy journey in the best ways. Grief is nonlinear and gut punches you at the worst times and this showed a lot of that. I liked that Atlas had ups and downs and that in the end of the book she had found something new to hold on to and look forward to.

The romance grew on me but I do feel like it was missing something, like maybe a little more background King?? I don’t know, but I did like many of their quiet moments and the connection they were trying to forge. The found family was tangled and pushed and pulled all of the emotions. I loved the hiking and nature plot that allowed for the chance to just let go.

It was a really good book and one I’d recommend if you’re in the mood for something heavier.

Overall audience notes:
- NA Contemporary Romance
- Language: some strong
- Romance: 2 vague open door
- Violence: low
- Trigger/Content Warnings: loss of a Dad from cancer, grief/depression depiction, underage drinking

Just a fair warning, have tissues nearby when you read this one because you will absolutely cry at least once. Me? Six times. What a beautiful story and I’m not at all surprised after how much Some Mistakes Were Made affected me. The found family trope in this is top notch. I loved how they grew into these great friends who looked out for each other and held each other accountable. I also loved the way the book handled anger, grief and healing. This is a much more character driven novel than plot driven, but I was never bored. These characters, especially Atlas/Maps, are just beautifully written. And, of course, the romance was lovely. Very much a slow burn, but I loved it like that. I highly recommend this one, especially if you love YA, but honestly just in general.
CW: grief over the death of a parent, mentions of cancer


Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Teen for an advanced digital reader’s copy in exchange for an honest review.

How many words can I use to say this book is perfect? It's perfect, it's raw, it's emotional. Dare I say it, it's just as good or even better than Some Mistakes Were Made!!

This book has a lot of emotion packed into it. I really enjoyed the development of the characters - and not just Atlas, the secondary ones too. I would almost consider this a YA version of Wild by Cheryl Strayed, being in nature hoping to find answers. It is an intriguing premise and not one that you find a lot in YA lit. Let’s talk about what this book really is though…an extremely intimate look into a teenager actively working through grief. This is a constant throughout the book, almost to the point of it being a little too much. But, it does fit with the character and how she would be thinking and acting based on how she is feeling. I will say however, if you are a reader who is currently grieving, this may not be the best option for you right now. It is an accurate portrayal of emotions, but I can also see it being triggering for someone who feels too closely to how Atlas does. If you are a reader that would like to see this perspective from someone going through it however, this will accomplish it. The thing that I didn’t care for with this book was the pacing. It moves very slowly, slow enough to make me not super excited to keep reading, but not enough for me not to finish.

**3.5 STARS**

Content Warning: grief, injuries, cancer death

+ This book is about grief. Atlas James is lost – her life is a mess especially her dad dies from cancer and the only way to get her out of this situation is her mom has her attend a wilderness retreat. She goes without a cell phone for a month and hikes her dad’s favorite trail while learning about the area, surviving in the wild and how to care for the environment. It’s a sad story and tough but it’s a story about moving on and being vulnerable and having a found family in your teammates.

+ Atlas is an imperfect character. She’s dropped out of high school, doesn’t have friends, doesn’t have anything to look forward to and she’s drowning in the grief for her father. She’s a good liar but what she really is – is hurting. This is her journey to work through her grief, open up to strangers, believe in herself to survive for a month and take on responsibility and accountability. It’s a pretty heavy journey but very touching.

+ I love the found family and the friendships that grow from her experience. None of the people in her team really has a good life, each one of them has a past and not the best at making friends. But through their trials in this one month and after…they hold onto one another and try to make their friendships work, which I loved.

~ There is a romance that happens on this hiking trail between Atlas and King, who is their group leader. It’s kind of instant and I can see the attraction between them being believable especially in a stressful situation like this hike – plus Atlas seemed like someone just looking for a connection. But I kind of didn’t like the back and forth between them because of the secrets they were keeping. I understand the secrets and the angst between them but it did get pretty intense for knowing each other only for one month. I did root for them afterwards though, I think at least that was realistic and I like how they rebuilt their relationship after all the secrets are revealed.


My Thoughts:

This was a good read for me because I was reading so much fantasy and needed something contemporary but different and I liked that this was more of a personal journey through grief than a straight romance. It’s a heavier read because of the grief but Atlas overcomes a lot of things and in the end she comes out stronger than ever and I really love that.