I really, really, really liked this book. Until I didn’t. There were so many things that interested me—the mystery, the botanica obscuras, the supernatural and occult overtones, the quotes at the beginning of each chapter, and all the references throughout the book.

No spoilers but the plot (until the end, for me) was really awesome. I just couldn’t get past never knowing who “they”, those pulling the strings for Isabelle’s research, and the evil “others” that had to be prevented from destroying the world, were.

I also never really liked the main character, but by the end it all made sense as to why I didn’t.

Imagine Dark Academia meets gothic suspense: a secluded Rocky Mountain research campus, occult secrets, cryptic clues—and a missing professor who might be the least mysterious part of it all. Robin Quain’s investigation into an arcane artifact leads her into hallucinations, sleepwalking, and existential dread. The atmosphere is chilling, cerebral, and utterly compulsive. I was hooked—and left wondering what was real.

Perfect for fans of twisted puzzles, botanical occult horrors, and moody academic intrigue.

Thank you NetGalley and the author for the advance copy of this fantastically creepy novel!

I had a great time with this. A nice blend of mystery and horror with the majority of twists I hadn't seen coming. I like how everything came together and that we weren't left with a 'perfect' ending. I'd love to read more in this universe.

I really liked this book! A dark, twisting rabbit hole, you didn't know what was going to happen.

#NetGalley

You never know what direction this book might take! Full of atmosphere and oddity. A very unique book!

4 Stars!!

Every single time I thought I knew where this book was going I ended up flabbergasted. Right up till the very end, and in the most pleasant way!! Very atmospheric with the sexiest academic vibes. Genuinely this was so good. Fun and creepy and mysterious. I even laughed a few times too. Like the main fmc was iconic. It's a short book easy to get through but the chapters are pretty long.

Thank you netgalley and publisher for the arc!

I enjoyed the way that Robin was always on the edge of finding out what happened to Isabelle, trying to solve the mystery out of curiosity as well as striving to find a link to her own research. The very limited number of other characters made for a tense setting and possible conspiracy. I was excited to explore the grounds and even the island. I had the feeling that the grounds had multiple dimensions, like when we were in school and put an overlay on top of an image to envision additional levels. I even enjoyed the mystical elements that Robin found as she explored, but the story eventually lost me toward me at the end when the scope of the danger was realized. The ancient creatures were a little much for me. Until the end, I was invested. The story is not bad; I just wish that the story had a different conclusion. I want to thank Sara Beth Haring of St. Martin's Press for the ARC of this book of twisted mind games and warped reality.

Creepy, smart, and full of atmosphere, Atlas of Unknowable Things pulls you into a gothic mystery with missing professors, strange experiments, and an eerie campus setting. The writing is sharp and immersive, but the story sometimes gets bogged down in detail, and I didn’t fully connect with the main character. Still, it’s a compelling read for fans of dark academia with a sci-fi twist.

This was a great, suspenseful read! It kept me guessing and was also kind of spooky. You never knew who to trust and I enjoyed having the mystery unfold. There was 1 loose end I wish was tied up, and there was a point where the 4th wall was broken and I really didn't like that. That is the reason I'm not giving it 5 stars. It is so random and jarring I actually read that part multiple times to try and make sense of it, and then came back the next day to try again and it just doesn't work. It really ruins that part honestly which is a big disappointment because there was no need for it. Overlooking that I would definitely recommend this book.

Thank you for the review copy. The cover is interesting. This book is odd and different from anything I have ever read.

Historian Robin Quain is intent on finding an artifact related to witchcraft, which takes her to Hildegard College. The college is located high in the Rocky Mountains on the site of a former monastery complete with secret passages and hidden rooms, which is pretty cool. There are interesting historical facts sprinkled throughout the text, which I also liked.

Her colleagues act strange, especially when she asks about the disappearance of her predecessor. They constantly gaslight her and don't even try to be subtle about it. There is an explanation for their behavior when the twist is revealed, but I think it would have been more realistic if they weren't so obvious when they lied to her early on.

To solve the mysteries of Hildegard College, Robin follows a series of clues which makes this feel like a video game. Robin even compares it to a video game herself. There's a pretty cool explanation for why this is the case later on.

When Robin is explaining why she doesn't believe in angels, it reads too much like a lecture and the believer she's talking to didn't push back enough for the conversation to feel realistic. However, she is an academic, so I guess her lecturing at people is in character.

One lecture of hers I did like is her explanation for conspiracy theories. When you figure something out (or only think you've figured something out) your brain gives you a rush of neuropeptides which makes you feel good, especially if you think you've figured out something no one else knows.

Robin believes we currently live in the worst of times because of all the bad news. While it's true that a lot of bad stuff does happen today, any competent historian will tell you things were much, much worse in the past.

Werewolves, witches, vampires, aliens, demons, Lovecraftian monsters, and more are all mentioned throughout the book, leaving you guessing which direction the novel will ultimately go in. Unfortunately, this also makes the novel feel a bit unfocused with too many red herrings.

Overall, an enjoyable read.

I really enjoyed this book at the start but then it became a bit too odd for me. Great writing and interesting (creepy) characters made the story fun…but could not get past the weirdness.

Atlas of Uknowable Things is a novel about an academic, Robin, who travels across the country in search of a mysterious artifact that she hopes will help her save her professional career. When she arrives at the relic's supposed location, an isolated campus in the Rocky Mountains, she begins to experience strange phenomena, including sleep paralysis, bad dreams and apparently occult occurrences. As she delves further into the mystery, she uncovers that nothing is as it seems.

First, the things I liked about this book: it has an interesting arc and a cool story idea. As a fan of Umberto Eco's academic thrillers such as Foucault's Pendulum (which I've actually read twice), I love a well-done, vaguely nonsensical literary thriller that investigates the consequences of conspiratorial thinking. In Eco's novel I didn't understand most of the references, but I didn't have to - the point was the noisy storm they created for the MC and how the connections he made (real or unreal) changed him over time. I believe Templeton was going for something similar: an academic thriller combined with a little Lovecraft, a little Cabin in the Woods. To me, this was mildly successful. I loved some of the unsettling moments Templeton created, an uncertainty that's so much more chilling than the gory horror or body horror in many books nowadays. I found the horror elements to be the best parts of the book.

That said, I did have quite a few issues with this novel, the first being that if felt like an early draft. None of the characters, including the MC, were developed in any meaningful way, which meant mostly that any tensions surrounding their fates were lost on me. They were just incredibly flat. Also, as with many thrillers, the MC Robin was a complete idiot, making decisions without any logic simply to further the plot. It's not a dealbreaker for me, but it makes the reading experience less pleasant when you're constantly irritated at the MC.

I was also not a huge fan of the writing style. It is a LOT of showing without telling, which I usually don't mind too much, but the constant cases in which the MC 'notices' something then just tells the reader what it means became pretty repetitive and boring. On top of that, the writing itself wasn't my taste. While the rather emotionless prose worked well for the horror scenes, it made it hard to engage during other parts. After I finished I learned that the author is an academic, and that made a ton of sense of me.

In terms of the plot, it was alright. I did like the originality of certain parts, such as the callbacks to the Greeks, the extinct Silphium, and the Lovecraftian vibes. At the same time, the narrative was too purposely convoluted in order to support the one big plot twist. It was a good plot twist - I didn't expect it - but I'm not sure it was really worth making the first half of the novel so annoying to read. I didn't find the ending or later 'twists' particularly inventive, and the narrative wrapped up about as I'd assumed it would.

Overall, I'd say this is a novel for fans of T. Kingfisher or other horror/sci-fi/thriller fans who don't expect too much in terms of character development. The ideas are interesting, I just wish they'd been better incorporated into a more compelling narrative. I think that, given a few more drafts, this could have been really fun, but as it stands it feels to me unfinished.

Dark academia at its finest. This twisty, scary novel is set in a private college in the Colorado mountains, where mysterious metaphysical research is taking place. It had moments that were genuinely frightening, and the main character often made unquestionably terrible decisions solely to move the plot along, but the setting and central mystery more than make up for it. This one will be a spooky season favorite - I can picture myself reading it wrapped in a blanket with rain pattering on the window.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

That was a wild ride! I will say it took me awhile to fully get into the book but I found myself too intrigued to stop. The twist was very well done and helped clear up some confusion I had. I really enjoyed the atmosphere as well.

Atlas of Unknowable Things began with such promise. Unfortunately, after a few pages, the rest of the book didn't live up to its potential. It's an interesting plot, albeit a somewhat messy one that seems unclear on what it's really going for, but the ideas are let down by the plodding, stodgy writing. Ostensibly aiming for a chilling sense of unease and growing eeriness, the prose never engendered a stronger feeling in me than one of mild irritation. With such dull prose, it doesn't really matter how intriguing the plot is - there's no way through to some kind of Platonic ideal of the story without it being written better.

A tiny note, but I also don't understand the Evelyn Hugo comparison in the marketing copy. Maybe I missed the connection there but it feels like a useless comp.

Odd comp choices aside - Atlas of Unknowable Things was a total disappointment for me, and not one I can wholeheartedly recommend to anyone who enjoys good, or even acceptable, writing.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

This story has a major twist that I would never have predicted. And if you thought the story was strange before the major twist was revealed, it becomes in some respects even stranger afterwards. Although it also becomes more realistic in the sense of actions driven by power, greed and fear.

I enjoyed the discussion of myths, legends, belief systems, historical figures and events, herbal remedies, literature, etc.

What an odd little read. The beginning of this was really compelling, but once we got a bit further into the mystery, it lost me - the main character was very irritating and the writing was deeply repetitive.

I loved this book! In short, Robin Quain is working on her "revenge" dissertation after her friend, Charles, steals her research to use as his own. She applies to use the library at the mysterious Hildegard College. Accepted to research there for the summer, all is not what it seems.

This mix of occult, mystery, and suspense kept me thinking about it for days after I finished reading. The plot was intricately woven, the characters developed; everything about this book felt so unique. I'm going to find this author's other books and binge them all.

I was completely drawn into The Atlas of Unknowable Things. It’s packed with fascinating information, seamlessly woven into an engaging narrative—touching on everything from ancient religions and historical events to herbology, the occult, and much more. At times, Robin’s sudden realizations felt a little too convenient, not always grounded in clear clues from earlier in the story. Still, the novel is impressively researched, well written, and extremely interesting. I ended up enjoying it far more than I expected.

If you’re craving something fresh, genre-blending, or just love learning about a little bit of everything, Atlas of Unknowable Things is absolutely worth the read.