Publication Date: October 7th, 2025
Hardcover. 320 pages.
But Hildegard has secrets of its own. Strange sounds echo across the alpine lake, lights flicker through the pines, and the faculty seem more like Jazz-age glitterati than academics. And then there’s the professor who holds the key to Robin’s research. She vanished suddenly last spring. What exactly did she do at the college, and why does no one want to talk about her?
As Robin searches for answers, an unknown source sends her a series of cryptic messages that makes her question whether she’s the one doing the hunting, or whether someone is hunting her. Drawing on historical, botanical, and occult research, and steeped in the gothic tradition, Atlas of Unknowable Things considers what it means to search for meaning in the scientific, only to come face to face with the sublime."
The Atlas of Unknowable Things starts with a really strong setup featuring a delightfully mysterious secluded university campus, strange disappearances, academic rivalries, and, of course, a historian constantly digging through old documents. The atmosphere was probably my favorite part and I think the author did a great job of really leaning into that secluded, slightly eerie, mysterious vibe.
We follow historian Robin Quain as she delves into Hildegard's College collection of ancient manuscripts, and is instead met with some mysterious happenings that may just relate to what she's really looking for: a specific artifact that she is desperate to find before her academic rival does. Robin is curious about a professor who has mysteriously disappeared, and weird things seem afoot on this college campus--things that Robin can't quite overlook during her stay.
Robin is a character who is very passionate about her goals and has a bit of a one track mind; once she is on the scent of something, she doesn't seem the type to let up on it. Her motivations are also understandable, especially some of her more spiteful motivations to beat her academic rival who wronged her (I'd be pissed, too!), but I sometimes found her just a little bit unwise in some of her choices. However, it always makes for a better story to see our characters sift their way through their own struggles and doubts, and I did like seeing how she navigated this pretty weird new environment when I might've high-tailed it out of there.
The plot moved a bit slowly and it felt like it took a while for the meat of things to really show up. However, by the time we actually get into bigger plot events, things somehow started to feel a bit abrupt or overly convenient and didn't feel like they fully fit. I just never really felt like everything came together in a meaningful or satisfying way. I am sure that this is going to be described as dark academia vibes, but I personally wouldn't say it's a great example of that genre. It does have a mix of some gothic aspects (though nothing crazy here) and mystery, though I'd say the mystery element is probably the strongest. Still, I feel like it lingers a bit somewhere in the middle of genres. I also found the setting and general setup of Robin being at the college and everyone there just slightly odd, but I set aside my disbelief to really try to get into this story.
While the atmosphere was strong, the story slowly lost me as it progressed. The pacing really drags in the middle and was weighed down by info-dumping throughout, including a rather large one at the beginning of the book that made it harder for me to push through to get into the story. So many of the characters just felt off and strange, not exactly in a way that felt intriguing, but rather in a way that felt like they just weren't exactly depicted well. They were somewhat your typical depiction of a reclusive academic group, but didn't quite hit that mark. Additionally, much of the dialogue and conversations just felt stilted and weird, and all of the characters seem to have some odd quirks that just make for weird interactions that didn't feel quite realistic.
Overall, I think this was an intriguing read that I'd encourage to those interested in academic mysteries and thrillers, though it's not one that I find particularly stands out, unfortunately.
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