Quill&Queer's Reviews > The Cautious Traveller's Guide to the Wastelands

This is said to be for fans of Piranesi and The Midnight Library, two books this is truly not alike at all. This is actually a character driven novel about a train travelling across a fae wilderness, and the mystery hidden by the owners of the train company. As they travel, the passengers and crew start to descend into madness and chaos.

Weiwei was the heart of the story, and the strongest character of the multiple POVs. Born on the train, and now part of the crew, she struggles with how she's been raised and the new questions she has when she finds Wilderness creature Elena hiding in the train. I also liked Marya, who is on the train to investigate her father's mysterious death.

The ending of this story is pretty wild, but I was greatful the story finally picked up some speed, as the rest of the story is fairly slow paced. While this uses real world locations, it uses them fairly loosely, similar to Oxford in The Golden Compass. It did get so chaotic it was almost difficult to keep up with, but I did feel it had a fitting ending.