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Other Maps
Anna Leverett is home for her dad's retirement party and counting the days until she can leave. She is sick of being reminded that her life has consisted of wrong turns and dead ends. Then a meeting with her ex-best friend Helen raises unexpected questions about her past: What really happened at that New Year's party back in high school? How true were all those ugly rumours? With Helen at her side, Anna can finally reckon with her past and chart a course towards a better future.
Moving through rape culture, beauty myths, and the perils women face in a society that stigmatizes them just for being female, Other Maps traces a path to courage, solidarity and hope.
Moving through rape culture, beauty myths, and the perils women face in a society that stigmatizes them just for being female, Other Maps traces a path to courage, solidarity and hope.
- GenresFiction
320 pages, Paperback
Published September 14, 2024
1 person is currently reading
55 people want to read
About the author
Rebecca Morris
1 book13 followersRebecca Morris lives in Montreal. She earned an M.A. in French, had three children in three years and taught high school before turning to writing full time. Rebecca’s short stories have been published in many literary magazines and have won several awards, including the Malahat Review Open Season Award and the Humber Literary Review Emerging Writers Fiction contest. She is a Banff Centre alumna, recipient of a Canada Council Arts grant and an active member of the Quebec Writers’ Federation, where she has taught workshops on short fiction and narrative structure. Other Maps is her first novel.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
September 11, 2025
Postscript:
*I can't seem to get this novel out of my mind. I'm still savouring its compulsive complexity. Still mulling over its savvy structure. Still puzzling over this and that thread. It's a novel that stands up! It stands up for women's rights. But it also stands as a piece of art, where multiple themes coalesce into a vision that coaxes the reader to draw their own conclusions.*
OTHER MAPS opens onto the country club world of affluent Guelph families, being served cocktails by members of the underclass, the working stiffs who keep them afloat and whom they use, like an expendable (artificially discounted) resource. It draws us into the narcissistic circle of Anna Leverett's family's shaky life. The protagonist is a 26-year-old survivor (so messed up she hasn't yet acknowledged to herself that what she experienced in high school was rape.) She's been running away, slumming in the third world, off credit cards her loveless parents provide to keep tabs. Only child of unearned privilege, she coasts: erasing, avoiding Guelph, the site of untreated trauma, until now.
Morris's writing propels, at times as percussive as grunge music, characters and dialogue fizzy, while the plot digs, traces, thrills and chills, like the hypodermic needle of a seasoned tattoo artist.
Other Maps encloses other maps: Anna's tattooed body; a ragged paper map she uses to plot encounters with high school buddies she approaches for help, after she succumbs to Helen's plan to figure out what really happened at the New Year's Party. Instamatic photos emerge, another kind of frazzled map, covering over the traumatic event, a black hole which can never really be mapped. Helen's face, on which a port wine stain the shape of a little Switzerland pulses, wears another map.
The novel closes on an aerial scene of Guelph, best high school friends Anna and Helen reunited, altered after a year of chasing highs and lows, now floating: the geography they've been casing, the land spread out like a future map, laced with sputtering promise, and unspoken dreams.
*I can't seem to get this novel out of my mind. I'm still savouring its compulsive complexity. Still mulling over its savvy structure. Still puzzling over this and that thread. It's a novel that stands up! It stands up for women's rights. But it also stands as a piece of art, where multiple themes coalesce into a vision that coaxes the reader to draw their own conclusions.*
OTHER MAPS opens onto the country club world of affluent Guelph families, being served cocktails by members of the underclass, the working stiffs who keep them afloat and whom they use, like an expendable (artificially discounted) resource. It draws us into the narcissistic circle of Anna Leverett's family's shaky life. The protagonist is a 26-year-old survivor (so messed up she hasn't yet acknowledged to herself that what she experienced in high school was rape.) She's been running away, slumming in the third world, off credit cards her loveless parents provide to keep tabs. Only child of unearned privilege, she coasts: erasing, avoiding Guelph, the site of untreated trauma, until now.
Morris's writing propels, at times as percussive as grunge music, characters and dialogue fizzy, while the plot digs, traces, thrills and chills, like the hypodermic needle of a seasoned tattoo artist.
Other Maps encloses other maps: Anna's tattooed body; a ragged paper map she uses to plot encounters with high school buddies she approaches for help, after she succumbs to Helen's plan to figure out what really happened at the New Year's Party. Instamatic photos emerge, another kind of frazzled map, covering over the traumatic event, a black hole which can never really be mapped. Helen's face, on which a port wine stain the shape of a little Switzerland pulses, wears another map.
The novel closes on an aerial scene of Guelph, best high school friends Anna and Helen reunited, altered after a year of chasing highs and lows, now floating: the geography they've been casing, the land spread out like a future map, laced with sputtering promise, and unspoken dreams.
October 2, 2024
This book was a really thoughtful examination of the impact of sexual assault on a person’s life and relationships and the misogyny that has created a social system that rewards men for harming women and punishes women for existing. As a survivor of sexual assault while fully incapacitated due to alcohol, I fully related to Anna’s character, was not at all surprised by the revelations she made, and… frankly felt grateful that my life had not spun as wildly out of control as hers did. For all that I related to Anna’s trauma and even her subsequent acting out, she was not all that likable a character, which almost made the book even better for me. Women (people) don’t owe us anything, including being more palatable or charming while they’re hurting to make the rest of us more comfortable. On the other hand, at times, Anna came off almost cartoonish in her self-destructive tendencies, and I think more time could have been spent on her maybe having a softer side/what her and Helen’s friendship had been like before the sexual assault took place.
Other things that stood out to me in a good way: different ways of parents being the worst, most characters in the story being not all bad or all good, Helen’s conflicting loyalties and motivations, and non-linear healing!
Overall, I would recommend this book, though I would caution that those who have been sexually assaulted while drinking may find it hitting a little too close to home.
Other things that stood out to me in a good way: different ways of parents being the worst, most characters in the story being not all bad or all good, Helen’s conflicting loyalties and motivations, and non-linear healing!
Overall, I would recommend this book, though I would caution that those who have been sexually assaulted while drinking may find it hitting a little too close to home.
October 21, 2024
Anna’s life has been entirely changed after she experienced sexual assault. Afterwards, she becomes a Hester Prynn of sorts - the town creates gossip, called her names, and she even loses her best friend.
Once graduated, she looks like a hardened version of her past self. Within the first 10% of the book you can feel the tenseness between her and her mother. We see her mothers selfishness throughout, and her mother surely does not make her feel seen or loved. When she rekindles her relationship with Helen, she wants her to help get justice for her past. Unfortunately, like most victims of sexual assault, those closest to Anna fail to see her, validate her experiences. There is a lot of victim blaming. I was a bit shocked by the ending, because I don’t think what happened should have, felt like it wasn’t growth for her. However, I would recommend this book because it shows the lack of sensitivity and the lack of understanding to such issues. It is a heavier book especially if you are a victim, but I think it’s an accurate take on the situation.
Thank you Net Galley for an advanced copy of this book!
Once graduated, she looks like a hardened version of her past self. Within the first 10% of the book you can feel the tenseness between her and her mother. We see her mothers selfishness throughout, and her mother surely does not make her feel seen or loved. When she rekindles her relationship with Helen, she wants her to help get justice for her past. Unfortunately, like most victims of sexual assault, those closest to Anna fail to see her, validate her experiences. There is a lot of victim blaming. I was a bit shocked by the ending, because I don’t think what happened should have, felt like it wasn’t growth for her. However, I would recommend this book because it shows the lack of sensitivity and the lack of understanding to such issues. It is a heavier book especially if you are a victim, but I think it’s an accurate take on the situation.
Thank you Net Galley for an advanced copy of this book!
March 1, 2025
This book was interesting as it's based in Guelph, Ontario, this made it of interest to me.
I didn't read the preview/reviews carefully before I started it. Unfortunately the events that takes place and is brought up again and again was triggering for me and I was unable to finish it. The memories it brought up were very disturbing and I recommend anyone who wants to read it to make sure they understand the content.
I didn't read the preview/reviews carefully before I started it. Unfortunately the events that takes place and is brought up again and again was triggering for me and I was unable to finish it. The memories it brought up were very disturbing and I recommend anyone who wants to read it to make sure they understand the content.
Read
January 14, 2026An engaging novel by the instructor of the “How to Finish Yout Novel” class at the Thomas More Institute in Montreal.
Set in Guelph, Ontario, in the early 2000s, it’s the story of a friendship between two rather different protagonists, Annie and Helen. There’s a serious background issue but the author doesn’t hit us over the head with it. I came to really care about both the women and worried about them in the middle of the night—always a good sign.
Highly recommended..
Set in Guelph, Ontario, in the early 2000s, it’s the story of a friendship between two rather different protagonists, Annie and Helen. There’s a serious background issue but the author doesn’t hit us over the head with it. I came to really care about both the women and worried about them in the middle of the night—always a good sign.
Highly recommended..
October 4, 2024
This is a beautiful book - I read it all in one gulp this week. It is a hearwrenching #metoo story set in early 2000s Guelph Ontario. It is so evocative of that time and place, and of being in your early 20s. The characters rang so true for me, and the themes, while heavy, were addressed without sliding into melodrama. Bravo, Rebecca Morris!
August 1, 2024
Finally got the chance to read this..... Absolutely great!!! Love to watch Anna and Helen implode in different directions, and then watch them try and figure out what's worth patching and what's worth letting burn! Wrenching, quick and ultimately cathartic!
October 16, 2024
This was a tough read because of the subject matter but so beautifully crafted. I couldn’t put it down. Knowing right off the bat that it’s a “me too” book is interesting because it shifts the focus from a big reveal about what happened to a story is about how we deal with trauma. Recommended.
Read
December 31, 2024Not the easiest book to read, but the emotions and the characters felt real. I do love it when I know the landscape of the book I’m reading, too, and being able to picture the streets (and bars and restaurants and parking lots) where Helen and Anna live was like an extra character to enjoy.
February 20, 2025
my mom thought she was being so sweet sending me a book about my hometown, don’t think she fully understood the subject matter… can’t say i enjoyed it. name dropped guelph way too many times and was #triggering.
August 27, 2025
I give it a 3.5 because I can't figure out if I would give it a 3 or a 4. It was a raw and unsettling story but I was so drawn into the setting. It was Guelph the way I remembered it in University, but the storyline was so disturbing. Very well written.
April 13, 2025
I'm not going to discuss the themes of this novel since a lot of people have already covered those subjects eloquently. The only note I want to mention is when Helen ended up in the club bathroom with Dave Patel and having sex. I thought that was out of character. That wasn't her. I thought she was the more level-headed friend. Did Anna influence her to act so recklessly?
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews