Review: 'Atlas of Forgotten Places: Journey to Abandoned Destinations from Around the Globe' by Travis Elborough

I adore traveling, because you'll never know what is waiting around the corner. It has of course been a challenge to travel the last two to three years and I'm also trying to limit my carbon footprint a bit, so I was excited to see the Atlas of Forgotten Places, hoping it would give me a chance to explore without leaving the house. I didn't entirely get what I was hoping for, however. Thanks to Quarto Publishing Group - White Lion and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Pub. Date: 12/7/2021
Publisher: Quarto Publishing Group; White Lion

Explore the places that time forgot. Abandoned, mysterious, sleeping monuments around the world have been relegated to the margins of history, pushed off the map and out of sight.

From ancient ruins and crumbling castles to more recent relics – an art deco New York subway station, a Soviet ghost town in the Arctic Circle, a flooded Thai mall teeming with aquatic life – Travis Elborough takes you on a journey into these strange, overlooked and disappearing worlds and immortalises their fates.

Original maps and stunning colour photography accompany Travis Elborough’s moving historic and geographic accounts of each site. The featured locations are a stark reminder of what was, and the accounts in this investigative book help to bring their stories back to life, telling us what happened, when and why, and to whom.

The book features 40 sites, including: Santa Claus, Arizona, USA: A festive tourist resort turned ghost town deep in the desert where once you could meet Santa Claus any day of the year;Crystal Palace Subway, London, UK: One of the city’s best-kept secrets is an underground, cathedral-like relic from where many Victorian commuters bustled through;Montserrat, West Indies: The small Caribbean island with a population of 5,000 that was evacuated when its volcano erupted in 1995. The volcano is still active and nearly half the island remains a designated exclusion zone;Balaklava Submarine Base, Crimea: The former top-secret Soviet submarine base that was kept off all official maps and known as Object 825 GTS;Volterra Psychiatric Hospital, Tuscany, Italy: Once dubbed ‘the place of no return’, this long-closed lunatic asylum once housed 6,000 patients who were never allowed to leave. Also in the Unexpected Atlas series: Atlas of Improbable Places, Atlas of Untamed Places, Atlas of the Unexpected and Atlas of Vanishing Places (WINNER Illustrated Book of the Year - Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards 2020).

I loved the division of this Atlas. It has five sections, entitled 'Vacant Properties', 'Unsettled Situations', 'Dilapidated Destinations', 'Journeys Ended' and 'Obsolete Institutions'. I was so intrigued by these titles and admittedly Elborough did pick the right locations to suite these titles. But the inventiveness and the mystique of these chapter titles doesn't entirely translate into the writing itself. I kept thinking of books like Literary Places by Sarah Baxter (also a Quarto publication!), which has stunning illustrations and fun writing that does make you want to travel. In comparison, Atlas is a little more dry, a little more of a clear non-fiction book. There is nothing wrong with that in and of itself, but I realised it wasn't entirely what I had been hoping for.

Travis Elborough selected fascinating locations, some of which I knew, like the Crystal Palace Tube stop, but many of which were new, such as the Camelot Theme Park or the Akampene Island, a truly dreadful place. As all the places are abandoned, some are in a truly dreadful condition, while others still look like they could be saved from obscurity. Personally I would love to send the Gary City Methodist Church in Indiana into a bookstore, just imagine how epic that would be. Elborough also does an excellent job at providing proper background information, and not just a description. I really would have liked it if Atlas had contained more photographs of its locations. I must add that the maps are very detailed and interesting! I appreciate that from a publishing-standpoint adding more photos makes a book rather expensive,  but for some of the locations I did feel like I only caught a glimpse of them and then had to Google them for more information. If you're going to provide me a guide, then make sure I have a good idea of what I'd find.

I give this book...

3 Universes.

The Atlas of Forgotten Places wasn't exactly the book that I was looking for, but what it is is very intriguing. I would love to visit some of these places in person, if ever the world becomes a place in which travel is possible again.