A lot came to light in this book, and the characters are just as enjoyable as ever. ( )

I'd give it 5 stars, if I weren't so upset about the ending. Ludicrous adventures continue, culminating in a pretend trip to Italy, surrounded by paper mache shells. How will this story end? Will the curse ever be broken? WHY didn't Penelope bring along a constable to quietly listen at her midnight meeting when Edmund Ashton monologues and confesses all? Why does she go so quietly to her fate? Oh, rage, rage against injustice and unfairness!

Yeah, the histrionic drama is totally catching, the reader continues to be amazing, and omg, am I ready for a resolution! I can't, alas, imagine what it will be, but I long to see the Incorrigible side of the family safe at last. ( )

This series is just delightful to read. It's gone on a bit long, but the cliffhanger ending promises a conclusion is coming. ( )

I was a little bit devastated at the cliffhanger ending of The Unmapped Sea, I must admit. I've grown invested in Penelope Lumley and the Incorrigibles over the years, and even though the entire book was leading up to this one ending in both mood and plot, it still hurt to see happen. I regret that the sixth (and presumably final) book in the series won't be released for a little while longer.

So the mood of this book - it's a bit melancholy and tense, much like the wintry Brighton beach where the characters have gone to spend their January. Constance Ashton is pregnant and not taking it very well, not surprisingly, and the family doctor suggests a change of scenery. Rumors build as they do, suggesting to Constance in the way she tends to misunderstand things that they will be traveling to a balmy clime (though, of course, Lord Ashton can't possibly travel that far, what with his unfortunate affliction). Manipulation by Edward Ashton in the background brings them to Brighton and the Left Foot Inn, where they meet another, outwardly similar but Russian family. The Babushkinovs have three children similar in age to the Incorrigibles as well as a tutor and nanny, two parents, a grandmother, and an infant.

Where Penelope and the Incorrigibles are well-behaved, caring, and bright, the Babushkawoos are the exact opposite. The tutor is gloomy, the children fractious and self-absorbed, and generally make large nuisances of themselves. But the two families do try to make friends and get along, and eventually make do. In fact, the Babushkinovs love Penelope so much and envy what she has done for the Incorrigibles so much that they try to convince her to return to Russia with them.

Edward Ashton is in disguise again and trying to manipulate things in his favor again, with sabotage and otherwise. The secret curse of the Ashtons is finally revealed thanks to the help of Harley Dickinson and his old sailor uncle, and astute readers will notice that it confirms much of the foreshadowing and hints laid out previously. But Penelope is a character in the story herself and doesn't quite put all the clues together before Edward Ashton interferes and sends her off with the Babushkinovs, and also thoroughly breaks my heart.

The overarching theme to this book, and which makes the awful ending not so surprising, is weltschmerz: a mental depression or apathy caused by comparison of the actual state of the world with an ideal state (per @MerriamWebster). Or, as the book explains when the children are in a funk while painting portraits, "to the weltschmerz stricken, disappointment itself seems a disappointment. ... They are too busy bemoaning the difficulty of making good art in an imperfect world and are foten found writing melancholy poetry to mourn the tragedy of it all."

The weltschmerz is echoed by Lady Constance's ideal of the Italian Riviera over Brighton, of the Incorribles' homelife at Ashton Place versus that with the Babushkawoos in the Left Foot Inn, even the make believe performed for the forgetful residents of the Home for Ancient Mariners. There is no getting around that this life, the one that everyone must face in this book, is awful and they must make the best of it. Yet it is real and true, and even means separation of Penelope from the children. The worst of all possible worlds, you know?

This is not my favorite book in the series, but mostly because of the gloom and heartbreak. There is a lot of plot-moving going on with new, unpleasant characters that reduces some of the charm present in the previous installments, and the revelations that come out are a little perfunctory (which isn't a bad thing, exactly, but aren't really the Grand Reveal I had hoped for - perhaps that will be when Penelope finally puts two and two together?). I think these were also complaints I had with the similarly plotted Series of Unfortunate Events in the last books, and the SOUE didn't have as much charm as this series. Overall, The Unmapped Sea does hit a lot of the same marks as the other books but is clearly in the tying-up-the-mystery position which makes it a little less fun to read. ( )

As I told a coworker, I read a lot of children's books to see if I think children will like them. However, I read this series (The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place) because I like them -- no, I love them! They are clever, funny, lovable, charming.... I love the characters, I love the nutty situations, and I can't wait to see in the next, and final book, what the resolution will be. What I don't doubt is that Miss Penelope Lumley will persevere. I hope the series reaches a wide audience. ( )