Hey there, bookworms and dragons! As soon as I heard Erin Morgenstern had written another novel, I knew I needed to find out if it might be possible for me to read it ASAP. I somehow managed to get approved for this one on NetGalley. I do not know how. I was honestly expecting them to say no but HERE WE ARE. *ahem* I only noted a couple trigger/content warnings (TW/CWs for short) while reading, but I’ll add those at the very end. 🙂 Let’s dive right on into this review thingy!

I’m not sure how to talk about the characters from this one, really. I feel like I got to know the characters just enough to care about them but not enough to actually know them. We didn’t really get much backstory at all for most of the characters. My favourite character of the novel is probably Kat, which even now I find odd because I know so very little about her. I think this is part of the book’s charm, but I do wish I could be able to actually tell you more things about the characters themselves.

The Starless Sea is set partially in various times of the real world and partially in a place that exists beneath the real world and is powered by the magic of stories. I was expecting the world building to be the star of the show and I was not disappointed. It’s lush and immersive and left nothing to be desired. I fell in love with it right away.

The story itself is complicated and loops all over the place, seemingly without direction. However, about half into the book, the puzzle pieces start fitting together to form a larger picture that my thoughts still return to days after finishing it. The end did leave a loose end or two though and not in a way that speaks of a sequel, though they are obviously intentional. I’m not sure how I feel about that.

In the end I really enjoyed reading The Starless Sea, though I don’t think I enjoyed it as much as I did Erin Morgenstern’s first book. I will still definitely jump at the chance to read anything new from her though so there is that.

TW/CW:
• Hanging
• Multiple mentions of suicide

Erin Morgenstern has delivered another wonderful, whimsical book that is about place and fate and the truth of stories. The main plot of The Starless Sea is interspersed with fairy tales and other short stories that at first seem totally unrelated, but ended up being a crucial part of the story. This is the kind of book that will continue to unfold and give up it’s mysteries on second, third, and tenth rereads. It is a beautiful ode to fairy tales, libraries, librarians, and those of us who love stories in all their forms. It is definitely different - and weirder - than The Night Circus. I can see how someone who doesn’t jive with weird, trippy, Alice-in-Wonderland logic books would not enjoy this. There are questions that go unanswered and answers that require a lot of searching, as is the way with universe-sized mysteries and places outside of time. However, I was entirely the right reader for this book and it made my little librarian heart sing.

Recommended for story lovers, librarians, booksellers, readers who loved The Night Circus’s insistence on a place being the main character, fans of Alice in Wonderland, and anyone open to a weird, slightly disorienting trip of a book.

This is absolutely worth the wait. I read The Night Circus and loved it so very, very much. I wasn't sure whether this would be able to live up to that, but it did. Erin has such a way with melancholy. I couldn't read a lot of this book at one time because it weighed me down with such melancholy, but there's also a joy, a delight in it as well. I came to love the Fortune Teller's Son and Dorian as if they were my closest friends. I will definitely be listening to this when it hits audio to visit the Starless Sea again. Thank you for the opportunity to read this early. I will be whole-heartedly suggesting it to my manager to purchase for inclusion in the adult fiction purchase this fall.

Erin Morgenstern's second novel was worth the wait. The magic is in every page and her descriptions of the worlds her characters wander between are lovely and pull you in. You care about everyone you encounter and their journeys; of which there are many. It's a delightful book even at its darkest moments.

Such beautiful writing, so many highlighted passages. There was a point where I wondered if this was going on too long, but that might have been my fault. Will need to read again (or better yet, listen on audio) now that I know where it's going in order to connect all the trails.

Beautifully written, complex, engaging. This is a story within a story within a story. Full of the fantastical, it leads the reader through several winding story paths that ultimately meet in a satisfying conclusion. Ten stars!

Reading The Starless Sea was like being immersed in a dream world, both beautiful and disorienting. I had to give myself up to the mysterious journey of the characters, never able to predict what would happen next.

I'm going to go ahead and ask for your forgiveness because there's no way I'm going to be able to put all the feelings I have about this book into words, but the basic thing is: if you like stories, read this book. Dive into it. Savor the words and the stories and the intricate way it is all tied together. I never read The Night Circus, but I was lucky enough to get an ARC of this on NetGalley and wow. 

Zachary Ezra Rawlins, as he will be called hundreds of times throughout the novel's 500+ pages, is a graduate student in Vermont who spends a lot of time in books. But one day in the library he discovers a book that doesn't have a record--which only piques his interest further. That night, Zachary dives into the book only to discover that in this book of stories..one of the stories is about him. He is the son of the fortune teller who didn't open the door, and he begins to investigate further and further on a journey that takes him to NYC and the NYPL and the past and the future and through time and past time and into stories and out of them again. Seriously, I can't even begin to explain the plot, but Zachary's story is interwoven with that of the book, Sweet Sorrows, as well as other books, including myths and fables and a ballad of two lovers lost thanks to time. There's big metaphors and symbolism and cult-y stuff and so many books and a sea of honey and SO MANY CATS and lots of funny cat moments and I wish I could live in the words of this book. The rhythm was...haunting? Inviting? Like a mesmerizing motion of words down my brain? Okay...I digress. Seriously, I don't know what else to say. This book TAKES You places, and I'm still not sure I got everything, but I feel like this is going to be one of those books people start societies in college to study intently and decipher all the allusions. 

Just...read it, okay? Plot aside, and wow that plot, the writing is simply sublime. I was entrenched by every character, even if I wasn't totally sold on the little romance for Zachary. But I digress. Read it. Sooo many cats.

This was amazing!!!!! Well worth the wait. The story totally engulfs you and brings you in to the world of its characters. The ending was perfect, and I will be waited for her next book no matter how long it takes!

First line: There is a pirate in the basement.

Summary: I honestly don't know how to summarize this book. It's stories within stories. Main character is Zachary Ezra Rawlins, the son of the fortune-teller. He finds a book in his college library (not unusual as he is an avid reader) that isn't in the catalog system. The books appears to have sections that are about him. This leads him on an adventure that takes him to locations known and unknown, and maybe even through time.

My thoughts: I love The Night Circus so much that I was a little hesitant to pick this book up, but at the same time, was itching to get to reading it. I don't know how Erin Morgenstern comes up with such incredible, imaginative settings, characters, and story lines, but she has done it again. This book is a twisty, turny adventure that has you at times wondering how you got here, then thinking you might have figured it out, only to have the rug pulled out from you again, all in a good way.

Character development is stellar, and mysterious, and unexpected. The setting for which the book is named almost plays a character role as well, and at times had me, well, speechless? There are times in the book that I had to remember to breathe, and when I put the book down (my Kindle actually because I read an e-galley), it would take me a minute or two to come back to reality.

There is immense beauty in this book, anguish, heartache, adventure and love. It's a winner!

Multiple stories which ultimately converge into one, this fantastic book warrants reading more than once. Part fairy tale, part fantasy, the author totally brings you into this alternate world she has created that celebrates the importance of books and stories. Absolutely fantastic. (Sorry, I did a Goodreads review too, but this one is probably better.)

I was really, really excited about this book, so maybe that precipitated my eventual letdown. While it was a reasonably enjoyable read, the prose was so purple it was nearly black and I just didn't feel like the story gelled quite as well as Night Circus--too many times jumping perspectives, perhaps, or time periods? But those don't often bother me in other novels, as I grew up on a steady diet of fantasy, sci-fi, and other speculative fiction, so I'm not sure that's the problem, either.

Not bad, but not great, and I'm disappointed about that.

This book took me a little while to get through. Not because I didn't like it, but because I wanted to properly appreciate it. It deserves proper appreciation. When I finally did close the cover, I just sat there for a minute, looking at it. Yeah, it's <i>that</i> sort of book.

<i>The Starless Sea</i> is a tangible demonstration of what a story can be: magical and ever-changing, surreal and personal, dangerous and beautiful. It can travel in a straight line, meander like a stream, or weave and branch like a tapestry. And Morgenstern does it all.

This book is a love song to readers, to story-tellers, to stories themselves.

And I love knowing that Zachary, Dorian, Maribel, and the Keeper are out there somewhere curating our stories.

This is a must-read for fans of Morgenstern's other magical and haunting novel <i>The Night Circus</i>, <i>The Thirteenth Tale</i> by Diane Setterfield, or <i>The Book of Speculation</i> by Erica Swyler.

Well it was worth the wait! This novel is phenomenal. It’s a magical adventure weaving through time, while reading small parts of “stories” . Who is in these stories? Are they true? Follow Zachary as he stumbles through, trying to open a door he closed in the past. Dorian, Mirabel, the Keeper, the Moon, Fate, he Owl King are all part of the Starless Sea. Moving us through magical time , this is a novel best read in short snatches and stretched out as long as it can- you’ll be sad when it’s over !

A moving labyrinth of a story, every changing and evolving within a story of stories, this book is a beautiful experience in immersive fantasy. What begins as a mysterious thread of a story, an opportunity taken or missed and the consequences of the choice evolves into a story similar to a choose-your-own adventure tale or a mystical video game experience similar to Mist that makes for a fascinating book. Don't start, you won't be able to put it down or do start and you won't want it to end. This is truly an enigma wrapped in a conundrum encased in a labyrinth; a brilliant Fiction.

I loved it, but I struggled with it. It’s hard not to compare the writing in this book to the writing in The Night Circus. And while the world-building is very much on par, I felt like some of the character connections left a little to be desired. Still, this book made my heart ache (in a way only good books can). There’s something so gut-wrenching about entering a story at its end. And this novel had a LOT of stories. There were bits of plot woven in there that just seemed to serve no purpose. Maybe they went over my head, but I’ll be curious to talk to more people about it when this book is out.

Love this book! Having read The Night Circus I fell in love with Erin Morgenstern’s writing. I was ecstatic to find a new book available as an eARC through NetGalley.

The Starless Sea is a beautiful story of love and adventure. To me, it had a mythical dream-like quality that made me want to read very slowly so I could stay in the story as long as possible. And that is exactly what Morgenstern does, pulls me into stories that surround and cocoon for a delightfully delicious read.

I am still speechless. I don’t know how Morgenstern does it, but just like in The Night Circus, The Starless Sea reads like a painting, a symphony, a perfect cocktail. And I DON’T GET HOW SHE DOES IT. It’s such an immersive experience in her work, I have yet to find another author who transports you in such a luscious way.

The story was entrancing, the characters were believable while fully being metaphors, fairytales, heroes. The sheer notion of an underground library doesn’t even TOUCH what you’re about to read. I cannot wait to read this again, as I am confident I will find a beautiful new nugget I missed in prior readings, over and over and over.

Thank you SO much to NetGalley and Doubleday for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. This was a 2019 highlight.

Zachary Ezra Rawlins is a grad student studying video games at a perpetually snow-bound university somewhere in Vermont. (Since it’s in Vermont, I figure it’s OK to imagine everyone there has a Bernie Sanders accent). One day during the bleak January term, Zachary is in the library searching for something good to read. He comes across an odd, authorless book in the stacks called Sweet Sorrows.

Sweet Sorrows is a bit of a library mystery: a it’s only ever been scanned into the system once, when it was added to the collection. It has never been checked out. For some reason, the librarians haven’t noticed this and weeded it out of the collection. Anyway, Zachary is drawn to it so he checks it out. Once back in his dorm he starts to read it and is shocked to find that, among some disjointed fairy tales about pirates and tongueless acolytes, is a story recounting, in great detail, like, even down to details concerning his shoelaces, an incident from his own childhood. Something he’s never told anyone about, and had kind of half-forgotten. All laid out in a book that is clearly much, much older than he is.

When Zachary was a kid he found a painted door in an alleyway near his mom’s house. The door was so detailed it almost seemed real. In fact, when he reached out to touch it, the painted door had an actual doorknob. Zachary almost, but ultimately didn’t, open the door. All this is recounted in Sweet Sorrows. Zachary, of course, is freaked out and wants some answers, but the book has no copyright page or publication information in it. However, when Zachary peels off the bar code sticker (my inner librarian winced at that) he finds a clue: three symbols, a bee, a key and a sword.

One Google image search later, Zachary finds a photo of a woman at an annual, literary-themed masquerade party thrown by the Algonquin Hotel. She’s wearing a necklace with, you guessed it, a bee, a key, and a sword. It’s all Zachary has to go with, so he snags a ticket to the upcoming masquerade.

Then things get weird, but in a good way. Zachary is brought into this weird underground library/world/place that is full of stories. It sounds like an introvert’s paradise, full of books and cats and a kitchen that make anything you ask if you just send a note down on the dumbwaiter...but this place isn’t entirely safe. There are people intent on keeping others away from it. In fact, those people have a whole secret society with a headquarters and everything where they hang doorknobs everywhere.

Plus, there’s an ocean made of honey, which sounds super sticky.

I told you, things get weird.

Anyway, Zachary finds himself teaming up with a pink-haired woman called Mirabel, who was born in this underground introvert’s paradise and is determined to protect it. Then there’s the guy whose name may-or-may-not-be Dorian - a gorgeous storyteller to whom Zachary is immediately drawn, but who knows what Dorian’s actual agenda (or name) truly is?

Reading The Starless Sea is like reading a transcript of a memory of a dream you had once that may or may not have been a hallucination from that time you had a 103 degree fever from pneumonia or it could’ve been a memory of a thing you actually did, you have no idea...but all in a good way. Plus a book of strange/relevant fairy tales and myths sprinkled in between. It is definitely a bit confusing at first, but if you stick to it, all the weirdness does eventually coalesce into a cohesive story. It does make sense! Eventually.The Starless Sea is definitely one of those books that would make more sense when read twice, and probably all at once. Not over the course of like, two weeks the way I did.

The whole novel does have a dreamy, video-game-esque quality to it - there’s a lot of wandering around, acquiring objects, going on quests, that sort of thing. The imagery Morgenstern features throughout the book would certainly make a gorgeous, kickass video game, definitely something I’d stand over one of my gamer friend’s shoulders and watch them play. Morgenstern is quite good at giving us a whole picture of what the world of the underground library/introvert’s paradise is like - utilizing not just descriptions of what’s there, but descriptions of all the different smells, textures and tastes - plus she manages to do it without making the writing sound clunky or interrupting the flow of the story itself. You can almost feel the stickiness that underground honey sea.

Anyway, if you were a fan of Ms. Morgenstern’s previous novel, The Night Circus, it goes without saying that you’ll definitely love The Starless Sea as well.

I absolutely loved The Night Circus, so when I heard that another book was coming out by Erin Morgenstern I was elated. I am happy to say that The Starless Sea not only met but exceeded my expectations. Morgenstern once again proves to be an amazing writer in this beautiful story. Similar to the Night Circus, this story isn't told in chronological order, and is told from the pov of a range of colorful characters. As the mystery of the story unravels, the reader will find themselves itching to learn more about the secrets of the Starless Sea. 5/5 stars