This book is incredibly hard to describe, but probably best thought of as a kind of dark fairy tale fever dream with some meta-overtones of describing the act of storytelling, and stories wandering dark bottomless abyssal plains of unfinished tales seeking out-of-time characters like Fate, the Moon, and the Keeper. The bottomless dark depths of the space kind of behind-the-curtain of the uber-Library holds fathomless space and winding caverns, a dark bottomless Starless Sea made of honey and the deepest black, which has risen and receded before stories began as thoughts, which hold parliaments of owls, and busy world-building bees, and countless doors to be lost in, and so many cats. We are given one story arc with a character who stumbles like Alice down a well into this incomprehensible universe, whose story acts as the mechanism to teach us about this place, but chapter to chapter is a bit of a pebble skipping experience that the reader just has to hang onto loosely. If you hold too tight, you lose the thread, which is meant to be more gossamer cobweb than hardened plot device and clear beginning-middle-end. While perhaps not for all, I loved the ambiance of the book, and the cozy, library cave feeling I felt every time I continued to read. While I may not have understood each element, I don’t feel like I needed to. Being inside of this place was enough.

Erin Morgenstern has a one of a kind imagination to be sure. I loved the cats, the kitchen, and the inn-keeper fable. They are now officially tattooed on my soul. There is no question that she knows how to put words together.
However, I'm going to be honest, there was little plot to speak of, and I spent much of the time not knowing what was going on. But alas, I give thee 4 stars.

This book was just... so much. But, in a good way. I'm struggling with how to review it properly. I've only read it once, and I think it deserves at least one re-read in order to even start to examine all that it entails. The several complex, overlapping, intertwining storylines incorporated in the main overarching story necessitate this.

I loved the concept of an underground world of books, stories, secrets, myths. The cats were a nice touch, too, (even though I'm more of a dog person). The honey made me feel thirsty and sticky, but it definitely added to the sensory experience of this title.

And I guess that's one of the things I loved the most about the book - the sensory experience of reading it. Hence my desire to go back and read through it all over, to immerse myself in this intriguing world again and try to figure out more of its mysteries.

Oh, and can someone please come and install a Kitchen in my house? 'Cause that would be awesome.

The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern tempts readers with beautiful worlds, exciting adventures, and fascinating fairy tales. Unfortunately, it does not deliver on character development or a satisfying ending.

Zachary Ezra Rawlins is a grad student studying immersive media (video games) design and storytelling. One day he stumbles on a mysterious book in the library that appears to be a collection of short fairy tales and folklore. The thing is…a true story from his childhood is in this book. No one else knows this story but Zachary, and on top of that, the book looks to have been written way before Zachary was born. He starts to do some digging and in the process gets stuck down in a weird underground magical library where clothes are perfectly tailored for him and the food is exactly what you need and cats wander everywhere.

Zachary learns about a mystical starless sea that is accessible through the underground library. He also learns about a woman trying to close the doors that lead to the library. She’s stealing books, cutting off hands, and shutting down access to the library, but Zachary doesn’t know why. He teams up with a pink-haired manic pixie dream girl named Mirabel to save a hansom silver fox named Dorian from this woman’s clutches, but he has no idea who he should actually be trusting. This main narrative is frequently interrupted by small fairy tale like stories that sometimes connect and feed the main narrative and sometimes do not.

The plot of The Starless Sea is so fractured that it is hard to become attached to characters or situations. Many of the tantalizing details dangled before us are never resolved, and character development feels shallow. It is hard to be invested in characters or high-stakes decision making when you are not given enough details to make you care. The near 500-page book ends with very little resolution, prompting readers to wonder if it was worth it.

After waiting years for another magical book by Erin Morgenstern, I was thrilled with The Starless Sea! This book was everything I never knew I wanted and didn't know how to ask for. It is a love story for stories in addition to being about companionship, family, and romance. The multi-layered stories made me feel like I was traveling in the underground library while reading about it. This is such a smart, well put together book with inserts and weaving narratives that cast such a wonderful spell on the reader. I'd love to listen to an audiobook of this book read aloud. As soon as I finished I wanted to read it again.

I don't want to give too much away about the plot because I think it is a better reading experience to start this book and let it take you where it wants to go through stories, following characters, and reminding you about the power of storytelling. I could gush about this book for hours so please more people read it so then we can talk.

YES, Erin Morgenstern! Yes! I love everything about her, she could write anything. She's the kind of author where her writing feels like poetry, or like she's writing you little private sonnets meant only for your eyes - I just adore her.

Just beautiful! The writing is unique and so full of gorgeous phrases. The setting: libraries in this world and in that of the Starless Sea...who doesn't love that? And the stories--so many stories intricately plotted and connected. Each of our lives is a story touched by everyone we've known and will know and this novel reinforces the importance of each of our stories. The Invisible Circus was marvelous but Ms Morgenstern's writing skills have gotten even better with this second novel.

Thanks to NetGalley and Doubleday Books for the ARC to read and review.

Such a beautiful book. If I have to wait 8 years each time for a new Erin Morgenstern book I will gladly do it. Her books are imaginative, beautifully descriptive, full of stunning settings, and deep characters. The Starless Sea is no exception. The characters in this tale find themselves in somewhat of a library. An underground "library" that keeps stories others do not. There are specific jobs in this library and we meet several people who are working in these positions. I honestly cannot describe this book because it is just otherworldly. Read it, you will not be disappointed, and you too will be transported away.

Morgenstern’s highly-anticipated new novel is a whimsical journey that is sure to enchant devoted fans and first-time readers alike. Zachary Ezra Rawlins is an introverted graduate student who uncovers a strange book in his university’s library in which he reads a story from his own past. His sense of reality upended, Zachary embarks on a journey to find the origins of the book. Zachary’s quest leads him to an underground, Wonderland-like labyrinth of elaborate hallways and chambers that house a seemingly infinite collection of books filled with stories. Morgenstern enhances the main plot with stories sprinkled throughout, each one captivating in its own right. For lovers of The Night Circus, The Starless Sea does not disappoint.

This was such an incredible read. Erin Morgenstern's writing is so lush that the characters and settings all feel so real despite their mythical and magical components. The Starless Sea is a book full of stories within stories that are all eventually woven together, which was somewhat overwhelming at first. But once I let myself stop trying to figure out how it would all fit together and just enjoy the ride, I thoroughly enjoyed being immersed in the worlds created within these stories. I read this book slowly, over a couple months' time and it's a great way to take it in. It's definitely a book to be savored. This book is a great pick if you love books about books and reading and the way you can get lost inside a story and forget the world around you, or if you're a fan of authors like Neil Gaiman, Seanan McGuire, and Catherynne Valente.

WHAT DID I JUST READ???? Half the time I didn't know what was going on. I get what the author was going for, and honestly, I'd even say she accomplished it, but it became a bit of a confusing slog for me. Everybody had several different pasts, while also being a metaphor and a person, mostly not at the same time???? Yes, it's a love letter to storytelling, and to fables and myths, and books, but after a while it felt like someone describing an especially bizarre dream where everything and nothing mean anything or all the things depending on the interpretation. I do want my own magic dumbwaiter supplied by a mysterious kitchen that can give me whatever I want, though. That sounds lovely. On the whole I'll recommend it to extreme book nerds who enjoy existential and hoity-toit discussions about the nature of...things....

Erin Morgenstern prepares to fascinate and dazzle us all again with her magical realism storytelling, this time along as an homage to books. The story begins following a few different characters: a pirate locked in a cell, a woman undergoing an ancient ritual and a boy in a college library. The story swells and flows through these characters until we mostly focus on the boy as he finds a rare and mystical book in his college library, a book that describes a scene from his childhood. From there he seeks to find answers, any answers to this book's heritage as he is led magical, dying world on recesses of the Starless Sea.
This book is a beautiful story that twists different narrative strains into one comprehensive story that cover the past, distant past and the present of the land that was once bustling with the Starless Sea.

I had waited a long time for Erin Morgenstern to write this second book. Like many many people, I loved The Night Circus. This book, The Starless Sea, is almost worth the wait (7 years is a really long time). It is full of magic and possibilities and stories and characters that you care about. And all framed in the loveliest language.

This book is a beautiful and lyrical homage to stories and storytelling -- not to be read quickly, but savored slowly.

Four stars because this story took a very long time to actually hook me to the point where I was excited to pick it up to continue. But oh boy once we got there I was all in! This book is lyrical and lovely and strange and I really liked it.

What everyone will be asking is whether this lives up to the massive expectations set by Morgenstern's debut, The Night Circus? That question isn't easy to answer, though for me, it did. And while it feels like this is the same genre, and I can believe that this is a book set in the same universe as The Night Circus, I think that each book is going to appeal to different people. The Starless Sea is a quest book in a way that The Night Circus wasn't: this is about people searching, and about a story that unravels into several others -- but they felt to me like separate threads, while The Night Circus felt like a story about a fantastical machine, with people moving through it. For people who are more drawn to stories of solitary wanderers searching for themselves in stories, The Starless Sea is going to be a huge success. For me, the success is that both books feel individual, while still delivering the same sort of experience -- Morgenstern's style is steady and consistent. If I had to quibble at all, it's with the bee and key imagery feeling like I've seen it a lot lately -- but that didn't stop me from enjoying this immensely, and it won't stop me from rereading in the future.

Erin Morgenstern’s The Starless Sea is magnificent. I thought her book, The Night Circus, was amazing, but she has amazed me once again with this new book. It has a story within a story within a story, yet it is still sequential. And the twist is the story that you think is the main story is not, it is only a part of the larger story. Her characters are very well fleshed out. I loved the protagonist, Zachary. He is indecisive, yet endearing in his quest to find the Starless Sea and the mystery man lost in time. I find her writing to be thought provoking and lovely. I can’t wait to see what Erin Morgenstern has in store for us readers in the future. She has the making of a writer that will someday have her books be known as timeless classics.

DNF @ 30%
I loved the author's first novel "The Night Circus", so of course I've been highly anticipating her second book like many other people. But sadly, I didn't connect with the main character nor find him very interesting. His sections were boring for the most part and not as interesting as the sections about the Starless Sea and the acolytes. I did love the opening chapters and a couple interlude sections, but the plot is very slow moving, more than I expected. I do love her writing so much and the overall idea of this book sounds amazing. But with not connecting nor caring much for Zachary made it hard to keep going. But I will try this again one day on audio book and this will be popular in my library district.

I'm ordinarily a pretty fast reader. I devour stories. I wrap myself up in them and swallow them whole. But when it came to Erin Morgenstern's sophomore novel, I couldn't. Believe me, I tried. I couldn't put it down, but this is a book that demands your complete attention - blink and you'll miss something. A magical story in an ultimate ode to book and story lovers, The Starless Sea is a tightly woven tapestry of tales, and honestly I hesitate to say too much because it'd be a complete crime to give too much away. From the first few chapters, I was already so deeply in, so completely involved, it was hard to believe so much already happened and there was still so far to go. It has been a long time since a book has completely captured me in this way, lingering at the forefront of my mind between readings and even more-so now that I've completed it. I'm already looking forward to rereading it again someday, and am eager to reread The Night Circus as well.

The Starless Sea, by Erin Morgenstern. This second novel by Morgenstern is as much a masterpiece as her first one is. Writers, visionaries, guardians, and protectors all intertwine and co mingle to create this great book.