I genuinely have no idea how to describe this story - the elegance of Morgenstern's writing, the sheer beauty of it. I couldn't possibly tell you what it is even about, without seeming to talk gibberish - secret societies, bees, a sword and a key, an underground labyrinth..... stories within stories and those who would protect them at any cost.

I need to read this again, and again... and possibly again.

Completely gutted I didn't read this sooner. The Starless Sea is a fantastical love letter to the power of stories and left me adrift long after finishing it.

Have loved Erin Morgernstern’s writing style since reading the night circus. Although this was completely different found it just as enjoyable and interesting a read

I’m so conflicted. I genuinely don't know how to feel. On the one hand, I loved it but... did I?

This was one I was really excited for because I'd seen so many people fall in love with it and The Night Circus was a genuinely great book. And then I read it and, around 70 pages in, I had to ask if I was reading the same book that everyone else was reading. I loved the opening chapter and I think part of me was expecting to follow the story of the painter and the pirate the whole way through, so I was a little thrown when we were suddenly introduced to a million and one new characters.

I adored the relationships between characters. The bond that grew between Dorian and Zachary was so beautifully crafted. The discovery of the painting had me completely in love with them. You can't help but love Mirabel with her take-no-prisoners attitude. She's fun and quirky, yet ready to take the reins at any given time and I love that about her! I thought the villain arc was well-written with plenty of depth. I loved the stories between the main narrative -- I can't decide if the Moon and the Innkeeper's story or the Story Sculptor is my favourite! The story of Simon and Eleanor broke my heart completely but I. LOVED. IT.

So, you see, I have been heavily conflicted by this book, wondering why exactly I just can't give it 5 stars. And then it hit me -- I love all these elements individually but they don't immediately and obviously connect. The connections are subtle and hidden underneath complexities, which makes the story so jarring to read. It's almost like the puzzle has been put together, but some pieces have been forced into spaces where they don't belong. Or maybe it's a clock where the cogs just don't align perfectly. Whatever metaphor you want to use, (why was the pirate a metaphor?) (yes, Erin Morgenstern uses A LOT of brackets in this story) (hence me doing it too) these elements just didn't fit together properly.

So... 3 stars. I wanted to love it, but I'll settle for loving parts of it.

Thank you to netgalley, Erin Morgenstern and Penguin Vintage/Harvill Secker for providing me with an e-copy in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

The starless sea follows Zachary Rawlins as he is a graduate student in Vermont. He is a very typical introvert who loves video games and reading. One day, he discovers a mysterious book, which has him enthralled with its secrecy and what it is hidden within. When he recognises himself in the pages of this book, he begins to wonder about the past of this enigma and what it has to do with him and how they are connected.

Zachary must journey to find clues about his life and why they are recorded in this book. These clues lead him to a secret society that keeps a library full of lost books that are looked after by their guardians. These books are full of adventures and wonder and stories that are lost to the ages about cities that existed that are long forgotten. But when the society comes under attack from an outside force, Zachary and his friends who join him along the way must decide to defend and protect the secret behind the library. Well, the library has other plans and wants to take its own destiny in its hands by destroying itself. By destroying itself, it will allow the old stories to finish thus allowing new stories to flourish.

Though the premise of this book sounds so intriguing, I’m afraid it didn’t live up to the hype. Erin Morgernstern has a beautiful way of writing, but if you don’t get on with it, it’s pretty much a no go. I read this book in the lockdown and I was not in the best of places for it, so I wanted to DNF this book, as the writing style was not what I was in the mood for. I did push through this feeling but I still wasn’t exactly impressed. To be honest, I was never particularly keen on the night circus so it’s no wonder that I wasn’t getting on well with this book.

3 out of 5 stars.

I absolutely loved The Night Circus, even though fantasy is very much not my genre so I was delighted to have the chance to read this one. Mmm. It just didn't do it for me, it was just that little bit too much into the genre for me, tipped the balance from beautiful and magical but with a story I could understand to complex, fantastical and beyond me. The book is lovely, the concept of a library with a story that contains parts of someone's life is intriguing but its just me.

Wow - such a beautifully written story from Erin Morgenstern. I loved The Night Circus so I knew I HAD to read The Starless Sea.

A real treat for the senses, Morgenstern really TAKES you there with her use of language, and the way the complex stories all tie up...just beautiful.

HIGHLY recommend.

Zachary finds a mysterious book in his University library, a section of which seems to tell a story from his life. This discovery sends him on a quest for answers that starts with a bookish party and leads to a secret underground library with an intricate system of tunnels, strange symbols, and locked doors.

Described as “an ode to stories, and storytelling itself”, I should have loved it.

The writing is spell-binding. After reading ‘The Night Circus’ I expected nothing less from Morgenstern. Unfortunately, the plot is too weak, and the book too long and rambling, to do it justice.

This book is like a dream; beautiful, fantastical, but with no clear direction or satisfying conclusion.

Thank you, #NetGalley and Random House UK for the free copy in exchange for an honest review.

Firstly, apologies for the tardiness of this review, I downloaded this last year but have only just managed to finish it. There was so much beautiful language and imagery in this, so many intriguing stories and eccentric characters...all elements that should have had me racing through this book and raving to everyone about it...and yet, it was possibly just a little too complex and intricate and I found it really challenging trying to keep hold of all the different threads. While I adored 'The Night Circus', I feel a bit ambivalent about this one, but maybe it's just me.

Ummm... what?

The main character was a bit wishy-washy, there was no depth to him. His romance came out the blue, it was I might be attracted to him boom now I'm in love. Lovely to have gay and bi representation, even if it was a bit insta-lovey. I think I liked Kat more than Zachary and she was only in it a bit. She was more relate-able and human with a bit more substance.

I really liked how the characters twirled around each other , the guy at the bar ended up being someone. The pirate was a person in the world. I enjoyed having a chapter from each book in between other chapters. But I didn't get a chance to like these characters because at the end of it I was so confused about who each person was.

I did savour the book. I liked the idea of these doorways leading to a hidden world where there were books everywhere and how some of these books ended up in our world and the people who lived in this other world wrote the books and told stories to each other. However, the world became more and more convoluted, I'm sure at one point it got destroyed but then the characters were walking around in it again trying to find the Starless Sea. And the main character's mission was to find the key, the sword, the man lost in time, when he found those things.... what happened? I read the whole book and I still don't know.

I so, so wanted to love this book, having LOVED the Night Circus, but I couldn't. I didn't bond with the characters. The plot was very convoluted. The characters ended up being metaphors but then were characters again?! I think it was very, very clever. I really liked the concept of a hidden world full of doors, keys, books and wine. But I just didn't get it.

I loved how this began and I thought the style of writing was enjoyable, but in the end this wasn't really for me. I felt that the plot was overstretched. Not for me, but this was out of my usual comfort zone in terms of genre.

ARC received from Netgalley (though I had to wait to read the physical version because the ARC was just too chaotic for me, whole pages were repeated and the format was a bit all over the place - first time experiencing that!)

5 Stars

Reading this book was a bit like falling through a dream. You can feel the Alice in Wonderland influences almost from the very start. In the beginning I wasn't sure of all the short stories (they drew me away from the main narrative and I thought a few could have been cut) but by the end when they all started to come together I began to love them. (Patience is a virtue lol)

This book is trippy AF, which I enjoyed, but it definitely won't be for everyone. I also found the main romance to be a bit instalove-y, but to be honest it kind of suited the fairytale-esque nature of the story so I didn't mind? (I have similar feelings about Laini Taylor's works). What I definitely loved was the humour - there was a lot more of it than I was expecting. I also loved all the animals, and Kat's secret diary was another highlight of mine.

I would say this is a story that demands to be read more than once. I suspect a lot of the things I found confusing during my first read would be fascinating during my second.

Overall The Starless Sea was a wonderful, weird read that I would definitely visit again.

A really unusual book, the overall reading experience was memorable, but the things I remember are not plot points but sensory information. Tastes, smells, feels and visions are all vividly realised - from drowning in a honey sea to walking through a storm of cherry blossom that turns to snow. Magical liquors and smoky smells mingle in ballroom scenes. Aside from the fantasy library, the Harbour of Stories, it is the symbolism Morgenstern creates that lives on. Owl kings and owls, bees and swords, inns in storms, the Moon, Fate and Time - whisps of Tarot and so many different folk and fairy tales woven together into an echoing whole. Sorry for the poetic review, definitely worth reading if you enjoy atmospheric tales of books and fantasy.

I possess neither the intellect nor the vocabulary to do this justice so you’ll have to bear with me.
Suffice to say, I, like many others, have been eager for The Starless Sea to be published and boy was it worth the wait. Stories within stories within stories. An absolute masterpiece in prose. Stunning descriptive writing which never becomes tedious. Characters who arrive fully formed and all very endearing, even Allegra. It’s a complete joy to read and the best thing is, it’s about the things I’m most passionate about – books, libraries and cats.
It also pays homage to one of my all-time favourites - Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell.
I made myself read it slowly to savour the skill of the author, however the multiple layers of each of the stories means it should and will be read again and again to continue unravelling the complexity of the narrative. An absolute belter.
I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review however I loved it so much I purchased a copy for my kindle.

I hadn't read The Night Circus but knew that our Book Group had loved it. I was intrigued by the description as I can't resist a library in a book (Shadow of the Wind by Zafon or Lirael by Garth Nix)

I was also intrigued by the idea of doorways being painted in random places (cf The Subtle Knife by Pullman) The symbols of the bee etc reminded me of folklore motifs (see Silver on the Tree by Susan Cooper) The structure had similarities with If On A Winter's Night a Traveller" by Calvino.. Indeed literary references abound e.g. Alice with the drinking/eating scene.

All these parallels made me think I would love this book. However i found myself in a Kafkaesque novel. How long as a reader was I going to be stuck in the library with its elliptical references ? . Yes Mirabel was a promising character and there were hints of an interesting relationship between Ezra and Dorian but did I care?

I found that the plot lost its impetus and that I had lost interest . there were hints of the book i wanted to read but they were so deeply buried that I didn't have the interest to disinter them..

I'm sure other readers will find this book amazing but it wasn't for me.

Wow I adored this. This book felt like a love letter to the joy of reading. It did take me a while to read as I felt I needed to process and absorb the beauty of it. It is very whimsical and therefore not a book for everyone. I need to reread the book now that I understand how parts connect to truly appreciate the complexity of it.

I have been anticipating this book for months now and started it as soon as I could and, although, it took me a while to finish it, I’m not disappointed. This is honestly one of the best books I’ve ever read and one of the most beautiful ones as well.

The Starless Sea is about a boy, a knight, Fate, Time, beginnings, endings and stories and it is beautiful and inspiring and touching. Erin Morgenstern truly has a gift when it comes to writing magical stories and this book is truly the proof of it.

I honestly don’t know what to say except that I’ll keep this story in my heart for a very long time and cannot wait to revisit it again and again.

Now, the choice is up to you. But I think you should read it - just a recommendation.

The Starless Sea is a novel which starts by introducing a number of stories: a pirate in a condemned cell, a subterranean world full of books which asks for great sacrifices from its acolytes, a young boy (in our world) who discovers a mysterious door but lacks the courage to see where it leads and a library book with no author and an unknown past. When the young boy, Zachary Ezra Rawlins, now a post-grad student in Emerging Media Studies, borrows the library book he is swept into the realm of the Starless Sea: a confusing place filled with books but also with cats, honey and secrets. As Zachary moves between the worlds beneath and above he meets many people – Mirabel, whose pink hair belies her kick-ass nature, Dorian, a barefoot mystery man, and the Keeper – as well as encountering dangers, friendships and heartbreak. And as the very world he finds himself in falls apart we discover whether a new world, built on love and stories, is possible.

I don’t suppose this book will suit everyone – what book does? The language is positively mystical in places and the way the narrative switches from the underworld of books to the stories contained with it is a bit confusing at times but I spent the whole time feeling like I was reading The Neverending Story retold for adults. And, if we are talking about books I could be a groupie for, this is a very good thing…

I tried 3 times to get into this, but it was never just the book for me. I will return to it, because, although I didn't read Morgenstern's first novel, the whole premise of this is one that damn well should appeal to me. In each attempt it just felt a little too slow, a little too meandering, and a little too self-indulgent. Morgenstern can write well, that much is clear, and the number of people who have read this and loved it is testament to her ability. Unfortunately, for now, it just isn't the right book for me at the right time. For the first part that I read, a decent but slightly alienating, 3 stars.

(With thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this title.)

A magical story about the magic of stories and storytelling from the Author of The Night Circus.

Beautifully written, would love a spin-off for Kat Hawkins alone.