From the New York Times bestselling author of The Night Circus, a timeless love story set in a secret underground world—a place of pirates, painters, lovers, liars, and ships that sail upon a starless sea.Zachary Ezra Rawlins is a graduate student in Vermont when he discovers a mysterious book hidden in the stacks. As he turns the pages, entranced by tales of lovelorn prisoners, key collectors, … lovelorn prisoners, key collectors, and nameless acolytes, he reads something strange: a story from his own childhood. Bewildered by this inexplicable book and desperate to make sense of how his own life came to be recorded, Zachary uncovers a series of clues—a bee, a key, and a sword—that lead him to a masquerade party in New York, to a secret club, and through a doorway to an ancient library hidden far below the surface of the earth. What Zachary finds in this curious place is more than just a buried home for books and their guardians—it is a place of lost cities and seas, lovers who pass notes under doors and across time, and of stories whispered by the dead. Zachary learns of those who have sacrificed much to protect this realm, relinquishing their sight and their tongues to preserve this archive, and also of those who are intent on its destruction. Together with Mirabel, a fierce, pink-haired protector of the place, and Dorian, a handsome, barefoot man with shifting alliances, Zachary travels the twisting tunnels, darkened stairwells, crowded ballrooms, and sweetly soaked shores of this magical world, discovering his purpose—in both the mysterious book and in his own life.
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Amazing
I can see right now that this book is polarizing. It had to be. You’ll either lose yourself in it and love it, or you’ll feel lost and hate it. This book is trippy, and it wanders as much as the halls “below” do. Everywhere you turn, another story (or cat). I was frantically composing my review with every page turn. I wonder if part of the problem is that readers were hoping for another “The Night Circus”, and this book needs to be allowed to be entirely itself. Given its own unique identity, it is a love story to storytelling, with all of its imagination and unexpected turns and magical scenes. This book has all the fascinating weirdness of “The Night Circus”, but remains a world unto itself.
What I liked about “The Starless Sea”:
Lyrical – If this book shares anything with “The Night Circus”, it is the unmistakable writing style. I got a taste of it and promptly recalled the same feeling of enchantment: I wanted to know more about this world. Sometimes I wonder if this author dabbles in substances or if her imagination is just naturally this vivid in otherworldliness.
The impression of nesting dolls – There were stories about stories within stories. You cannot let it disrupt you, not even the seemingly random short stories scattered throughout. Pay attention, because by the end, their relevance is clear.
Zachary’s hotel chamber – I was, in a word, spellbound. I want to stay in that space.
Rich description – So much description. Description in abundance. If this is not your thing, it will weigh you down; you will be mired down in it and you will hate 80% of this book and you will miss the entire point. If you, like me, love to let the scenes unfold in your mind’s eye as you read, this book is a treat because the description is specific and lush.
Easter egg – Unless I am entirely mistaken, there was a little nod to The Night Circus that delighted me to no end.
What I didn’t care for:
It ended. I know, it had to. But I could have gone on happily wandering those halls where there is no shortage of stories to be told and wonders to discover.
I browsed so many reviews that bemoaned the lack of plot. I found this bewildering because, for me, it was clear as day. Perhaps this book was just not meant for those individuals and that’s ok. Not everything is meant for everyone. In a nutshell, “The Starless Sea” is a story about stories, to get lost in the telling of a story and permit it to carry you away, to live your own story by embracing that magic and accepting opportunities found behind offered doors. That saying that “it’s not about the destination but the journey you took to get there”? That is The Starless Sea. It is about how stories and their telling never end, the torch is merely passed, time speeds up and stretches out, the stories are created and recorded and cherished, and through a special sort of magic, we dip into and out of them, losing ourselves in a fragment of their open-ended eternity, left savoring that gift-glimpse we received. The stories themselves live, in times and places we won’t travel, left to wander and reinvent themselves and live on.
Didn’t like it
Loved the dream-like, magical quality of the storytelling. Admire her writing. Will read again.
It was one of those books that you never wanted to end. At least with this book of Erin Morgensterns there seemed to be a continuous story even after the end unlike night circus. I felt like night circus was so abruptly ended and it was like the fantasy couldn’t continue. The Starless Sea seems to continue to live on which I liked.
Super creative. I was astounded at the world building. The ideas and imagery were all so awesome, I just wish the story-line was less contrived. There was definitely a feel of “look how esoteric I can be!” Which, I love a good brain tease, but man, keeping up with everyone, and where they were was challenging. The characters weren’t the only ones trying to make their way through honey near the end…I too was drowning in it. I enjoyed The Night Circus much more.
One of my favorite books I’ve ever read!
The book was really interesting but it took a lot of work to read. And then when it ended I wasn’t even sure how I felt or what the ending meant… I really had to think and process what was going on because if the varying storylines Interwoven throughout the story. I love the authors style of writing so I kept reading but I really wanted to put the book down and not pick it back up so many times while I was reading this story.
Beautiful words and imagery, but the plot seemed to meander backwards and forwards and sideways and underground and into different realms, and I was horribly lost. Parts of the book I loved so much, and parts I read and couldn’t follow. I’m sorry my rating isn’t higher, but I’m still confused about parts of it. Finishing the last quarter was like wading through honey.
My favorite genre has always been fantasy, specifically fairy tales. The Starless Sea was amazing! I was only a third of the way through it before texting my sister to tell her that she had to read it.
First Ms. Morgenstern made me want the Night Circus to be a real thing, now I want the Harbor to be real. What a great book to read while self isolating!! Thank-you!
The ideas are very original but the pacing is very slow. Too many descriptions of amazingly different venues but it overrides the story. I liked the tales in between chapters although they slowed down the narrative as well. Nothing wrong with a slower paced novel but I became bored and lost interest in the goings on. What was going on? Loved The Night Circus but this is not as interesting. Way too long. Editor needed to pare it down.
I really disliked this book. It was bazaar which I usually like but this book took so many twist and turns that eventually led back to the first thing. I just got tired of the story in many parts and my interest would wane. I finally quit at the last quarter of the book. I finally went back to finish it but it was a chore. I loved Night Circus so I had expected to at least like this one too, sadly not to be.
I found this book to defy category– very different read.
I enjoyed this book so much more than The Night Circus. Very imaginative. I great read.
Zachary Ezra Rawlins is bored with his life. A grad student, he just drones through his life. He often recalls a time as a child when he found the door drawn on a wall. He never opened it, and he wished he had.
One day, he finds a mystery, and things get interesting. When in the library, a place he often frequents, he finds an unusual, handwritten book. When he goes to check it out, he finds that it is not listed in the archives of the library. As he reads the mysterious book, he is even more shocked to discover he is part of the plot of the book! He begins to follow the clues in the book, a bee, a key, and a sword. These clues lead us into the world that Erin Morgenstern created, one tucked below the surface of the earth and filled to over-flowing with stories and books of all kinds.
This amazing world that the author has created is sure to please any avid reader. However, I found this novel a bit too long and drawn out for my tastes. If I was an avid reader of fantasy, I might feel much differently.
I guess the easiest way to surmise my feelings about this book is that I loved to hate it and hated to love it.
Let me start by saying I give this book 3.5 stars because the writing is beautiful and flows. The concept of taking a fantasy fiction book and upending the flow of it is a great idea, in theory, and I enjoyed Erin Morgenstern’s attempt to breath fresh air in to the genre with an untraditional style. I enjoy fantasy in general and the author is really good at describing the settings, to the point of overkill (more on that below.) I also enjoyed that the main character was a gay man, albeit a boring one, also more on that later.
That being said, there are some major issues with this book.
Judging by reviews you either love or hate the “flash fiction” interludes and I think if the author had spent more time polishing these and editing them, the book would have flowed much better and not been as frustrating for readers.
That leads to me a major issue with this book. The pacing. The pacing is atrocious. The beginning of the book drags for the first 200 pages, the next 100 pages are great, and the following 200 pages drag again. I think this book needed far more editing. So much could’ve been cut out to make the pacing more snappy. The last 200 or so pages keep being interrupted by a secondary character which truly serves zero purpose. All of that character’s interludes could’ve been cut or shortened and it would’ve made the end section flow so much better.
It’s almost as if the author had all these ideas and wanted to cram them all into the book in order to live up to the hype of her first book. (I have not read The Night Circus and in a way I’m glad because judging by other reviews, it set people to have very high expectations for this one.) Instead of adding to the story, it detracts and ultimately drags the book down.
Let’s talk about the main character, Zachary Ezra Rawlins aka the son of the fortune teller. For whatever reason, Zachary is referred to by these two names the entire book, most often as “Zachary Ezra Rawlins.” I’m not sure why, but I found it really irritating. Some people have complained about this book coming off as “pretentious” and I think this is the vibe using his full name constantly gave me, like this guy is so full of himself he demands to be called by his full name at all times.
Zachary is so boring. His character is almost dragged along by the plot. He doesn’t make any decisions, he just goes along with what’s happening, no questions asked about this fantastical universe he’s in or this quest he’s on. His “romance” if you can call it that, with a secondary character is so unbelievable and silly. The two barely interact and spend more time apart then together. It’s a romance with no foundation and it just falls very flat in the latter part of the book. “You smell good and told me a story in the dark so I instantly love you.” Huh?
Zachary is also defined by his love of an alcoholic drink called a sidecar. Having a preference for a certain alcoholic drink is not a character attribute and everytime it was brought up, yet again, I just rolled my eyes. I did a lot of eye rolling reading this book. The author relies on superficial descriptors like this to define many of the characters in this book. It’s like she doesn’t know who to do anything to flesh her characters out beyond describing their personal preferences. “He’s gay, he likes sidecars, books, and video games. Done.”
There’s an issue with all the characters of this book just falling very flat. I don’t really have an impression of who these people are. Their dialogue is so unbelievable and silly at times, again why I think people find this book pretentious. The painter character pops in and out of the main plot and I don’t really know who she is, what her motives were, or why she spent time talking to Zachary randomly in-between running amok in the world. She referred to Zachary as “Ezra” and he called her “Max” probably because the author thought it was cute but I just found it highly annoying and stupid. Anytime the characters interact, it devolves into talking about stories, telling stories, discussing, stories, zzzzzzz. We get it, this book is about telling stories, you don’t need to beat it over the head! I think the author can describe and build a setting but when it comes time to have her characters do something, she can’t weave believable fleshed out complex characters into her world.
The thing that drove me absolutely bonkers about this book, that removes a whole star from my review is the overuse of keys, ribbons, honey (SO MUCH G.D. HONEY!), crowns, feather, owls, hearts, stories, telling stories, talking about stories, swords, bees, crystals, CATS, books, and doors. While the author can write some beautiful imagery, the overuse on these tired cliches got so repetitive and annoying. Literally every other page there’s a mention of honey. I get why there’s so much honey, but for the love of God, stop using honey to describe EVERYTHING. Or keys. Or keys on ribbons. Or swords. Or owls. The book is literally hundreds of pages of these same things over and over.
I don’t know that I can recommend reading this book. Maybe if you skim it, it’d be worth it. The ending was abrupt. It was left open-ended likely for a sequel. I probably won’t read the sequel simply because I really don’t care what happens to Zachary or The Starless Sea. I wasn’t that emotionally invested, though invested enough to write this long review. 😉
Vividly imaginative and beautifully written
Filled with stories, symbols, secrets, and surprises, and told in a way that made pictures form in my mind as a savored every page, this one will stay with me for a long while! I read Erin Morgenstern’s debut “The Night Circus” when it was released and loved it, so I was very excited to see she wrote her second novel, and, of course, I had to read it right away!
(borrowed kindle edition from my library via Libby)
This is like a love letter to stories, as well as the people who tell them and the people who love them. It would be impossible to truly summarize the scope of the plot, but it felt so familiar even though I’ve never read anything quite like it.
There are some stories that stay with you long after you finish reading them.
The Starless Sea is one such Story.
Delicately woven with honey-dripped imagination and intoxicating layered storytelling, the Starless Sea written by the wordsmith magician, Erin Morgenstern, will leave you breathless.
It will also leave you with one heck of a book hangover… the withdrawal from this intoxicating world is extreme and will leave its mark across your heart.
Turning the last page left me with an exquisite and aching pain; not from too much gin or ‘sidecar’ (no sugar around the rim, please) cocktails, but rather, from indulging in too much reading pleasure, losing myself not only to the night, but also to the pages; to the characters, the myths, the legends, and a place called the Starless Sea that the edges of my mind still believe exists.
It’s an adventure, and a mystery, and a quest, and a game, and a story dressed up as a story although it may be something else. It’s intrigue, and heartache, and hope, and Time, and Fate. It’s made from a knight’s tears and a rabbit’s whim, and a handle of a door aching to be turned.
It is about having the bravery to walk the paths ahead of you – or make your own – and trusting your story will unfold. In fact, perhaps this book is not a book at all but something else entirely, perhaps this book is a door – into a world of stories layered beneath your feet.
I could tell you of the characters or my overview of the tale but I think, like all mysteries, it is better for you to take up the quest and discover it for yourself.
Follow the signs, if you dare:
Bee
Key
Sword
I don’t think I have ever looked forward to reading a book as much as I did this one. I slipped, fell, dove into love with The Night Circus and could barely contain myself while waiting for The Starless Sea. The story telling and originality and mythology and absolutely beautiful expression in words is all here. While fighting with myself not to expect the love I felt for The Night Circus characters, I felt let down a good bit by the disjointedness of the pov hopping and the flipping from current time to the myth and I realized that I did not have the build of information about the events nor the investment in the characters to fall in love the same way. I enjoyed the story and it does come together at the end, but I felt that too much was withheld from the beginning. Maybe I missed foreshadows or other clues. I had a sense of dissatisfaction with the resolution of a good many of the story lines, or the lack of resolution, depending where in time you want to stop. The mystical and magical is all here, so maybe it is just my own frustration, but I don’t think I will reread this over and over as I will The Night Circus.