"Let yourself be swept up in the waves of the Starless Sea and find peace, joy and contentment in this vivid, beautiful world that Morgenstern has created."
4 Stars.
Pros: Morgenstern is amazing at making every scene almost tangible, so vivid you feel like if you shut your eyes, you're there/The idea of the libraries in the Harbor on the shores of the Starless Sea is intense but amazing, a place made of books and dedicated to the keeping of stories, sign me up.
Cons: The romance between Dorian and Zachary felt a little rushed but at the same time, in the end, it just felt right/The ending was pretty rote but it worked.
Full Review:
There are doors all over the world but you have to be brave enough to open them to see what's behind.
On the shores of the Starless Sea there are underground tunnels, all dedicated to the preservation and collection of all the stories that happen every day, all around us. There are Acolytes, who collect the stories. There are Guardian, who are watched and monitored for years before being chosen and there is the Keeper, someone who has been within the Heart of the Harbor for however long the Starless Sea has existed.
Then there's Zachary Ezra Rawlins, a bookish boy, the son of a fortune teller who, on his way home from school, sees a door painted on the side of a brick wall. He studies it and part of him desperately wants to open it, but he doesn't. He walks away from it and the next day finds it painted over.
His life goes on and years have passed and he is now a young adult, attending College in Vermont. He is an emerging Media major, studying the interactive components of RPG video games. As the Winter break ends and classes are set to start, he is in the library doing research when he comes upon an old, authorless, book. He checks it out and brings it back to his room. And as he reads, he realizes that the third story is about him. It is the exact moment, in excruciating detail, of when he found the door on the brick wall and chose not to open it.
Everything that follows is so intricately connected and complex but in pure Morgenstern fashion, written so easily and beautifully that the pages just turn by themselves. Though there were moments where I was confused as to how it could possibly have any sort of impact on the story as a whole, in the end, it was all wrapped up in a somewhat saccharine but completely acceptable bow.
In The Night Circus Morgenstern brought you into the story, made you a part of the narrative, had you exploring the depths of the mysterious black and white Circus that comes to town. In The Starless Sea you're not drawn into the narrative as much but at the same time, if you've ever found yourself wondering, questioning whether everything is connected and if anything at all has a point at the end, then you are part of this story.
This was a true pleasure to read and I would recommend this book to any reader, dreamer, anyone with an imagination and the wish to find out the truth, the "why" of life and whether everything we do has a purpose. Thank you Erin Morgenstern for this book. It was beautiful.
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