The Starless Sea ~ Erin Morgenstern
After reading The Night Circus and being completely enthralled by the story, I was desperate to read The Starless Sea. However, to give the unread books on my shelves a chance, I decided to wait until it was out in paperback before buying. Millie beat me to it (my copy is currently on its way) and after hearing how much she enjoyed the book, I knew I couldn’t wait and we did an Erin Morgenstern swap.
The Starless Sea is a beautifully bespelling book. From the moment I read the first few lines, I was hooked. I thought I knew what I was expecting from a novel about stories, but Morgenstern proved me wrong. I was led on a journey that flickered between the familiar and comforting and the exciting and new.
The novel follows Zachary Rawlins as he finds a mysteriously uncatalogued book in his university’s library. Even stranger is that one of the stories it tells is from his past. Determined to find out more about the book and how it knows things that only he was privy to, Zachary follows clues that lead him to a literary-themed masquerade and then to an underground world built from stories.
I fell in love with Zachary from his first chapter. I can very easily see myself in him, the story-loving nerd: he plays video games for the storyline, I play video games for the storyline; he reads to escape, I read to escape. Morgenstern created a character that was so very relatable and lovable. Zachary felt like the sort of character that I would probably be best friends with and so, I was rooting for him the entire time. The other characters in the book, especially Mirable, Dorian and Kat, were all so multi-dimensional I couldn’t believe that they were characters in a book rather than real people.
Scrolling through some of the Goodreads reviews, I saw that many people didn’t like the pacing or the inconsistent plot or the lack of flowing, linear narrative. I wholeheartedly disagree with those people. Having read The Night Circus, I was a little worried that this book was going to be over just as quickly but instead found that the plot was wonderfully paced and the changing between Zachary’s narrative and the stories broke up the story so that it didn’t overwhelm. This almost dual narrative made the plot non-linear but I don’t think the book would’ve worked any other way, you learnt the information when you needed it and had other ideas circling around your head wondering where they would fit in; much like a storyteller who has only formed part of the story. For an homage to storytelling, it fits perfectly.
The plot was inconsistent, I will agree with Morgenstern’s critics on that, however, in this context it is not a negative thing. The story needed to be inconsistent because the world that it is built around is inconsistent and constantly changing. The story is trying to tell you that stories, whether they be the ones printed on paper or the ones we are living, are constantly changing, that’s what makes them good stories.
I think it’s safe to say that I fell in love with this book and its strange exploration into the world of stories. Morgenstern is a phenomenal writer and it feels like she had to have made a deal with the devil to create such wondrous imagery and clever symbolism. Once again, Morgenstern’s work has left me unable to properly articulate how much I enjoyed it. A five-star rating does not feel enough.
C🌙
