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A review by agustplz
The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern
5.0
So... I just finished this book and I'm completely at a loss of what to do with myself now.
I. Adore. This. Book. Like, I kind of feel like someone took my heart and threw it across all these pages in the form of words and said here, this is what is inside you, please accept and enjoy and cherish it. There's so much here that is wonderful for me - the impossibleness of the worlds below the world, the quiet mystery that tumbles into the end of an epic, the characters who quickly root into you heart as only the best characters know how to do.
There's just so much here that works. I'm sure there are people who think some things don't work, but I'd be hard-pressed to find a single thing to complain about. I loved the diversity of the characters, the ebb and flow of Morgenstern's prose, the simplicity somehow elegant when mixed in with odd fantasy. I think that's the only way to describe this book, genre-wise. It falls somewhere between magical realism and odd fantasy, a balance of just the right amount of quirk and wonder with reality.
The best part of this book, however, is reading each shorter story or tale and watching as it links and coincides with the main story. The experience of reading The Starless Sea is so incredibly meta that it brought out the English major tendencies I haven't yet forgotten; I was tempted to underline and circle and note in the margins all the connections as they were made. The book itself is a commentary on storytelling and books as much as it is an actual story, which I think is what makes it so fun and also what makes it a book I want to go back to again and again. And what's so wonderful is the book teeters on the line of a story being told and of pure fate; you never know exactly which is true, or if both are true, or if neither really applies at all. The book tells you as much in the end; it informs Zachary that the storyteller is Fate, and Fate the storyteller.
That being said, this book isn't just some charming fantasy romp. It's serious, and thoughtful, and - at times - positively devastating. The amount of work that went into crafting a book like this must have been daunting and time-consuming. This book feels like art as much as it feels like a part of me, something I've just been waiting to come into existence.
I can't wait to buy this book. (I'll be buying both the US and UK editions, I think, because how can one not have both. They're so gorgeous.) I can't wait to reread this book again someday. And I hope that everyone who gets to read this book, for the first time, enjoy it in their own way as much as I have.
P.S. This may be a bit of a spoilery note, but I find it funny how, when I was first reading the book, I told my friends that it read like honey - slow, sweet, dripping - only to discover the Starless Sea is made of honey itself! There's so many subtle things I thought to myself while reading that further played into my experience of the book between a story or fate or something altogether different.
I. Adore. This. Book. Like, I kind of feel like someone took my heart and threw it across all these pages in the form of words and said here, this is what is inside you, please accept and enjoy and cherish it. There's so much here that is wonderful for me - the impossibleness of the worlds below the world, the quiet mystery that tumbles into the end of an epic, the characters who quickly root into you heart as only the best characters know how to do.
There's just so much here that works. I'm sure there are people who think some things don't work, but I'd be hard-pressed to find a single thing to complain about. I loved the diversity of the characters, the ebb and flow of Morgenstern's prose, the simplicity somehow elegant when mixed in with odd fantasy. I think that's the only way to describe this book, genre-wise. It falls somewhere between magical realism and odd fantasy, a balance of just the right amount of quirk and wonder with reality.
The best part of this book, however, is reading each shorter story or tale and watching as it links and coincides with the main story. The experience of reading The Starless Sea is so incredibly meta that it brought out the English major tendencies I haven't yet forgotten; I was tempted to underline and circle and note in the margins all the connections as they were made. The book itself is a commentary on storytelling and books as much as it is an actual story, which I think is what makes it so fun and also what makes it a book I want to go back to again and again. And what's so wonderful is the book teeters on the line of a story being told and of pure fate; you never know exactly which is true, or if both are true, or if neither really applies at all. The book tells you as much in the end; it informs Zachary that the storyteller is Fate, and Fate the storyteller.
That being said, this book isn't just some charming fantasy romp. It's serious, and thoughtful, and - at times - positively devastating. The amount of work that went into crafting a book like this must have been daunting and time-consuming. This book feels like art as much as it feels like a part of me, something I've just been waiting to come into existence.
I can't wait to buy this book. (I'll be buying both the US and UK editions, I think, because how can one not have both. They're so gorgeous.) I can't wait to reread this book again someday. And I hope that everyone who gets to read this book, for the first time, enjoy it in their own way as much as I have.
P.S. This may be a bit of a spoilery note, but I find it funny how, when I was first reading the book, I told my friends that it read like honey - slow, sweet, dripping - only to discover the Starless Sea is made of honey itself! There's so many subtle things I thought to myself while reading that further played into my experience of the book between a story or fate or something altogether different.