A review by playertwo0o
The Starless Sea, by Erin Morgenstern
challenging
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
3.0
3/5 - 'we are all stardust and stories'
<i> There is a stag in the snow.
Blink and he will vanish.
Was he a stag at all or was he something else?
Was he a sentiment hanging unspoken or a path not taken or a closed door left unopened?
Or was he a deer, glimpsed amongst the trees and then gone, disturbing not a single branch in his departure?
The stag is a shot left untaken. An opportunity lost.
Stolen like a kiss.
In these new forgetful times with their changed ways sometimes the stag will pause a moment longer.
He waits though once he never waited, would never dream to wait or wait to dream.
He waits now.
For someone to take the shot. For someone to pierce his heart.
To know he is remembered </i>
I really wanted to love this book, it's all aspects that I love; ballrooms, secret libraries, masquerades, academic protaganists, but overall I found the book rather confusing and not very well put together. Don't get me wrong, if you entirely focused on the form and language of the book, it's so beautiful and well written but the skipping of timelines every short chapter left the characters (especially Zachary and Dorian) a bit underdeveloped and I felt really bad that I didn't really care that he died because I didn't get to know him well.
The book is extremely metaphorical, though at times a bit too much because I still am a bit confused as to what actually happened and what will happen to the harbour after the starless sea drowned out. The worldbuilding happens throughout the entire book, so you are always learning more meaning you cannot piece together the pieces of the clever clues the author laid out until the very end when you go 'ahhhhhhhh, that's what that means etc.'
There were pages after pages on what the harbour looked like, but it didn't explain the mechanics of it. Do the books reappear in the new harbour or do they disappear forever and bring the stories with it? What exactly is the owl king in the end? I couldn't distinct where the people were half the time because of all the time jumps; one page they were in the 'overworld' and the next in the harbour and the next in the starless sea. I would read an extract of sweet sorrows then forget where Zachary/Dorian/Mirabel is because so many people in so many different places.
<i> There is a stag in the snow.
Blink and he will vanish.
Was he a stag at all or was he something else?
Was he a sentiment hanging unspoken or a path not taken or a closed door left unopened?
Or was he a deer, glimpsed amongst the trees and then gone, disturbing not a single branch in his departure?
The stag is a shot left untaken. An opportunity lost.
Stolen like a kiss.
In these new forgetful times with their changed ways sometimes the stag will pause a moment longer.
He waits though once he never waited, would never dream to wait or wait to dream.
He waits now.
For someone to take the shot. For someone to pierce his heart.
To know he is remembered </i>
I really wanted to love this book, it's all aspects that I love; ballrooms, secret libraries, masquerades, academic protaganists, but overall I found the book rather confusing and not very well put together. Don't get me wrong, if you entirely focused on the form and language of the book, it's so beautiful and well written but the skipping of timelines every short chapter left the characters (especially Zachary and Dorian) a bit underdeveloped and I felt really bad that I didn't really care that he died because I didn't get to know him well.
The book is extremely metaphorical, though at times a bit too much because I still am a bit confused as to what actually happened and what will happen to the harbour after the starless sea drowned out. The worldbuilding happens throughout the entire book, so you are always learning more meaning you cannot piece together the pieces of the clever clues the author laid out until the very end when you go 'ahhhhhhhh, that's what that means etc.'
There were pages after pages on what the harbour looked like, but it didn't explain the mechanics of it. Do the books reappear in the new harbour or do they disappear forever and bring the stories with it? What exactly is the owl king in the end? I couldn't distinct where the people were half the time because of all the time jumps; one page they were in the 'overworld' and the next in the harbour and the next in the starless sea. I would read an extract of sweet sorrows then forget where Zachary/Dorian/Mirabel is because so many people in so many different places.