A review by pursuingcolor
The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

5.0

I’ve never been more delighted to be confused.

This book felt like having a glass of wine on an empty stomach. It felt like being unexpectedly tipsy but enjoying it.

Just... ugh. wow.

My review of this book will not do it justice, I guarantee you. It was an experience I have never had before while reading and I encourage you to have yourself! I will say, I enjoyed this book more than I enjoyed Morgenstern's Night Circus. I liked that this book was enchanting, mysterious, unearthly-- but also they mentioned Starbucks and made Lord of the Rings and Skyrim references. This book absolutely itched my modern fantasy scratch like nothing else I've ever read. And honestly, I still don't entirely understand what happened in this story. And even more honestly, that made it an even greater experience.

Well done, Morgenstern.

Now for a good quote that I pulled from one of the final few sections:

"You asked for me, didn’t you? I can’t really be here since I’m not dead.”

“But you’re…shouldn’t you be able to be wherever you want?”

“Not really. I’m in a vessel. An immortal one this time, but still a vessel. Maybe I am whatever I was before again. Maybe I’m something new now. Maybe I’m just myself. I don’t know. As soon as there’s an unquestionable truth there’s no longer a myth.”

The Starless Sea (p. 469).