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aliyachaudhry's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Violence, Death, Grief, Stalking, Pregnancy, Gore, Alcohol, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, and Kidnapping
Moderate: Torture and Animal death
Minor: Suicidal thoughts
augie_'s review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence, Torture, Death, Stalking, and Kidnapping
the_reading_wren's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Writing a story about the power of stories is a brave thing for an author to take on, and Erin Morgenstern shows she’s a master storyteller in The Starless Sea.
I should have been prepared by reading The Night Circus, but I forgot how the author creates a world for the reader to fall in love with before breaking it apart… and resolving the story in the most beautiful and satisfying way. I enjoyed spending so much time at the beginning of the book getting to know the main character and the beginnings of the many threads that later weave into the narrative. Then the second half became an un-put-down-able roller-coater ride!
Morgenstern’s talent for world-building I think comes from the sensory descriptions - the texture of a jumper, the taste of a drink, the richness of a voice, the sense of a space and the smell of a perfume are all given importance. But things are rarely over-described, making it feel like the storytelling is working with the reader’s own imagination.
Overall I think the diversity of the cast of characters was well done, bar a few missed opportunities for trans/nonbinary and better disability representation. Something I particularly noticed was that the main character’s mother is given a significant voice in the narrative, which is unusual in stories like this, and I appreciated it.
I’m really glad I listened to the audiobook; the cast is brilliant, and having different voices read different sections helps follow the flicks between times, people, places and books within books.
I should have been prepared by reading The Night Circus, but I forgot how the author creates a world for the reader to fall in love with before breaking it apart… and resolving the story in the most beautiful and satisfying way. I enjoyed spending so much time at the beginning of the book getting to know the main character and the beginnings of the many threads that later weave into the narrative. Then the second half became an un-put-down-able roller-coater ride!
Morgenstern’s talent for world-building I think comes from the sensory descriptions - the texture of a jumper, the taste of a drink, the richness of a voice, the sense of a space and the smell of a perfume are all given importance. But things are rarely over-described, making it feel like the storytelling is working with the reader’s own imagination.
Overall I think the diversity of the cast of characters was well done, bar a few missed opportunities for trans/nonbinary and better disability representation. Something I particularly noticed was that the main character’s mother is given a significant voice in the narrative, which is unusual in stories like this, and I appreciated it.
I’m really glad I listened to the audiobook; the cast is brilliant, and having different voices read different sections helps follow the flicks between times, people, places and books within books.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Stalking
Moderate: Grief, Alcohol, and Suicidal thoughts
Minor: Homophobia, Abandonment, Pregnancy, Blood, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Torture, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Confinement, Death, Murder, and Suicide
eleanora's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Stalking, Fire/Fire injury, Death, Grief, Alcohol, and Blood
Minor: Pregnancy, Confinement, Torture, and Abandonment
peggychecksitout's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
The Starless Sea is an ode to stories; it is about why stories and storytelling are important, as much as it is about those who love stories and why they do. And while it points out the whys and wherefores of storytelling, it also shows you the how of storytelling; this book is quite meta. You, dear reader, are reading a book, about a character who is also reading a book, in which there is a story about himself. As you continue reading, you also get to read all the stories in the book that he is reading, while reading about him reading them, and while he is trying to solve the mystery that connects all these stories to the larger mystery surrounding his current predicament, you are too. Morgenstern isn’t afraid to show her authorial fingerprints upon the story— and that’s part of the point here: a book is someone telling you a story—there is a storyteller always present that is not just the protagonist.
As far as plot goes, it certainly doesn’t unfold in a linear fashion—I would probably describe it as almost labyrinthine, or maybe not unlike nesting dolls; stories within stories. I could even call it kaleidoscopic—fragments of seemingly disparate stories that come together at the end to form a pattern that we can behold for a beautiful moment, before it all changes. And change it does, as we are reminded throughout the book, what is a story, if not change?
This book also shows off Morgenstern’s greatest strengths: her world-building and her prose. Morgenstern can write; her prose is simply gorgeous. It is in turns whimsical, magical, dreamlike and playful. The images she conjures on these pages are nothing short of being frankly, almost tangible—sort of like waking up with your last dream still dancing around in your head before it softly fades with the intrusion of the morning light. There’s a definite fairy-tale vibe to the entire book, that again, goes along with the greater themes about storytelling. I think anyone who is a lover of books has dreamed, at least once, of stumbling across a doorway that leads to a magical library, and reading this book certainly makes me daydream about that scenario all the more.
If I had a quibble with anything, I would say the character work in this book isn’t the strongest, but I do think it’s still purposeful. The characters aren’t super fleshed out, instead, they have the same quality that characters in a fairy-tale do—they are there to serve the story, to supply metaphor and archetypes and literal anthropomorphic personifications of concepts, more than give us in-depth character studies, or feel like real people. This is okay to a certain extent, but it does mean that if your entry point into a story is through character, this might not be the book for you. There were moments towards the end of the story that didn’t hit quite as hard as I wished they would have, had the characters and their relationships to each other had a chance to be more drawn out.
It took me the better part of a week to read through it, but this book is a book that rewards you with slowing down and taking your time to read it, to really savour the stories within, and soak in all of its beautiful magic. It’s also, as I have now discovered, very wonderfully re-readable, where you can pick up on threads and clues you missed the first time around.
On the whole, my re-read of this book has cemented it as a forever favourite of mine. In fact, I have a quote from the book I would love to have a tattoo of one day, and there are ungodly things I would do for a ttrpg of The Starless Sea; there’s so much you could do with the Harbour alone—book themed dungeon crawls for daaaaaaays.
As far as plot goes, it certainly doesn’t unfold in a linear fashion—I would probably describe it as almost labyrinthine, or maybe not unlike nesting dolls; stories within stories. I could even call it kaleidoscopic—fragments of seemingly disparate stories that come together at the end to form a pattern that we can behold for a beautiful moment, before it all changes. And change it does, as we are reminded throughout the book, what is a story, if not change?
This book also shows off Morgenstern’s greatest strengths: her world-building and her prose. Morgenstern can write; her prose is simply gorgeous. It is in turns whimsical, magical, dreamlike and playful. The images she conjures on these pages are nothing short of being frankly, almost tangible—sort of like waking up with your last dream still dancing around in your head before it softly fades with the intrusion of the morning light. There’s a definite fairy-tale vibe to the entire book, that again, goes along with the greater themes about storytelling. I think anyone who is a lover of books has dreamed, at least once, of stumbling across a doorway that leads to a magical library, and reading this book certainly makes me daydream about that scenario all the more.
If I had a quibble with anything, I would say the character work in this book isn’t the strongest, but I do think it’s still purposeful. The characters aren’t super fleshed out, instead, they have the same quality that characters in a fairy-tale do—they are there to serve the story, to supply metaphor and archetypes and literal anthropomorphic personifications of concepts, more than give us in-depth character studies, or feel like real people. This is okay to a certain extent, but it does mean that if your entry point into a story is through character, this might not be the book for you. There were moments towards the end of the story that didn’t hit quite as hard as I wished they would have, had the characters and their relationships to each other had a chance to be more drawn out.
It took me the better part of a week to read through it, but this book is a book that rewards you with slowing down and taking your time to read it, to really savour the stories within, and soak in all of its beautiful magic. It’s also, as I have now discovered, very wonderfully re-readable, where you can pick up on threads and clues you missed the first time around.
On the whole, my re-read of this book has cemented it as a forever favourite of mine. In fact, I have a quote from the book I would love to have a tattoo of one day, and there are ungodly things I would do for a ttrpg of The Starless Sea; there’s so much you could do with the Harbour alone—book themed dungeon crawls for daaaaaaays.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Death, Violence, Kidnapping, and Murder
Moderate: Stalking, Torture, and Suicidal thoughts
strawberrypinch's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol
Moderate: Murder, Animal death, Body horror, Torture, Blood, Panic attacks/disorders, Grief, Dementia, Death, Gaslighting, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Violence, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, and Stalking
Minor: Child abuse, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, and Sexual content
mxbluet18's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Trigger warnings for The Starless Sea include: Anxiety, panic attacks; multiple deaths; themes of death; Suicidal ideation mentioned; Forced drug use; Removal of a tongue mentioned; Branding, Kidnapping, Drowning and Animal death mentioned.
☆
☆
It's safe to say that was one of the wildest rides I've ever had with a book. Usually I'm not a fan of multiple points of view in the books I read because I find it easy to get things mixed up. But with this one each story within a story was individual and easy to distinguish from one another.
~
I loved the simple gay representation you find in the main character Zachary, as well as Dorian, and in Kat (though in passing mention). The fact that there are queer characters doesn't have any bearing on the story, which I find is actually quite nice. Having a story that doesn't revolve around one or more of the characters being some flavour or LGBTQ+.
~
Reading some other reviews online when I'm writing this I have found some useful explanations as to how the characters fit into the fairytale being woven from the beginning. Who each character is, whether that's the Pirate, Fate, the acolyte, Allegra and the Guardian. Characters are mentioned and talked about in different books within the books. It has multiple stories within it, and eventually they all fit together and interweave, but I appreciate it might be a little more challenging for some to piece together who's who.
☆
☆
It's safe to say that was one of the wildest rides I've ever had with a book. Usually I'm not a fan of multiple points of view in the books I read because I find it easy to get things mixed up. But with this one each story within a story was individual and easy to distinguish from one another.
~
I loved the simple gay representation you find in the main character Zachary, as well as Dorian, and in Kat (though in passing mention). The fact that there are queer characters doesn't have any bearing on the story, which I find is actually quite nice. Having a story that doesn't revolve around one or more of the characters being some flavour or LGBTQ+.
~
Reading some other reviews online when I'm writing this I have found some useful explanations as to how the characters fit into the fairytale being woven from the beginning. Who each character is, whether that's the Pirate, Fate, the acolyte, Allegra and the Guardian. Characters are mentioned and talked about in different books within the books. It has multiple stories within it, and eventually they all fit together and interweave, but I appreciate it might be a little more challenging for some to piece together who's who.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death
Moderate: Kidnapping, Panic attacks/disorders, Torture, and Drug use
Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Stalking
blairextraordinaire's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Alcohol, Torture, Violence, and Abandonment
Minor: Pregnancy and Gun violence
jelliestars's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death
Moderate: Alcohol
Minor: Animal death, Blood, Death of parent, Grief, Gun violence, Sexual content, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Torture, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail
decklededgess's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
hopeful
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
trigger warnings: missing person, murder attempt, torture, death, stalking
I didn't particularly like Nigh Circus but my experience reading this has given me a better understanding of what I missed in my reading of NC. Erin Morgenstern's books require that you put in effort to carve out the plot for yourself from the layers and layers of stories that she frontloads. And after you put in the effort to map out your understanding of the book she rewards you with incredibly gratifying reveals that knit the book together into one seamless plot. As someone who has like 2% understanding of symbolism, I was rather proud of myself for understanding this book but I'm sure rereads will reveal dozens more layers.
This is a book for your whimsical dark academia aesthetic book lovers. It's a book about books for the bookish folk who long to disappear into the story itself.
Incredibly immersive and easy to get lost in.
I didn't particularly like Nigh Circus but my experience reading this has given me a better understanding of what I missed in my reading of NC. Erin Morgenstern's books require that you put in effort to carve out the plot for yourself from the layers and layers of stories that she frontloads. And after you put in the effort to map out your understanding of the book she rewards you with incredibly gratifying reveals that knit the book together into one seamless plot. As someone who has like 2% understanding of symbolism, I was rather proud of myself for understanding this book but I'm sure rereads will reveal dozens more layers.
This is a book for your whimsical dark academia aesthetic book lovers. It's a book about books for the bookish folk who long to disappear into the story itself.
Incredibly immersive and easy to get lost in.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Gore