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redheadorganist's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
This book has depths I will probably never understand. It was often hard to follow. But it was captivating and left me feeling like I'd experienced something beautiful.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death
Moderate: Gun violence, Fire/Fire injury, and Grief
Minor: Blood
ksilvio's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
hopeful
mysterious
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
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder
Minor: Fire/Fire injury and Pregnancy
lizziaha's review against another edition
4.5
I can’t really explain why I rated this book as high as I did. The vibes were immaculate, but I feel like I don’t really understand the plot enough to pass judgment on it.
This book is like A Series of Unfortunate Events for adults. There’s secret societies and schisms and betrayals and replacements and (doomed?) love and loss and a love of stories and reading and knowledge and mystery and improbable events and the thieving of objects and the lengths which people will go to get them back and there’s fortune tellers and literary references and ordinary people and imagined futures and I could go on and on and on.
Despite being the cause of most of my confusion while reading, I enjoyed the way that the stories within this story began to blend, to the point where I as the reader couldn’t quite tell where one story ended and the other began. It was like I was being buried in the story, covered in layer after layer of words. As a lover of stories, this was ideal for me.
This book is like A Series of Unfortunate Events for adults. There’s secret societies and schisms and betrayals and replacements and (doomed?) love and loss and a love of stories and reading and knowledge and mystery and improbable events and the thieving of objects and the lengths which people will go to get them back and there’s fortune tellers and literary references and ordinary people and imagined futures and I could go on and on and on.
Despite being the cause of most of my confusion while reading, I enjoyed the way that the stories within this story began to blend, to the point where I as the reader couldn’t quite tell where one story ended and the other began. It was like I was being buried in the story, covered in layer after layer of words. As a lover of stories, this was ideal for me.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Murder, Death, Violence, and Fire/Fire injury
chrisljm's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
The prose for The Starless Sea was very soft and poetic and yet it came off very artificial to me and made the story much more difficult to digest than it had to be. I definitely agree that this book strongly displays a love for fairytales, stories, as well as the telling of stories, but I would be hard-pressed to describe the plot because the main focus is very much on the writing style. Another reason for that would also be due to the novel being so journey-heavy. You spend most of the novel with Zachary on a journey towards an objective that never really gets revealed to readers, and it's page after page of discovery and yet you never really learn anything concrete, not until it starts to conclude. And for this reason, there also isn't much character or relationship development. There is a romance between Zachary and another character, but you never see that development in the pages of the book. The love interest starts off the story already kind of in love with Zachary, they don't spend much time together, and even less time having any sort of conversation, and so I'm not interested in their love because the author never gave me the chance to get emotionally invested in it.
This book is written with fables and short stories interspersed between the main plot of Zachary in modern day, where you later come to find out that everything is connected and somehow leading to Zachary. However I didn't feel like the short stories were weaved into the overarching plot that well, and so my interest in each separate section would fluctuate, and then it just slowly tapered off towards the end.
The writing is beautiful for sure but it felt very empty and lacking.
The writing is beautiful for sure but it felt very empty and lacking.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Stalking, Death, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Violence
Minor: Sexual content
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
theotheleo's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
reflective
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? Yes
4.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Death, Confinement, and Blood
Minor: Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, and Kidnapping
ollieez's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
slow-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? No
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Death, Stalking, Outing, and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Outing, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Stalking, Animal death, Homophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Violence, Suicidal thoughts, Kidnapping, and Death
imo_reads's review against another edition
adventurous
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? No
4.0
Argh, this book was so close to almost-perfect but just missed the mark for me with its ending. Worth reading for its beautiful descriptive writing and quip-laden prose - yet this comes at the expense of slightly underdeveloped characters, motivations and plot. A wonderful showcase of aesthetic with a frustrating lack of resolution.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Pregnancy and Death
Minor: Injury/Injury detail
kedalrymple's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
hopeful
mysterious
slow-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
4.0
This is definitely a modern epic! It is slow to start and picks up at the middle of the book…it took me three weeks to read 50% and then three days to finish it. It is a winding adventure that centers around the concepts of storytelling, reality, destiny, and companionship. Now that I’m done I find myself wanting to go back to read parts again. A sign of a compelling and well written novel!
Content Warnings
Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Confinement, Self harm, Pregnancy, Grief, Suicidal thoughts, and Abandonment
20sidedbi's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
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? No
5.0
Absolutely brilliant.
There's a bit where it starts to feel long, but stick with it! It's worth it!
There's a bit where it starts to feel long, but stick with it! It's worth it!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Stalking and Death
Minor: Violence and Fire/Fire injury