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20sidedbi's review against another edition
- 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
There's a bit where it starts to feel long, but stick with it! It's worth it!
Moderate: Stalking and Death
Minor: Violence and Fire/Fire injury
the_reading_wren's review against another edition
- 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
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.
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
yrlaevelyn's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
Moderate: Alcohol and Toxic friendship
Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Stalking, Violence, Toxic friendship, and Death
geilie's review against another edition
- 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
4.5
Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Death, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail
eleanora's review against another edition
- 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
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
- 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
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.
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Death, Violence, Kidnapping, and Murder
Moderate: Stalking, Torture, and Suicidal thoughts
sydneyluxford's review against another edition
- 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
3.0
“Once, very long ago, Time fell in love with Fate.”
😭😭😭
Moderate: Fire/Fire injury and Death
Minor: Stalking
strawberrypinch's review against another edition
- 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
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
her's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Moderate: Stalking, Violence, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Kidnapping
Minor: Pregnancy
ye_li's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Death and Stalking
Moderate: Blood, Alcohol, Confinement, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Fire/Fire injury and Suicidal thoughts