Reviews with content warning for Death - The Starless Sea

Reviews tagging 'Death'

The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

146 reviews

cekennamer's review against another edition

3.5

adventurous mysterious slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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mirandaburel's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

This book ended up being so much more than I thought. I don’t often read fantasy but I’m so glad I read this. The complexity of the story and the way it’s folded on top of itself is really a work of art. The characters are strong, the world building is stunning and complex. It makes you think about the love of telling stories while falling in love with the way this story is told.

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li_reading's review against another edition

4.75

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious reflective relaxing sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Content Warnings

oliverreeds's review against another edition

4.75

adventurous emotional 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: Complicated

i really, very greatly enjoyed this book. the book is basically a set of artfully woven stories from the past, present, future, and fairy tales that all feed into each other and all connect in literally the most beautiful ways. the characters are fleshed out. the writing is easy to read and yet poigniant. it was a little slow getting into the book because every other chapter is a "random" fairy tale which made getting to know the characters a little difficult for me, but less than half-way in, i was hooked. the romance is also magnificent and while important to the book/story, doesn't take away from the world-building or characters. my only issue with this book is that the time spent in the under-world with the starless sea takes up a LOT of time and was very confusing for me to read. i didn't quite understand what was going on (although kat's interludes helped a decent bit and were a fantastic addition to this story), and since i didn't understand, i got bored for like 75 pages. to be fair i was also never super sure what

dorian and zachary were doing in the under-world starless sea place. zachary was trying to find dorian and vice versa but there were so many strange side quests that happened, i started getting confused. i also wanted more on the Zachary/Dorian romance. i thought what was written was great, but i wanted more on where it came from. why were they so in love all of a sudden. i think that this book could have benefitted from additional scenes in which we got to see their relationship bloom a little more

. all said and done, this book is an incredible display of the author's knowledge of craft, attention to detail, and incredible mind when writing stories. she literally killed it. like every character is so important and it was beautiful and incredible, which is why i gave this book such a high rating despite my two qualms.

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beingsimba's review against another edition

3.5

adventurous mysterious slow-paced

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

My enjoyment of The Starless Sea was a downward curve. I was totally enraptured with the first part of the book. I loved the premise, the prose, was curious as to where the plot would lead and adored that it is a novel written for story lovers. However, as it progressed, it became convoluted and mildly pretentious. I only could enjoy it if I didn't think about it too much.
Also, there was too much honey and not enough pirates.

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a_mendoza's review against another edition

4.25

adventurous challenging 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: Yes

I was torn between whether or not to give this book 5 stars cause it's truly beautifully written, with all the appeal of the Night Circus but with far more charm and light-heartedness to break up the heavy tone.
Admittedly it's a somewhat challenging book to follow at times but I think that's on purpose. You're not meant to fully understand each part until it's brought together, particularly with the inconsistent chronology (that you may be familiar with from the Night Circus). Technically it's broken into 6 parts but in terms of tone and direction of the plot it has kind of 3 distinct parts that feel like somewhat separate narratives

as Zachary moves from the surface, to the harbor, to the starless sea. </ spoiler>
I'll share a quote from the book that feels very self-aware,

"Part spy movie, part fairy tale, part choose your own adventure. Epic branching story that doesn’t stick to a single genre or one set path and turns into different stories but it’s all the same story."

Content Warnings