Reviews with content warning for Animal death - The Starless Sea

Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

15 reviews

leannanecdote's review against another edition

4.25

adventurous emotional inspiring mysterious reflective slow-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: N/A

Content Warnings

jessiofsuburbia's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous emotional mysterious 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: Complicated

Content Warnings

ronan_lesh's review against another edition

5.0

emotional hopeful mysterious 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: Complicated

Content Warnings

queen_of_lilikoi's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous funny inspiring mysterious slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

A beautifully written story. I've never read an author who writes like this and I am captivated by it. At first, it seems deceptively complex; the use of metaphor seems heavy-handed and frequent.
However, it is actually a very layered and deeply engaging set of multiple interweaving stories. Each short story - interjected between chapters - is a microcosm of the tale itself. Ultimately, this is a convoluted way of saying the the ending is incredibly satisfying. Multiple threads that are laid out from the very first page all culminate in a fantastic ending that made me smile a grateful smile. Brimming with mystery and magic and unparalleled world building - The Starless Sea is "Alice in Wonderland" meets "Narnia" meets "Inkheart" while still remaining entirely unique and original and captivating. I simply cannot recommend it enough.

Content Warnings

celisabeth's review against another edition

4.75

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Imagine a thousand-piece puzzle, but you start out with zero puzzle pieces. You have to wait for new pieces to appear in the box and the process is gradual. You don’t know what image you’re trying to piece together, and the initial puzzle pieces don’t even seem to form one coherent image. You can sense with growing frustration that it’s all supposed to fit, but it’s not quite there just yet. So you keep sifting and trying new combinations, gaining more and more success as new pieces appear.

Sometimes your first predictions are wrong, so you growl under your breath, recalibrate, and try another arrangement. It requires faith, patience, and maybe a glass of wine (ignore this advice if you’re under twenty-one). After a while, you finally understand. It is one cohesive puzzle and not separate entities. It fits. Hallelujah! The electrifying elation you sense while gazing at the finished product isn’t just because you finally comprehend the image. The satisfaction stems from the process, especially the thrill of putting clues together and finding connections between two dissimilar pieces.

Reading The Starless Sea feels like solving that puzzle: It’s a crisscrossing story within a story within a story within a story. Only that fourth story is also somehow the first story, but you don’t realize it because the initial appearance is different. Oh, and there’s also an eleventh story that somehow intertwines the second and seventh story together. Now multiply that by infinity. Forget eight years — I’m shocked it didn’t take Morgenstern a quarter of a century to type out a first draft.

Content Warnings

aliyachaudhry's review against another edition

3.75

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious relaxing medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Content Warnings

ollieez's review against another edition

3.75

adventurous challenging mysterious slow-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

strawberrypinch's review against another edition

5.0

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: Complicated

Content Warnings

jelliestars's review against another edition

3.75

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Content Warnings

falltumn's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

actual story content is solidly a 5 star, but the way the book is structed is 4.25/4.5 out of personal preference. i highly recommend reading book 1-3 in the order of the short, abstract stories first in Whole, and then reading the rest of the book. i found the constant interrupting of events grating.

Content Warnings

More...