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4.01 AVERAGE
4.01 AVERAGE
I don’t usually write reviews, but I feel like I have to explain my low rating (which I also rarely give). On a purely sentence-level, the writing is beautiful. The premise is intriguing, the characters interesting when you first meet them. I was totally into this book for about 50 pages and then I realized I had one huge question I could not overlook: what is happening? After (spoilers) Zachary arrives at the Harbor of the Starless Sea when Dorian chucks him through a doorway, nothing interesting happens again. Hundreds of pages follow and they are only boring and confusing. The book is a story about the importance of stories yet it has no real story itself. I loved The Night Circus, and this is almost certainly the most disappointed I have ever been by an author’s sophomore effort.
the kind of book you want to own and hold in your hands and annotate on reread so you can connect all the pieces that have been given to you since the start
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I listened to about 5 or 6 hours of this book and am abandoning it. It has been very difficult for me to follow, I’m not sure what the plot line is and there has been no character development after this much time. The narration is also lacking, in my opinion. It just falls flat. Perhaps this would be a very different experience if I was reading a hard copy instead of listening to the audiobook.
A love story to readers. Erin Morgenstern has a way of making the setting of her stories feel like a sentient character. She also has an incredible way with words. I felt like I was being submerged, and have finally woken up from a fever dream. 4.5 stars.
I couldn’t finish it. I devoured the Night Circus and consider it to be one of my favorite books, but the Starless Sea was pedantic and felt more like telling than showing. I think if I would have had to read the phrase Zachary Ezra Rawlins one more time I may have thrown the damn thing. Beautiful cover though.
DNF @60%
There’s so much I can say about why this book didn’t work for me, in either format — audio/paper, I even tried hybrid. That’s how determined I was to push through and finally finish this— but I’m so exhausted from trying that now, after calling time of death at 60% (~10 hrs of audio but really fcking 45 with how often I had to rewind and start a chapter over) I want to get as far away from this book as possible.
The writing is beautiful and lush— a quick scan of reviews will confirm this as something I think we all can agree on.
However it’s also floaty, aimless, anticlimactic, passive, redundant, SLOW SLOW SlOW, circular, confusing, and needlessly bogged down in overly descriptive prose such that it meanders and its unclear what all these words are focusing on. I tried. I tried — I didnt want to give up.
This was my third time trying to get through this book. But I was miserable constantly rewinding and rereading bc of how frequently I’d drift off and lose focus bc wdym there’s nested stories within stories within stories, and like 5 (6? 4? Idk) timelines and nothing makes sense by design?! No doubt the author is a brilliant writer, and you can tell she loved writing this. But as a reader, I needed the story to be more anchored and a plot with clear a purpose. This was not that.
To compound these issues and despite the praise the audiobook has received, I have to note/rant about the narrator, Hoffman. His narration was awkward and slow, which made this already very slow book, move at a glacial pace. I had the speed at 1.5x and it was still weirdly slow paced and hard to follow. His cadence and voice didn’t work here. He frequently had odd pauses after a few words per sentence, and I wanted him to just spit it out. No multitasking with this audiobook: his voice becomes background noise, making it very easy to drift away from the story and before long I was coming up with my grocery list in my head instead. His voice seemed better suited for a nature documentary. Hence why I tried reading instead of listening. Ultimately this story didn’t have enough plot or direction to make it worthwhile to keep on. And once I came to terms with that, I packed up and moved on.
But man, in my heart of hearts, I really really wanted to love this.
2.5 stars, from the 60% that I read— and that’s purely based on how gorgeous the writing is.
There’s so much I can say about why this book didn’t work for me, in either format — audio/paper, I even tried hybrid. That’s how determined I was to push through and finally finish this— but I’m so exhausted from trying that now, after calling time of death at 60% (~10 hrs of audio but really fcking 45 with how often I had to rewind and start a chapter over) I want to get as far away from this book as possible.
The writing is beautiful and lush— a quick scan of reviews will confirm this as something I think we all can agree on.
However it’s also floaty, aimless, anticlimactic, passive, redundant, SLOW SLOW SlOW, circular, confusing, and needlessly bogged down in overly descriptive prose such that it meanders and its unclear what all these words are focusing on. I tried. I tried — I didnt want to give up.
This was my third time trying to get through this book. But I was miserable constantly rewinding and rereading bc of how frequently I’d drift off and lose focus bc wdym there’s nested stories within stories within stories, and like 5 (6? 4? Idk) timelines and nothing makes sense by design?! No doubt the author is a brilliant writer, and you can tell she loved writing this. But as a reader, I needed the story to be more anchored and a plot with clear a purpose. This was not that.
To compound these issues and despite the praise the audiobook has received, I have to note/rant about the narrator, Hoffman. His narration was awkward and slow, which made this already very slow book, move at a glacial pace. I had the speed at 1.5x and it was still weirdly slow paced and hard to follow. His cadence and voice didn’t work here. He frequently had odd pauses after a few words per sentence, and I wanted him to just spit it out. No multitasking with this audiobook: his voice becomes background noise, making it very easy to drift away from the story and before long I was coming up with my grocery list in my head instead. His voice seemed better suited for a nature documentary. Hence why I tried reading instead of listening. Ultimately this story didn’t have enough plot or direction to make it worthwhile to keep on. And once I came to terms with that, I packed up and moved on.
But man, in my heart of hearts, I really really wanted to love this.
2.5 stars, from the 60% that I read— and that’s purely based on how gorgeous the writing is.
adventurous
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
There were part of this book where I thought “I may love this” but they were not enough to make up for the absolute cluster that was the rest of this story. I can understand how this may be a must read for some people but to me it was entirely too conceptual and bounced around way too much to allow me to fully immerse myself. I was prepared to find an amazing academia read but this missed the mark for me.
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:
Complicated
