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A review by jadeisgreen
The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
I feel so conflicted. The world and prose were unquestionable beautiful. I wanted to bask in it a little longer.
The small snippets of stories sprinkled throughout had me hooked constantly only to be let down at inconclusive endings (I know, I know that was part of the point) and then brought back to peak anticipation again. My favourites were the innkeeper and the moon, and the pirate and the girl. I was also devastated at certain parts of Simon and Eleanor’s story - poor mirabel too!
I enjoyed the characters that we met. I especially related to the introverted aspects of Z’s personality- speaking of his regrets etc I found to be very poignant. Kat at the end was a breath of fresh air when the story was getting stale almost, and I would love to have kept going deeper into her diary.
I had read in other reviews that the romance of Zachary and Dorian came out of nowhere and had assumed that was an exaggeration before reading, but I honestly have to agree. They had very little interaction, slept, spoke and then were in love it seemed. This I was not a fan of but I do understand that ultimately, the story as a whole and enclosed smaller stories of fate and time all reflected this early on, so not entirely out of the blue in that regard.
I preferred the first half of the book to the second surprisingly. I think part of the problem was listening to it as an audiobook because, despite the wonderful narration, when the plot did get fairy convoluted and tied in knots it’s very difficult to go back and re-read certain things make clarifications.
The last third had me questioning whether I was just too unintelligent to fully grasp the scope of the book or whether everyone else was feeling the same way and the reviews seem to agree with me in this regard so that’s a bit of a relief.
Overall, very highly anticipated. Beautifully written and had me wanting more, but ultimately got a bit confusing to follow, so I don’t know how to feel.
The small snippets of stories sprinkled throughout had me hooked constantly only to be let down at inconclusive endings (I know, I know that was part of the point) and then brought back to peak anticipation again. My favourites were the innkeeper and the moon, and the pirate and the girl. I was also devastated at certain parts of Simon and Eleanor’s story - poor mirabel too!
I enjoyed the characters that we met. I especially related to the introverted aspects of Z’s personality- speaking of his regrets etc I found to be very poignant. Kat at the end was a breath of fresh air when the story was getting stale almost, and I would love to have kept going deeper into her diary.
I had read in other reviews that the romance of Zachary and Dorian came out of nowhere and had assumed that was an exaggeration before reading, but I honestly have to agree. They had very little interaction, slept, spoke and then were in love it seemed. This I was not a fan of but I do understand that ultimately, the story as a whole and enclosed smaller stories of fate and time all reflected this early on, so not entirely out of the blue in that regard.
I preferred the first half of the book to the second surprisingly. I think part of the problem was listening to it as an audiobook because, despite the wonderful narration, when the plot did get fairy convoluted and tied in knots it’s very difficult to go back and re-read certain things make clarifications.
The last third had me questioning whether I was just too unintelligent to fully grasp the scope of the book or whether everyone else was feeling the same way and the reviews seem to agree with me in this regard so that’s a bit of a relief.
Overall, very highly anticipated. Beautifully written and had me wanting more, but ultimately got a bit confusing to follow, so I don’t know how to feel.