A review by karaisreading
The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

5.0

we are the stars, stardust and stories<3

i have no idea what happened in the starless sea but i had the best time reading this book.
the. best. time.

i could read this book a hundred different times, back to front cover, and read and find out something new each time. it's truly a one in a million. you will never, ever, EVER EVER EVER read another book like the starless sea.

it's a love letter to storytelling. this book is the book of my heart. do i believe this book was written for me? no. am i going to tell myself it was and that i need to read and think and talk about it every other day? yes, yes i am.
there are pirates and bees and hearts and the moon and FATE AND TIME and books and story and deeper meanings and fortune-tellers and girls with pink hair and keepers and zachary and dorian and kat and love, love love...so much love.

at the beginning, it was quite confusing and very slow. we are introduced to zachary, who finds a book older than himself that has his story in it. he follows this book to an underground library...and...a million and one things happen.
there are little stories after each chapter of zachary and at first, it's so mystical and poetic but STRANGE BUT THEN THE STORIES START TO TIE TOGETHER and it's just mind-blowing and mesmerizing and oh my god i will never ever be the same.
the writing is incredible. i lack the words to describe it.

i think i took half the book for quotations. i have so many bro my whole wall...
here are a few. very, very few.

"do you believe in the mystical, the fantastical, the improbably, or the impossible? do you believe that things others dismiss as dreams and imagination actually exist? do you believe in fairy tales?"

this is self-explanatory. do we need to explain why these questions spoke to me??

"not all stories speak to all listeners, but all listeners can find a story that does, somewhere, sometime. in one form or another.”

the starless sea is not a book for everyone. you need to really dedicate time and energy to understand what's happening. honestly, i don't think a page was wasted in this whole entire book and considering this book is basically 500 pages, that's 500 pages of goodness and love and amazement and story.
if this isn't your book, try the night circus!!!!!!! i'm reading it now and it's so good<3

"be brave, she says. be bold. be loud. never change for anyone but yourself. any soul worth their star-stuff will take the whole package as is and however it grows. don’t waste your time on anyone who doesn’t believe you when you tell them how you feel."

this was spoken by zachary's fortune teller mom to his friend kat, who spends the last two chapters looking and searching for zachary. not only did this just really resonate with me as a person, it mentions SOULS AND STARS IN THE SAME SENTENCE and we all know how i feel about souls and star stuff. ob-sessed.

i don't have the specific quotes for this but my two absolute favourite stories are when time fell in love with fate, for obvious, obvious reasons. so so so so so so so so so so in love with fate and time. the plot was just perfect.
and also the moon and the innkeeper. it had this element of sadness (as all the stories did) but i liked how this one did have a "breather" of sorts in their love.

please give the starless sea a try. read it when you have a lot of free time, and if you love poetic stories and beautiful writing you will adore it.
six stars!!!!!!!!!!