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A review by okiecozyreader
The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
Owls / bees / doors / time / fate / crowns / hearts / feathers / knives / keys (lots of keys, bc there are lots of doors. Lots. Almost 500 pages of lyrical madness - is it real or imagined in a world where time is sometimes time but sometimes not. Under the sea but doors in real places in different times, that come and go.
The book doesn’t have “chapters” but is broken down into 6 books from the library of the Starless Sea:
1 Sweet Sorrows,
2 Fortunes and Fables (p111)
3 The Ballad of Simon and Eleanor (p193)
4 Written in the Stars (p271)
5 The Owl King (p321)
6 The Secret Diary of Katrina Hawkins (p399)
And an Afterward: Something New and Something Next
Within each section, there are multiple stories (that have beautiful headlines), which introduce you to the way things were, the way things are, stories of people and places. There is a modern story line that weaves through all of it of Zachary, who refuses to enter a door he finds as a child, but later finds a book, in which he finds his own story and begins wondering what would have happened if he would have opened it. He is in college, working with Emerging Media with his friend Kat. He looks for all the symbols - the key, the bee, the crown - the heart and finds a masquerade ball at the Algonquin Hotel in NYC - and there his adventure begins.
I read this book is best read within 3 days, to put all of it together; and it took me a couple more than that, but I can see how it’s helpful to have some time and read it in big stretches of time. And there is no skimming. So many details and stories that all relate, but it is a book to be read completely.
“Behind the door is somewhere else… Something more. He knows this. He feels it in his toes.
This is what his mother would call a moment with meaning. A moment that changes the moments that follow.” P12
“You want to decide where to go and what to do and which door to open, but you still want to win the game.”… “choose your own adventure digital novels?” P35
“They find stories tucked in hidden corners and laid out on tables, as thought they had been there always, waiting for their reader to arrive.” P62
“Most who find the space have sought it, even if they never knew that this place was what they had been seeking.” P63
The keepers “feel the buzzing of the bees in their veins. But that was before.
Now there is only one.” P78
“He can never see terribly far in one direction at any time but it feels like it goes on forever. He can’t even think how to describe it. It’s like an art museum and an overflowing library were relocated into a subway system.” P139
“…before the starless darkness claims her once again, she can see the oceans of time that rest between this point and their freedom, clear and wide.
And she sees a way to cross them.” P191
“Do you have a particular favorite (book)? …
I do… “Would you like to read it?” she asks instead of trying to explain it. Books are always better when read rather than explained.” P224
“I think people came here for the same reason we came here,” … “Even if we didn’t know what it was. Something more. Something to wonder at. Someplace to belong. We are here to wander through other people’s stories, searching for our own. To Seeking,” p297
“It is strange…to sit in a place you imagined a thousand times. To have it be all that you thought it might be and more. More details. More sensations. It is stranger still that this place is filled with things he never imagined, as though the inn has been pulled from his mind and embellished by another unseen storyteller.” P384 (a great page to come back to)
“Whatever happens will happen whether I worry about it or not.”… “It will happen whether or not you worry about it, too.” P394
“I gave doors. You chose whether or not you opened them. I don’t write the story, I only nudge it in different directions.”
“Because you’re the story sculptor.”
“I’m just a girl looking for a key.” P469
The book doesn’t have “chapters” but is broken down into 6 books from the library of the Starless Sea:
1 Sweet Sorrows,
2 Fortunes and Fables (p111)
3 The Ballad of Simon and Eleanor (p193)
4 Written in the Stars (p271)
5 The Owl King (p321)
6 The Secret Diary of Katrina Hawkins (p399)
And an Afterward: Something New and Something Next
Within each section, there are multiple stories (that have beautiful headlines), which introduce you to the way things were, the way things are, stories of people and places. There is a modern story line that weaves through all of it of Zachary, who refuses to enter a door he finds as a child, but later finds a book, in which he finds his own story and begins wondering what would have happened if he would have opened it. He is in college, working with Emerging Media with his friend Kat. He looks for all the symbols - the key, the bee, the crown - the heart and finds a masquerade ball at the Algonquin Hotel in NYC - and there his adventure begins.
I read this book is best read within 3 days, to put all of it together; and it took me a couple more than that, but I can see how it’s helpful to have some time and read it in big stretches of time. And there is no skimming. So many details and stories that all relate, but it is a book to be read completely.
“Behind the door is somewhere else… Something more. He knows this. He feels it in his toes.
This is what his mother would call a moment with meaning. A moment that changes the moments that follow.” P12
“You want to decide where to go and what to do and which door to open, but you still want to win the game.”… “choose your own adventure digital novels?” P35
“They find stories tucked in hidden corners and laid out on tables, as thought they had been there always, waiting for their reader to arrive.” P62
“Most who find the space have sought it, even if they never knew that this place was what they had been seeking.” P63
The keepers “feel the buzzing of the bees in their veins. But that was before.
Now there is only one.” P78
“He can never see terribly far in one direction at any time but it feels like it goes on forever. He can’t even think how to describe it. It’s like an art museum and an overflowing library were relocated into a subway system.” P139
“…before the starless darkness claims her once again, she can see the oceans of time that rest between this point and their freedom, clear and wide.
And she sees a way to cross them.” P191
“Do you have a particular favorite (book)? …
I do… “Would you like to read it?” she asks instead of trying to explain it. Books are always better when read rather than explained.” P224
“I think people came here for the same reason we came here,” … “Even if we didn’t know what it was. Something more. Something to wonder at. Someplace to belong. We are here to wander through other people’s stories, searching for our own. To Seeking,” p297
“It is strange…to sit in a place you imagined a thousand times. To have it be all that you thought it might be and more. More details. More sensations. It is stranger still that this place is filled with things he never imagined, as though the inn has been pulled from his mind and embellished by another unseen storyteller.” P384 (a great page to come back to)
“Whatever happens will happen whether I worry about it or not.”… “It will happen whether or not you worry about it, too.” P394
“I gave doors. You chose whether or not you opened them. I don’t write the story, I only nudge it in different directions.”
“Because you’re the story sculptor.”
“I’m just a girl looking for a key.” P469