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A review by ayla_derammelaere
The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
This is a very strange book to read : it starts with a small selection of different short stories but the more you read, the more they become connected to each other.
The ending of the book, reminded me a bit of 'the neverending story' : all stories must have an ending, all people must have a name and above all : we need to belief in magic and in ourselves.
Next, there will be a big selection of quotes from the book, accompanied by thoughts of me while reading it (so some ideas have been (dis)proved along the way... :
"The contemplation is thought to be silent, but of those who allow themselves to be locked away in the stone-walled room, some will realize that no one can hear them. They can talk or yell or scream and it violates no rules. The contemplation is only thought to be silent by those who have never been inside the room." - Erin Morgenstern
-> this makes me think about the question 'when a tree falls in the woods and there is no one to hear it fall, does it makes a sound ?
-> I wonder how many ideas / thoughts we have that are actually based on assumptions and only the ones who have the experience, know the truth but they don't tell, you'll need to experience it yourself
"Once the contemplation has ended they have the opportunity to leave their path. To choose another path or no path at all.
...
She had never liked her singing voice but in her captivity free of embarressment and expectation she sang, softly at first but then brightly and boldly. The voice that the echo returned to her ears was surprisingly pleasant." - Erin Morgenstern
-> I always love it when an author can describe a feeling and growth without needing to write down that this is what happened ; everyone in contemplation is stuck there with themselves and the question is (I think) if you are capable to spend time with yourself, get to know yourself, accept yourself without judgement ; can you follow the path to enlightment and find yourself or do you prefer ignorance
"Once her tongue has been taken and burned and turned to ash, once the ceremony is complete and her servitude as an acolyte officially begins, once her voice has been muted, then her ears awaken. Then the stories begin to come." - Erin Morgenster
-> I wonder why it is a secret that the bee is burned into their chest but not the taking of the tongue..
-> I feel like this is almost the opposite of the time in contemplation : all she had, was her own voice and mind and now she gave that up willingly to become the 'ultimate' servant, living only in service of the stories without becoming a story yourself..
" "If it's a problem..." Zachary starts, though he trails off, hoping that she'll just let him take it. He feels oddly possessive about the book already." - Erin Morgenstern
-> I had to smile here : I absolutly know this feeling : when I find a book I want to read, no one should try to take it away from me
"Because while the first part of the book is a somewhat romantic bit about a pirate, and the second involves a ceremony with an acolyte in a strange underground library, the third part is something else entirely.
The third part is about him." - Erin Morgenstern
-> I loved this moment ! I had the same remarks as him while reading (will the story circle back to the pirate, is this a story within a story -> obviously the intention of the author) and then there came this 'neverending story'-moment where the story is about the one reading the book. I didn't see it coming and it really made me happy
"Zachary reaches the end of the page and turns it, expecting his story to continue but it does not. The narrative shifts entirely again, to something about a dollhouse." - Erin Morgenstern
-> I stopped reading here and was in shock, I truly thought his story would continue here.. and then I did something I almost never do but I turned the page to see whether the story would continue about him or not and stared strangely at the word 'dollhouse'... this book is written in such a good way of anticipating what readers will think and do
"No, not a library, a book-centric fantasia that Zachary missed his invitation to because he didn't open a painted door when he was eleven.
Apparently he went around looking for the wrong imaginary entryways." - Erin Morgenstern
-> I felt really sad at this point.. it reminds me of all the people nowadays who wished there was something as receiving a school-invitation brought to you by an owl, as a hidden doorway to Narnia, as a secret garden,... so many of us who miss magic in our lives and are looking for it and we all are so often afraid we missed it..
"(To destroy the book, no matter how distasteful or offensive or badly written, is to fail the test.)" - Erin Morgenstern
-> as I said : books are holy
"The door is delighted to be knocked upon after so long.
And the door - though it is mere pieces of what it once was - remembers where it used to lead. It remembers how to open." - Erin Morgenstern
-> I like this idea that every door has a fixed place to where it opens, as if the door and place are connected instead of the door changing it's destination whenever it is place in a new place
-> I've always wondered what happened with the families of those who fall into Wonderland.. do they forget they once had a daughter/son/.. who dissapeared ? Do they keep searching ? It makes a big difference if you are forgotten once you leave or if you are remembered
"Little distinguishes them from regular doors. Some are simple. Others are elaborately decorated. Most have doorknobs waiting to be turned though others have handles to be pulled.
These doors will sing. Silent siren songs for those who seei what lies behind them.
For those who feel homesick for a place they've never been to.
Those who seek even if they do not know what (or where) it is that they are seeking.
Those who seek will find.
Their doors have been waiting for them." - Erin Morgenstern
-> does this mean there is 1 door for 1 specific person ? Or can anyone use the door ? In case only 1 person can use the door, then it reminds me of a story Franz Kafka wrote, about all of us having a door to our destiny and if we fail to go through it, we 'used' our whole life in waiting for our destiny to happen
-> the doors all lead to the Starless Sea, does that mean you can use the doors to travel ?
"But the world is strange and endings are not truly endings no matter how the stars might wish it so." - Erin Morgenstern
-> such a beautiful sentence..
The story of the love between Fate and Time and the horrible ending of Fate (being replace by Chance) is such a beautiful and sad and wise story. I love all these hidden stories withing the 'larger' story ; they feel like finding little gems in a crowded place..
" "Yes, I have questions," Zachary says, louder than he means to. "Who the hell are you, anyway ? Where did you comes from ? Why can't you do this yourself ? What's so important about this particular book and who are these people really and what did the mouse do with Fate's heart ? Who is Mirabel and at what point during all this covert activity am I allowed to go back to my hotel to get my face windows ? Eyeglasses. Spectacles." " - Erin Morgenstern
-> I love how even with all these questions and anxiety that must be building up, he still wants to know the end of the story about Fate and Time ; unfinished stories always keep playing in my mind as well
"What are you doing ? a voice in his head asks and he doesn't have a good answer for it. Doesn't know what or why or even where, exactly, because he forgot to check the street sign on the corner. He could keep walking, hail a cab, return to his hotel. But he wants his book back. And he wants to know what happens next." - Erin Morgenstern
-> I'm very much in doubt at this point : is Dorian really 'a bee' and is he testing Zachary and are 'the swords' in on this thievery ? Did 'the swords' become bad and do 'the bees' need to stop them from returning to the Starless Sea ? ...
-> I absolutly know the feeling of needing to know what comes next : even a 'bad book' I can not put aside but I need to finish since you never know what might happen
"But what Zachary cannot help but stare at are the doorless doorknobs hanging on either side of the hall." - Erin Morgenstern
-> why would they collect doorknobs ? Do they try to close doors forever ? Are they hunting the people who can open doors and keeping the doorknobs as trophies ?
" "Do you know how simple it is to destroy a door made of paint ?"
"How simple ?"
"As simple as throwing more paint on it, and they always have paint." " - Erin Morgenstern
-> is this why the walls in the alley to his house, had new paint on them all the time ?
I love the story of the key collector ; I love how he collects lost things (keys) and keeps them safe, not to keep them but to have them all gathered together so when someone is looking for a key they lost, they know where to go and look for it. He doesn't want anything in return, just : "It is my pleasure to help reunite you with your locked-away thing."
"He takes a book from one of the shelves, recalling a story that was probably a 'twilight zone' episode : so much to read and no eyeglasses. He flips the book open to a random page anyway and the printed words are crisp and clear." - Erin Morgenstern
-> one of the things I truly miss, is no longer being able to read without glasses.. I loved the freedom of waking up and looking at titles and remembering stories, of just picking up a book and read instead of putting on glasses first, as if the glass creates an obstacle between my brain and the words..
"The girl spends one night, and then another. By the end of the second night she can see the ghosts again. By the third she has no desire to leave, for who would leave their home once they had found it ?" - Erin Morgenstern
-> this is so beautiful and true.. one of the things so many people are looking for, is a place where we are safe, where we can be who we are,.. a place to call home and when you've been looking for it for so long, you don't want to leave for this gift is the greatest gift you can find and give yourself
"There was a knight, like the shining-armor type. Many people loved him but he never loved any of them in return and he felt badly about all the hearts he broke so he carved a heart on his skin for each broken one. Rows and rows of scarred hearts on his arms and his legs and across his chest. Then he met someone he wasn't expecting and..." - Erin Morgenstern
-> this reminds me of a song by Natasha Bedingfield where she sings : "My skin is like a map of where my heart has been."... so much guilt and sadness and self-punishment for something that you can not change or force...
" "Do you want to know the secret to surviving once you've gone down the rabbit hole ?"
Zachary nods and Mirabel leans forward. Her eyes are ringed with gold.
"Be a rabbit," she whispers." - Erin Morgenstern
-> is this what went wrong with Alice, why she left Wonderland : she remained Alice and didn't become a rabbit ?
"Book places tend to be more receptive to doors, I think it's because of the high concentration of stories all in one place." - Erin Morgenstern
-> I guess this is true : not with real doors but with doors in our mind : the more stories we gather, the more stories we save, the more stories we know and the more we want to know and the more they all become connected, stories and people alike
How I loved the short story about the 2 travellers or the Moon and the Sun, depending on what name you want to give them. Waiting for eons to spent one day/night together (does time even exist without the Sun and the Moon ?). I love that the Moon loves the man as well, but she can not stay and she can not explain, she can only give him herself for a limited time
I love the Story Sculptor and I am so sad of what happened to her ; taking away an artist means of creating.. I guess she can still find a new way to create since she still has her imagination.. I wonder if this book is the Story she sculpted to hide the secret..
"Simon is an only child, his name inherited from an older brother who died at birth. He is a replacement. He sometimes wonders it he is living someone else's life, wearing someone else's shoes and someone else's name." - Erin Morgenstern
-> it is such an aweful thing to do to a child ; you can not replace a dead child with a living one and by giving him his dead siblings name, they rob him from the chance to be who he is since they will always compare him to a made-up dream-version of a lost son.. he will never know (neither will his parents probably) if they also wanted him or only his brother...
" "It's nonsense," Simon declares. "You're playing at something. One does not simply dissapear for moments and claimnm to be vanished for months on end. Here, I'll show you." - Erin Morgenstern
-> I love how the doors not only connect different places but also different times ; I guess the main thing that is needed, is that there books..
The ballad of Simon and Eleanor is such a heartbreaking story.. she has no memory of who she used to be, created a make-belief life and personality for herself and then finds love in the past, no possibility to go back in time once the door is closed.. I fell in love with someone from the past and after reading this story, I am so happy that we are not that far apart so Time can not keep us from being together (yet).
I still wonder why Mirabel is the only one born down there and why this enchanting place dediced to name her that way.
"There are so many pieces to a person. So many small stories and so few opportunities to read them. "I would like to look at you" seems like such an awkward request." " - Erin Morgenstern
-> such an intruiging way to describe a person but so very true
" "I think people came here for the same reason we came here," Dorian says. "In search of something. Even if we didn't know what it was. Something more. Something to wonder at. Someplace to belong. We're here to wander through other people's stories, searching for our own. To Seeking." - Erin Morgenstern
-> too many lost people and the more hectic time becomes, the more of us are lost and seeking... sometimes we belong at a place, sometimes we belong with another human
"...ever since the last time the painter was here, before she was ever called the painter, when she was just Allegra, a then young woman who found a door and went through it and didn't come back. Until now." - Erin Morgenstern
-> I'm in shock : I had no idea she was an acolyte.. I thought she used to be a guardian who changed the way she thought 'keeping safe' ment..
"Why only the two of them are here in a room filled with loss and books. Why everything that was crumbling before is broken now and why only the floor seems to be repairable." - Erin Morgenstern
-> this seems like words you can write on a tombstone.. so much sadness and not understanding and disbelief and..
I love the origin-story of the Keeper and Mirabel. I didn't recognize them in the story of the pirate but it makes sense now (I thought they were the Moon and Sun hence there is darkness at the Starless Sea). It is so beautiful that they keep ending up together (true love) and very heartbreaking that he keeps seeing her die.. I truly hope she'll find a way to change that so they can be happy together forever
"I used to be a rabbit. I'm not anymore. I don't need to be. It's never too late to change what you are, it took me a long time to figure that out." - Erin Morgenstern
-> this has a very special meaning to me : my last name is partly the name we give to male rabbits ; I never liked my name and for the past years, I felt like it isn't mine anymore, I feel no connection to it
" "Thank you for seeing me when other people looked through me like I was a ghost," Eleanor says and an unexpected sob catches in Dorian's throat." - Erin Morgenstern
-> I think this is the most beautiful compliment you can give someone
" "We are the stars," he answers, as though it is the most obvious of facts afloat in a sea of metaphors and misdirections. "We are all stardust and stories." - Erin Morgenstern
-> I am still very confused about how all the characters are linked to the stories and how some characters, I think, are more than 1 person and/or story
" "Changed how ?" Zachary says. Simon looks at him blankly. "How has the story changed ?" he clarifies, gesturing upward at the pages and the statues, worried by Simon's behaviour and even more concerned about the way everything keeps repeating and becoming more confusing when it should be getting clearer." - Erin Morgenstern
-> at this point, this is exactly how I feel..
"But anyway, this hidden kingdom was kept alive in that magical fairy-tale way and in the same way that it would sing to people who needed to find it for sanctuary purposes it started whispering for someone to come and destroy it. The space found its own loopholes and worked its own spells, so it could have an ending." - Erin Morgenstern
-> I never really thought about it but it does makes sense : everything needs to have an ending, it's what makes something (someone) valuable
The ending of the book, reminded me a bit of 'the neverending story' : all stories must have an ending, all people must have a name and above all : we need to belief in magic and in ourselves.
Next, there will be a big selection of quotes from the book, accompanied by thoughts of me while reading it (so some ideas have been (dis)proved along the way... :
"The contemplation is thought to be silent, but of those who allow themselves to be locked away in the stone-walled room, some will realize that no one can hear them. They can talk or yell or scream and it violates no rules. The contemplation is only thought to be silent by those who have never been inside the room." - Erin Morgenstern
-> this makes me think about the question 'when a tree falls in the woods and there is no one to hear it fall, does it makes a sound ?
-> I wonder how many ideas / thoughts we have that are actually based on assumptions and only the ones who have the experience, know the truth but they don't tell, you'll need to experience it yourself
"Once the contemplation has ended they have the opportunity to leave their path. To choose another path or no path at all.
...
She had never liked her singing voice but in her captivity free of embarressment and expectation she sang, softly at first but then brightly and boldly. The voice that the echo returned to her ears was surprisingly pleasant." - Erin Morgenstern
-> I always love it when an author can describe a feeling and growth without needing to write down that this is what happened ; everyone in contemplation is stuck there with themselves and the question is (I think) if you are capable to spend time with yourself, get to know yourself, accept yourself without judgement ; can you follow the path to enlightment and find yourself or do you prefer ignorance
"Once her tongue has been taken and burned and turned to ash, once the ceremony is complete and her servitude as an acolyte officially begins, once her voice has been muted, then her ears awaken. Then the stories begin to come." - Erin Morgenster
-> I wonder why it is a secret that the bee is burned into their chest but not the taking of the tongue..
-> I feel like this is almost the opposite of the time in contemplation : all she had, was her own voice and mind and now she gave that up willingly to become the 'ultimate' servant, living only in service of the stories without becoming a story yourself..
" "If it's a problem..." Zachary starts, though he trails off, hoping that she'll just let him take it. He feels oddly possessive about the book already." - Erin Morgenstern
-> I had to smile here : I absolutly know this feeling : when I find a book I want to read, no one should try to take it away from me
"Because while the first part of the book is a somewhat romantic bit about a pirate, and the second involves a ceremony with an acolyte in a strange underground library, the third part is something else entirely.
The third part is about him." - Erin Morgenstern
-> I loved this moment ! I had the same remarks as him while reading (will the story circle back to the pirate, is this a story within a story -> obviously the intention of the author) and then there came this 'neverending story'-moment where the story is about the one reading the book. I didn't see it coming and it really made me happy
"Zachary reaches the end of the page and turns it, expecting his story to continue but it does not. The narrative shifts entirely again, to something about a dollhouse." - Erin Morgenstern
-> I stopped reading here and was in shock, I truly thought his story would continue here.. and then I did something I almost never do but I turned the page to see whether the story would continue about him or not and stared strangely at the word 'dollhouse'... this book is written in such a good way of anticipating what readers will think and do
"No, not a library, a book-centric fantasia that Zachary missed his invitation to because he didn't open a painted door when he was eleven.
Apparently he went around looking for the wrong imaginary entryways." - Erin Morgenstern
-> I felt really sad at this point.. it reminds me of all the people nowadays who wished there was something as receiving a school-invitation brought to you by an owl, as a hidden doorway to Narnia, as a secret garden,... so many of us who miss magic in our lives and are looking for it and we all are so often afraid we missed it..
"(To destroy the book, no matter how distasteful or offensive or badly written, is to fail the test.)" - Erin Morgenstern
-> as I said : books are holy
"The door is delighted to be knocked upon after so long.
And the door - though it is mere pieces of what it once was - remembers where it used to lead. It remembers how to open." - Erin Morgenstern
-> I like this idea that every door has a fixed place to where it opens, as if the door and place are connected instead of the door changing it's destination whenever it is place in a new place
-> I've always wondered what happened with the families of those who fall into Wonderland.. do they forget they once had a daughter/son/.. who dissapeared ? Do they keep searching ? It makes a big difference if you are forgotten once you leave or if you are remembered
"Little distinguishes them from regular doors. Some are simple. Others are elaborately decorated. Most have doorknobs waiting to be turned though others have handles to be pulled.
These doors will sing. Silent siren songs for those who seei what lies behind them.
For those who feel homesick for a place they've never been to.
Those who seek even if they do not know what (or where) it is that they are seeking.
Those who seek will find.
Their doors have been waiting for them." - Erin Morgenstern
-> does this mean there is 1 door for 1 specific person ? Or can anyone use the door ? In case only 1 person can use the door, then it reminds me of a story Franz Kafka wrote, about all of us having a door to our destiny and if we fail to go through it, we 'used' our whole life in waiting for our destiny to happen
-> the doors all lead to the Starless Sea, does that mean you can use the doors to travel ?
"But the world is strange and endings are not truly endings no matter how the stars might wish it so." - Erin Morgenstern
-> such a beautiful sentence..
The story of the love between Fate and Time and the horrible ending of Fate (being replace by Chance) is such a beautiful and sad and wise story. I love all these hidden stories withing the 'larger' story ; they feel like finding little gems in a crowded place..
" "Yes, I have questions," Zachary says, louder than he means to. "Who the hell are you, anyway ? Where did you comes from ? Why can't you do this yourself ? What's so important about this particular book and who are these people really and what did the mouse do with Fate's heart ? Who is Mirabel and at what point during all this covert activity am I allowed to go back to my hotel to get my face windows ? Eyeglasses. Spectacles." " - Erin Morgenstern
-> I love how even with all these questions and anxiety that must be building up, he still wants to know the end of the story about Fate and Time ; unfinished stories always keep playing in my mind as well
"What are you doing ? a voice in his head asks and he doesn't have a good answer for it. Doesn't know what or why or even where, exactly, because he forgot to check the street sign on the corner. He could keep walking, hail a cab, return to his hotel. But he wants his book back. And he wants to know what happens next." - Erin Morgenstern
-> I'm very much in doubt at this point : is Dorian really 'a bee' and is he testing Zachary and are 'the swords' in on this thievery ? Did 'the swords' become bad and do 'the bees' need to stop them from returning to the Starless Sea ? ...
-> I absolutly know the feeling of needing to know what comes next : even a 'bad book' I can not put aside but I need to finish since you never know what might happen
"But what Zachary cannot help but stare at are the doorless doorknobs hanging on either side of the hall." - Erin Morgenstern
-> why would they collect doorknobs ? Do they try to close doors forever ? Are they hunting the people who can open doors and keeping the doorknobs as trophies ?
" "Do you know how simple it is to destroy a door made of paint ?"
"How simple ?"
"As simple as throwing more paint on it, and they always have paint." " - Erin Morgenstern
-> is this why the walls in the alley to his house, had new paint on them all the time ?
I love the story of the key collector ; I love how he collects lost things (keys) and keeps them safe, not to keep them but to have them all gathered together so when someone is looking for a key they lost, they know where to go and look for it. He doesn't want anything in return, just : "It is my pleasure to help reunite you with your locked-away thing."
"He takes a book from one of the shelves, recalling a story that was probably a 'twilight zone' episode : so much to read and no eyeglasses. He flips the book open to a random page anyway and the printed words are crisp and clear." - Erin Morgenstern
-> one of the things I truly miss, is no longer being able to read without glasses.. I loved the freedom of waking up and looking at titles and remembering stories, of just picking up a book and read instead of putting on glasses first, as if the glass creates an obstacle between my brain and the words..
"The girl spends one night, and then another. By the end of the second night she can see the ghosts again. By the third she has no desire to leave, for who would leave their home once they had found it ?" - Erin Morgenstern
-> this is so beautiful and true.. one of the things so many people are looking for, is a place where we are safe, where we can be who we are,.. a place to call home and when you've been looking for it for so long, you don't want to leave for this gift is the greatest gift you can find and give yourself
"There was a knight, like the shining-armor type. Many people loved him but he never loved any of them in return and he felt badly about all the hearts he broke so he carved a heart on his skin for each broken one. Rows and rows of scarred hearts on his arms and his legs and across his chest. Then he met someone he wasn't expecting and..." - Erin Morgenstern
-> this reminds me of a song by Natasha Bedingfield where she sings : "My skin is like a map of where my heart has been."... so much guilt and sadness and self-punishment for something that you can not change or force...
" "Do you want to know the secret to surviving once you've gone down the rabbit hole ?"
Zachary nods and Mirabel leans forward. Her eyes are ringed with gold.
"Be a rabbit," she whispers." - Erin Morgenstern
-> is this what went wrong with Alice, why she left Wonderland : she remained Alice and didn't become a rabbit ?
"Book places tend to be more receptive to doors, I think it's because of the high concentration of stories all in one place." - Erin Morgenstern
-> I guess this is true : not with real doors but with doors in our mind : the more stories we gather, the more stories we save, the more stories we know and the more we want to know and the more they all become connected, stories and people alike
How I loved the short story about the 2 travellers or the Moon and the Sun, depending on what name you want to give them. Waiting for eons to spent one day/night together (does time even exist without the Sun and the Moon ?). I love that the Moon loves the man as well, but she can not stay and she can not explain, she can only give him herself for a limited time
I love the Story Sculptor and I am so sad of what happened to her ; taking away an artist means of creating.. I guess she can still find a new way to create since she still has her imagination.. I wonder if this book is the Story she sculpted to hide the secret..
"Simon is an only child, his name inherited from an older brother who died at birth. He is a replacement. He sometimes wonders it he is living someone else's life, wearing someone else's shoes and someone else's name." - Erin Morgenstern
-> it is such an aweful thing to do to a child ; you can not replace a dead child with a living one and by giving him his dead siblings name, they rob him from the chance to be who he is since they will always compare him to a made-up dream-version of a lost son.. he will never know (neither will his parents probably) if they also wanted him or only his brother...
" "It's nonsense," Simon declares. "You're playing at something. One does not simply dissapear for moments and claimnm to be vanished for months on end. Here, I'll show you." - Erin Morgenstern
-> I love how the doors not only connect different places but also different times ; I guess the main thing that is needed, is that there books..
The ballad of Simon and Eleanor is such a heartbreaking story.. she has no memory of who she used to be, created a make-belief life and personality for herself and then finds love in the past, no possibility to go back in time once the door is closed.. I fell in love with someone from the past and after reading this story, I am so happy that we are not that far apart so Time can not keep us from being together (yet).
I still wonder why Mirabel is the only one born down there and why this enchanting place dediced to name her that way.
"There are so many pieces to a person. So many small stories and so few opportunities to read them. "I would like to look at you" seems like such an awkward request." " - Erin Morgenstern
-> such an intruiging way to describe a person but so very true
" "I think people came here for the same reason we came here," Dorian says. "In search of something. Even if we didn't know what it was. Something more. Something to wonder at. Someplace to belong. We're here to wander through other people's stories, searching for our own. To Seeking." - Erin Morgenstern
-> too many lost people and the more hectic time becomes, the more of us are lost and seeking... sometimes we belong at a place, sometimes we belong with another human
"...ever since the last time the painter was here, before she was ever called the painter, when she was just Allegra, a then young woman who found a door and went through it and didn't come back. Until now." - Erin Morgenstern
-> I'm in shock : I had no idea she was an acolyte.. I thought she used to be a guardian who changed the way she thought 'keeping safe' ment..
"Why only the two of them are here in a room filled with loss and books. Why everything that was crumbling before is broken now and why only the floor seems to be repairable." - Erin Morgenstern
-> this seems like words you can write on a tombstone.. so much sadness and not understanding and disbelief and..
I love the origin-story of the Keeper and Mirabel. I didn't recognize them in the story of the pirate but it makes sense now (I thought they were the Moon and Sun hence there is darkness at the Starless Sea). It is so beautiful that they keep ending up together (true love) and very heartbreaking that he keeps seeing her die.. I truly hope she'll find a way to change that so they can be happy together forever
"I used to be a rabbit. I'm not anymore. I don't need to be. It's never too late to change what you are, it took me a long time to figure that out." - Erin Morgenstern
-> this has a very special meaning to me : my last name is partly the name we give to male rabbits ; I never liked my name and for the past years, I felt like it isn't mine anymore, I feel no connection to it
" "Thank you for seeing me when other people looked through me like I was a ghost," Eleanor says and an unexpected sob catches in Dorian's throat." - Erin Morgenstern
-> I think this is the most beautiful compliment you can give someone
" "We are the stars," he answers, as though it is the most obvious of facts afloat in a sea of metaphors and misdirections. "We are all stardust and stories." - Erin Morgenstern
-> I am still very confused about how all the characters are linked to the stories and how some characters, I think, are more than 1 person and/or story
" "Changed how ?" Zachary says. Simon looks at him blankly. "How has the story changed ?" he clarifies, gesturing upward at the pages and the statues, worried by Simon's behaviour and even more concerned about the way everything keeps repeating and becoming more confusing when it should be getting clearer." - Erin Morgenstern
-> at this point, this is exactly how I feel..
"But anyway, this hidden kingdom was kept alive in that magical fairy-tale way and in the same way that it would sing to people who needed to find it for sanctuary purposes it started whispering for someone to come and destroy it. The space found its own loopholes and worked its own spells, so it could have an ending." - Erin Morgenstern
-> I never really thought about it but it does makes sense : everything needs to have an ending, it's what makes something (someone) valuable