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A review by brandidean
The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern
5.0
Five stars may be a little bit of a stretch, but what was good was soooo good that I’m rounding up.
This was so dreamy. The writing was gorgeous. And it was all about stories and books, which I love. The construction and intricacy of how the pieces wove together reminded me of Cloud Atlas, and the story itself reminded me of Haroun and the Sea of Stories.
I was not sure at first. I was so looking forward to it, based on Night Circus, and I liked the first several chapters a lot. But by about ... almost halfway in, probably ... the back and forth was starting to wear a bit. I loved the Zach story, but having every other chapter be different, seemingly random short stories was getting a little frustrating. I liked them as far as they went, but I figured they must have some symbolism and I wasn’t getting it.
But right around the halfway point some of the pieces started coming together and I realized how the story worked and I just adored it from there ... not quite on. Until about the last 40 or 50 pages. It could be because I went from reading in large chunks on the weekend, to reading as much as I could before falling asleep on weeknights. But the ending went a little over the top, in my opinion. And a little longer than it needed to. And I am *just* finishing it, so I bet questions will keep occurring to me, but one right now is ... What was the Owl King? Did I miss that piece falling into place somewhere? There was the story about the princess’ daughter who goes to live with him, and then a couple of sightings after that, but I don’t think that was every explained explicitly enough for me.
This was so dreamy. The writing was gorgeous. And it was all about stories and books, which I love. The construction and intricacy of how the pieces wove together reminded me of Cloud Atlas, and the story itself reminded me of Haroun and the Sea of Stories.
I was not sure at first. I was so looking forward to it, based on Night Circus, and I liked the first several chapters a lot. But by about ... almost halfway in, probably ... the back and forth was starting to wear a bit. I loved the Zach story, but having every other chapter be different, seemingly random short stories was getting a little frustrating. I liked them as far as they went, but I figured they must have some symbolism and I wasn’t getting it.
But right around the halfway point some of the pieces started coming together and I realized how the story worked and I just adored it from there ... not quite on. Until about the last 40 or 50 pages. It could be because I went from reading in large chunks on the weekend, to reading as much as I could before falling asleep on weeknights. But the ending went a little over the top, in my opinion. And a little longer than it needed to. And I am *just* finishing it, so I bet questions will keep occurring to me, but one right now is ... What was the Owl King? Did I miss that piece falling into place somewhere? There was the story about the princess’ daughter who goes to live with him, and then a couple of sightings after that, but I don’t think that was every explained explicitly enough for me.