Starless Sea Review

Far beneath the surface of the earth,, upon the shores of the Starless Sea, there is a labyrinthine collection of tunnels and rooms filled with stories.....

Sounds lovely doesn't it?

Such is the beginning of the summary for The Starless Sea, Erin Morgenstern's long awaited second novel. Morgenstern is the author of The Night Circus, which earned the number one spot on my list of top five books of 2019. Not only was The Night Circus my favorite book of last year, but it also makes the list of my favorite books of all time.

Sadly, not only did The Starless Sea not live up to the summary, but it did not live up to my personal expectations from Morgenstern.

It was a disappointment to say the least. And it was extremely long, which made for even more disappointment.

The story is told in alternating chapters, each from a different point of view. Then there are fairy tales and fables interwoven as well.. That part didn't bother me so much. It is Morgenstern's style and she did much the same thing with The Night Circus. I do not mind when authors switch point of view, or have alternating storylines throughout, because I know eventually the storylines will intersect and everything will come together at some point. i also know that is often builds suspense because the author is not revealing everything at once. The story is being told from different angles and gives the reader a sense of mystery and suspense.

Here is a little more summary.

Zachary falls into an intoxicating world soaked in.and romance and mystery. But a battle is raging over the fate of this place and though there are those who would willingly sacrifice everything to protect it, there are just as many intent on its destruction. As Zachary, Mirabel and Dorian venture deeper into the space and its histories and myths, searching fro answers and each other, a timeless love story unspools, casting a spell of pirates, painters, lovers, liars, and ships that sail upon the Starless Sea.

See how lovely that sounds?


Anyone who loves to read would be drawn in by that summary. However, other than Morgenstern's writing, nothing else about this book lived up to the descriptive writing.

And there was never any finality to the story that explained what was going on.

In fact I still don't understand what happened in the story. I know nothing more now that I finished than I did at the beginning.

The book is well over 400 pages, and as I said,  I still do not understand it. The main character seemed to be on some kind of journey but he did not know why or what exactly the journey involved.. Every other character he interacted with had some knowledge of what was going on, but none of them ever told him. And so I kept waiting for the story to have the "come together" moment, but it just never happened. Even the ending was odd. There was no wrap up of the story. It felt unfinished.

The one  positive, was of course Morgenstern's writing. She is clearly a gifted writer and has a way of stringing words together that sing to the reader's heart.

Unfortunately that isn't enough to make the story worthwhile. There are only so many dreamy descriptions that you can take without knowing what the meaning of it all is.

As far as the characters go, I liked the main character even though he was kind of being pulled through the story without any clear direction. There were several love storylines going on with different characters but most of them felt rushed and unbelievable. Also, heads up the main character is a homosexual. And there is also another minor character that seemed to be bisexual. There was nothing graphic and I believe Zachary and Dorian only manage to kiss maybe once. I'm honestly still not sure if they did or not.

Despite Dorian being part of the whole "we know what's happening but we won't tell you" attitude and many of their scenes taking place separate from each other, him and Zachary fall in love. Still not sure how you fall in love with someone you barely spend time with and who is clearly hiding something from you, but there was so much I didn't understand about the story so this isn't surprising.

I was disappointed in this book on so many levels, I am unable to even explain it all. After finishing the book, I went back and read the reviews on Goodreads, and many people felt the same way.

I would not recommend it to anyone and I wouldn't purchase this book as a keeper for my bookshelf.