discovers a mysterious book hidden in the stacks. As he turns the pages, entranced by tales of lovelorn prisoners, key collectors, and nameless acolytes, he reads something strange: a story from his own childhood. Bewildered by this inexplicable book and desperate to make sense of how his own life came to be recorded, Zachary uncovers a series of clues—a bee, a key, and a sword—that lead him to a masquerade party in New York, to a secret club, and through a doorway to an ancient library hidden far below the surface of the earth. What Zachary finds in this curious place is more than just a buried home for books and their guardians—it is a place of lost cities and seas, lovers who pass notes under doors and across time, and of stories whispered by the dead. Zachary learns of those who have sacrificed much to protect this realm, relinquishing their sight and their tongues to preserve this archive, and also of those who are intent on its destruction. Together with Mirabel, a fierce, pink-haired protector of the place, and Dorian, a handsome, barefoot man with shifting alliances, Zachary travels the twisting tunnels, darkened stairwells, crowded ballrooms, and sweetly soaked shores of this magical world, discovering his purpose—in both the mysterious book and in his own life."
The Starless Sea is a love letter to literature, story telling as a whole and to those of us dogged with the invisible burden of unbelonging that sends us out into the pages in search of solace. The writing is truly stunning. Morgenstern's prose is fluid, memorable and painfully beautiful. It kind of reminds me of Laini Taylor's newer works. The overall aesthetic is just spot on too, I wanted to climb into the book multiple times just from the sheer beautifulness of everything being described.
The Starless Sea starts with a fascinating inciting incident. This guy named Zachary finds an old book at his library that tells his story. On a quest to discover why this book tells his story, Zachary soon finds himself in this magical library/world with some magical people.
However, what follows is a disappointing series of seemingly endless fish-out-of-water scenes as Zachary bumbles along, trying to make sense of this magical place. But even when things started to "come together" in the last 100 pages or so, I still had no idea what was going on. I constantly asked "but what is the point?" while reading this book and never, even at the end, got a satisfactory answer. Who are the Owls, who are the bees, why does the starless sea exist, why does it rise or sink? There was also no antagonist or central conflict. Again, I'm utterly confounded. Without an antagonist or a cohesive plot I am reading beautiful meaningless prose.
But I am going to shock everyone now... I didn't mind being confused hugely. I think each person could read this book and come away with a hugely differing moral or take. Maybe the bees are God, maybe they are the first story tellers and stories make the world? Who knows? Maybe that was Morgenstern's point. Maybe this is a prolonged show of the mailability of stories and their meanings. If so she was very brave and I can see this being incredibly frustrating for many readers, myself occasionally included.
However the one thing that did really grate on me was the irritating love story. I didn't buy Zachary and Dorian's relationship for a second. They kind of saved each other's lives once or twice, but never had any time to develop a deep connection. They spent an evening drinking wine and reading together, (and by "reading together" I mean reading different books in the same room together) but had no other significant interactions. They never flirted or talked to each other more than a few sentences. Then all of a sudden Dorian confesses to Zachery very dramatically. Uh, what??!? At this point in the book, I wasn't even sure that Dorian was into men and liked Zachary, let alone was in love with him. It is hinted at that Zachary and Dorian are meant to be together because of some prophetic nonsense, but my god, what a cop out. Throw some scenes of them getting to know each other with some cute banter in this huge book so that I can believe they are in love.
Age Rating 14+ Nothing inappropriate.
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