Okay so let me start off by saying that I meant to make a post when I got half way through the book, calling it “Intermission Impression” or “The Halfway Spill” or “Sip Stop” but my Bestie wanted to play video games so that took priority.

It took my nine days to read this novel and each day I found myself spending more and more time wanting to read and less time getting to actually read. But I take that as a sign that this books was really good. The novel is the sophomore novel written by Erin Morgenstern with her debut being The Night Circus, which I think is in my top 5 books that I have had the pleasure of reading. When going into this novel I was unsure what to expect because when I heard people talking about it I got such a mix of ideas.

“Its a book about books” – “Its a book and a video game in one” – “It is a romance” – “It’s a wild ride and I did not understand everything but I loved every second”.

And yes all of these little descriptions are true but also in no way truly unravels or give hints to what the book is about. And when I look at the description on Goodreads, I felt I was going to read the adventure of a lifetime. Where the main character stumbles on this secret haven of books and stories while also falling in love with a questionable character, and again, yes that happened but it was so much more than that. But lets get into it.

Beware Spoilers Below

Let’s Digest

The story revolves around Zachary Ezra Rawlins, a man studying in his master’s program when he finds the book Sweet Sorrow a book with no author or publication or trackable history. Zachary, never Zack, starts to read and find a story about himself. A young boy standing in front of a painted door in an ally way that was a moment of meaning but a moment he did not pursue in that time.

The book does what I loved so much in The Night Circus, it breaks between the main story and something else. And in this case we get to the read some of the stories that are in the books that Zachary is reading. The book is filled with beautiful stories that at first seem disconnected but as we keep reading there is a weaving themes and characters to eventually make it one piece of story that is told in many ways. At first the story is about a man that stumbles on a book but it becomes an adventure but also self discovery and almost like a fairy tale with hidden meanings and such.

I feel like the book had 3 acts. Act 1 is the discovery and Act 2 is acclimation and Act 3 is decisions. Act 1 I talk a lot about in Taste Test 1 – The Starless Sea which is where we learn the main character and we meet Dorian and Mirabel and Kat. We are met with questions such as what is the book he found and we start to open our eyes to the concept of The Starless Sea. The writing of Morgenstern is what drives the book forward as the plot is slow, just Zachary finding answers to questions he does not know to even ask.

Act 1 includes the party that Zachary went to and thus was the beginning of his proper adventure. A literary party is something that has only been in my dreams and is something that I want to attend, maybe at a BookCon. the scene introduced Dorian in a oddly hot way as he took the role of sexy story reader in a dark room. Like that was not on my list of things I thought I would find appealing but I stand to learn new things about myself frequently. The whole chapter I was on the edge of my seat because I knew Zachary was about experience something and fall down his own rabbit hole. So when it ended with the card with the bee on the back I was screaming.

Once Dorian joins the story the pace of the novels shift quickly. Prior to him I felt like I was going down a lazy river made of honey, slow and steady. I was enjoying the sights and then he joins at the waters loosen and become more a rapid for a while. Act 1 ended in giving me more questions and answers that only lead to more questions but I think that was the part that I loved so much, I just kept falling into the story and I was only looking for more rather than jumping ship.

Act 2: Acclimation is where we finally get to the Starless Sea and we get to see the magic behind this labyrinth of books and stories. We have a magical kitchen and a Keeper that seems to never change. But it begins with Zachary rolling the dice and getting 6 hearts. I can’t follow the story here because it is a long time until we learn what these mean but it makes so much sense (partly, I feel like as the book went on I kept losing myself) Six hearts: Zachary is the heart of the story, the one to change it. Zachary finds his heart in Dorian, and is given the heart of Fate. He helps Simon with his story which will maybe bring him to Eleanor, and he helps bring together Time and Fate. Lastly he is the son of the fortune teller, Madame Love Rawlins. We are told the dice are like a litmus test telling us who the person would be and I think that makes sense.

Something else that I wanted to look into was the Six of Hearts card and see if it means anything. Mahdi the Magician (Google search) says that this card means mystery and unknown people coming to help which sums up Zachary.

Dorian rolls and gets everything which makes sense. But that is for another conversation not a review of the book.

Mirabel/Max is sassy and I completely love that. Throughout the entire book I tried to get a grasp on her, she always felt like she was one step ahead and I could not quite under here. She also did have one of my favorite quotes:

“No each one’s different. They have similar elements, though. All stories do, no matter what form they take. Something was, and then something changed. Change is what a story is, after all.”

Kat is a great friend and I am glad that we got to see her again in Act 3.

Allegra is a little more complex with how I feel about her. She was our villain for the story and she filled the space decently. For her to have been from The Starless Sea and in her goals of protecting it became a vicious villain made sense to me. Sometimes we want to protect something so much that we end up hurting it far worse than what was going to happen to it if it was left alone. I wish we got to spend more time with her and really understand what she began to see, yes it was the destruction of The Starless Sea or was it the change that she saw? Its funny her names is similar to allegro which is music that is meant to be played quick and cheerfully, and that may have been what she was once. It was in her story that we get to see the consequences of our actions and I was glad that warning was there.

The Good

I love Erin Morgenstern’s writing. Everything is so vivid and I can see everything in her world down to the tiniest of Bee details. That is her stories I feel. Yes there is plot and characters but the real hero of her novels is the places that she creates and I am thankful for that. Her writing is next level and the words that she chooses really help paint the scene.

For no mortal can love the moon. Not for long.

My favorite story is also Morgenstern’s favorite based off an interview she did. The Inn where Sun and Moon come for their meeting. Something about that story just felt so alive and came right off of the pages and into my heart.

“I don’t want to lose you again”

“I don’t want to lose this”

I love the love stories part of this novel because it felt like fairy tales.

He wanders aimlessly, avoiding going back to check on Dorian and mildly annoyed that so much of his mind is occupied by thinking about it (him).

Okay the romance made sense to me. Zachary had been looking for something. He was lost and incomplete and he developed a crush. That’s what I need for things to make sense. He had a crush and it grew. That has happened to me before with random people I have only met before. I would talk to some random guy and he would say or do something that would make me perk up and that was it. For the next few days I was in crush mode.

The Bad

Act 3 felt different to me. The first two Acts flowed so well together and it made sense. I was following the story to the best of my ability. Noticing connections and feeling for the characters. However was the floor was taken out from underneath us, I truly never felt secure again. I had to think more of what I was reading because everything around our characters was different. The sea is honey (never explained but I saw an idea I will share) and Eleanor was sailing on it exploring. Simon was a lost man who was just walking and walking until Zachary found him. The Inn at the edge of the world was moved (though explained) felt oddly placed.

I think it is because so many things were going on at once. Zachary was looking for Dorian, Mirabel was looking to change her story, Dorian was finding Zachary, The Starless Sea was changing. These things were all happening at the same time and they were all connected together. Overall I think she (Morgenstern) got a little muddled in the details here but eventually we got unstuck and things began being clear at the end.

How did the pirate find The Starless Sea.

My least favorite part was the moon appearing and giving Dorian the sword. I don’t know why but I hated that, I wanted more time with the Moon.

Rating

4.5 out of 5 for me on this one. The confusion was just a bit too much for me at points that it knocked it down to 4.5

Final Thoughts

I really enjoyed this book a lot. I found myself wanting to read this while I was busy at the show or even when I had free time to spend with my Fiance. The plot is not the focus but the locations and the characters are where this novel truly shines. I am so thankful that I had the chance to read this and it will be something that I will be thinking about a lot.

Some quote that I liked:

Now the bees ignore him. They go about their own business, They decided that one man out of his depths is no cause for alarm but even the bees are wrong from time to time.

This was nice because the bees were wrong in the end.

“You are dead. you perished. there is no extra life. You had your chance. You played your game. You lost.”

I liked this one becuase Zachary’s doubts came in the voice of a video game.

“I also think most of us are two steps away from jumping off something most of the time and you never know if the next day is going to push you in one direction or another”

This novel is great for those that are imaginative and love taking their time getting to know a place and smell the roses. It takes an active mind to make some of the connections but Morgenstern does a great job of explaining any that you might have missed.