The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern
Title: The Starless Sea
Author: Erin Morgenstern
Published: 2019
Type: Fiction
Pages: 494
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.
In Brief:
I had extremely mixed feelings about this book – at times I was captivated, fully caught up in its magic, but at other times I absolutely hated it. It was more mood than plot, and in the end, I was more than ready to be done with it.
Rating: 3/5
Plot Summary:
Blurb:
“Zachary Ezra Rawlins is a graduate student in Vermont when he 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.”
Where I’m At:
My roommate, who also read this book for Book Club, commented that The Starless Sea seems written for people who were jealous of Harry Potter. I certainly fall into that category, and felt both very seen and very attacked while reading.
It did make me think: are people like me readers because we are deeply, secretly afraid? I’ve long had this nagging anxiety that I’ve been so wrapped up in my books, in my fiction, that I’m not really living. That I choose to do so because books have the adventures I long for, without the risk. Things make sense in books. When something happens in a book, there’s a purpose; there’s an explanation; there’s a conclusion.
Or at least they’re supposed to. The Starless Sea, not so much, and that was my main problem with it. More on that in a moment.
Getting Into it:
This book has very mixed reviews on Goodreads – people seem to really love, or really hate it. Somehow, I did both.
I’ll start with what I loved because that’s pretty straightforward: this book is a love letter to books. It’s for people who love words, who love stories, which I certainly do.* It captures the joy and magic of stories through its fascinating premise, beautiful imagery, and dreamy-yet-visceral writing style.
The space he knows as hollow and empty is teeming with people. All of the chandeliers are lit, casting dancing light over the hall. The ceiling is littered with metallic balloons. Long glimmering ribbons hang from them and as Zachary gets closer he sees they are weighed with pearls. Everything is undulating, shimmering, and golden. It smells like honey and incense, musk and sweat and wine.
There are secret societies, mysterious symbols, handsome strangers, mad adventures, and lots of cats (including one named Matilda). What else could you want?
It emulates the feeling of being immersed in a wonderful, fantastical book. Morgenstern should be lauded for that, which I think is an impressive and unique feat on its own. Unfortunately, she didn’t actually do any of the work to make this book wonderful.
Where to begin. The plot just did not make sense. Or maybe there was no plot, nor world-building. The book is about five hundred pages, and about four hundred were simply impossible to follow. Though there’s that wonderful premise, so many details and subplots, none of it is ever explained. There’s nothing being worked towards – so much going on, so little happening. Sometimes I was delighted by this, swept along in the ~vibes~, but I was mostly infuriated.
“How are you feeling?" Zachary asks.
"Like I am losing my mind, but in a slow, achingly beautiful sort of way."
Accurate.
While we’re on the subject, the main character, Zachary, is unfortunately just bland. He sort of stumbles into a magical world, and continues stumbling around, with no clear point. I understand that he’s just supposed to stand in for the reader, as a “person who likes stories,” but that’s all he is. I even struggled with his romance with the handsome stranger, given that they spend basically zero time together and show zero chemistry, despite all of their pining and declarations. I hate to say it, but it’s quite possible that I was only rooting for it at all because I see so few queer romances, not because I really cared or believed in it.
What else? The chapters alternate with the so-called plot and short, seemingly unrelated side stories. I really loved reading these, until I realized (Too late? Was I just being oblivious?) that they actually weren’t unrelated, and the reader was supposed to be paying close attention, hounding these for details that all fit together, kind of, at the very end. I suppose you could say the way Morgenstern weaved all this together was impressive, but I mostly just found myself angry. I liked letting the stories just wash over me, contribute to the magic of it, without having to figure them out. Maybe because, to me, part of the appeal in story-telling is that the stories aren’t true.
Overall, I hate that I can’t recommend this book. I wanted to like it – and at some points, I even loved it, felt overwhelmingly joyful while reading. As I’ve said, there was some really lovely imagery, a really charming idea, a real evocativeness (that’s a word?) throughout – but a book can’t survive on a mood alone. If only there was a plot.
* In this way it reminded me of The Shadow of the Wind – you can read my blog post on that book from a couple of years ago here.
