Imagine a thousand-piece puzzle, but you start out with zero puzzle pieces. You have to wait for new pieces to appear in the box and the process is gradual. You don’t know what image you’re trying to piece together, and the initial puzzle pieces don’t even seem to form one coherent image. You can sense with growing frustration that it’s all supposed to fit, but it’s not quite there just yet. So you keep sifting and trying new combinations, gaining more and more success as new pieces appear.

Sometimes your first predictions are wrong, so you growl under your breath, recalibrate, and try another arrangement. It requires faith, patience, and maybe a glass of wine (ignore this advice if you’re under twenty-one). After a while, you finally understand. It is one cohesive puzzle and not separate entities. It fits. Hallelujah! The electrifying elation you sense while gazing at the finished product isn’t just because you finally comprehend the image. The satisfaction stems from the process, especially the thrill of putting clues together and finding connections between two dissimilar pieces.

Reading The Starless Sea feels like solving that puzzle: It’s a crisscrossing story within a story within a story within a story. Only that fourth story is also somehow the first story, but you don’t realize it because the initial appearance is different. Oh, and there’s also an eleventh story that somehow intertwines the second and seventh story together. Now multiply that by infinity. Forget eight years — I’m shocked it didn’t take Morgenstern a quarter of a century to type out a first draft. 

Writing a story about the power of stories is a brave thing for an author to take on, and Erin Morgenstern shows she’s a master storyteller in The Starless Sea. 

I should have been prepared by reading The Night Circus, but I forgot how the author creates a world for the reader to fall in love with before breaking it apart… and resolving the story in the most beautiful and satisfying way. I enjoyed spending so much time at the beginning of the book getting to know the main character and the beginnings of the many threads that later weave into the narrative. Then the second half became an un-put-down-able roller-coater ride! 

Morgenstern’s talent for world-building I think comes from the sensory descriptions - the texture of a jumper, the taste of a drink, the richness of a voice, the sense of a space and the smell of a perfume are all given importance. But things are rarely over-described, making it feel like the storytelling is working with the reader’s own imagination. 

Overall I think the diversity of the cast of characters was well done, bar a few missed opportunities for trans/nonbinary and better disability representation. Something I particularly noticed was that the main character’s mother is given a significant voice in the narrative, which is unusual in stories like this, and I appreciated it. 

I’m really glad I listened to the audiobook; the cast is brilliant, and having different voices read different sections helps follow the flicks between times, people, places and books within books. 

So I know people have mixed opinions on this book. On the one hand I did like her writing style and the sheer amount of stories mixed together so that it actually makes sense. On the other hand I didn't feel many emotions, I felt that the plot was more background while the prose was in the focus. And I like prose in books, but a moment when everything comes together or when I couldn't put the book down because it was so exciting never came. Some things were introduced and never talked about again although it could have been interesting

Like the fact that Dorian speaks so many languages.

I wasn't really investigated in the characters' stories as I was with other books.

e. g. When Zachary died I didn't cry, I was just wondering what was going to happen next, especially since it was already said that he and Dorian would visit his mother one day.

I'd recommend this to anyone who likes long books, with many many details, and doesn't need to feel all the feels to like a book. Anyone who doesn't like lingering pieces or is interested in action should probably try something different. 

Trigger warnings for The Starless Sea include: Anxiety, panic attacks; multiple deaths; themes of death; Suicidal ideation mentioned; Forced drug use; Removal of a tongue mentioned; Branding, Kidnapping, Drowning and Animal death mentioned.
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It's safe to say that was one of the wildest rides I've ever had with a book. Usually I'm not a fan of multiple points of view in the books I read because I find it easy to get things mixed up. But with this one each story within a story was individual and easy to distinguish from one another.
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I loved the simple gay representation you find in the main character Zachary, as well as Dorian, and in Kat (though in passing mention). The fact that there are queer characters doesn't have any bearing on the story, which I find is actually quite nice. Having a story that doesn't revolve around one or more of the characters being some flavour or LGBTQ+. 
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Reading some other reviews online when I'm writing this I have found some useful explanations as to how the characters fit into the fairytale being woven from the beginning. Who each character is, whether that's the Pirate, Fate, the acolyte, Allegra and the Guardian. Characters are mentioned and talked about in different books within the books. It has multiple stories within it, and eventually they all fit together and interweave, but I appreciate it might be a little more challenging for some to piece together who's who.

CN: alcohol, death, fire, suicidal ideation, forced drug use, removal of a tongue, branding, kidnapping, drowning, animal death

If this book was a smell, it would be the smell of old books. If this book was a taste, it would be the taste of honey. If this book was a feeling, it would be the feeling of finally finding a place where you belong.

I read and loved The Night Circus when I was younger, but this book... this book made me feel things I didn't know I was capable of feeling. It's magical, atmospheric and breathtakingly beautiful. It's a story about pirates, bees, lovers, swords, doors and keys. But most importantly, it's a story about stories.

This book is definitely not for everyone. Some will find it too long, some will find it too confusing, some will just find it boring. But for me, The Starless Sea is the perfect book.