"Everyone wants the stars. Everyone wishes to grasp that which exists out of reach. To hold the extraordinary in their hands and keep the remarkable in their pockets."

This book. This magical, immersive, clever little book. This is my second time reading it and I love it just as much, if not more than the first time.

I understand why people don't like this book. I do. Morgenstern doesn't give you all the answers. She doesn't spoon-feed you the meanings of things. You have to work at it, connect stories within stories. And for some people, that's not worth it. But for me, it is everything. In fact, in my opinion Morgenstern even spells out quite plainly how this book should be approached in a scene in the beginning of the novel.

"...'How do you make sure any given audience member sees the whole narrative?'
'You can't guarantee it but if you provide enough to see hopefully they can piece it together for themselves.'"

This book will not give you all the answers. It is winding and twisting, lingering and meandering in the places where most books would be pushing forward, pushing faster towards the action. When I met her, and in interviews I've watched and read since, Morgenstern has talked about how some of the world of The Starless Sea is inspired by video games. I remember her talking about how she loves video games, but sometimes she just wants to linger in the space. Have the freedom to just wander around this totally new, beautiful world. And that is what it feels like to read this book. It is slow and winding, lingering in alcoves and on balconies and getting lost in endless hallways. It does feel like a video game, like something more than just a novel.

Rereading this book was even more brilliant, because I knew what to look for. All the threads that Morgenstern leaves, finding them in the beginning and following throughout the rest of the novel was so much fun now that I know where the entire thing leads. It's brilliant work, to create a story so intimate and interconnected.

Another aspect that I love about this book is the intertextuality and kind of meta references to other works. Our narrator, Zachary, is a voracious reader and gamer. There are so many references to other works, other stories, that the references create another layer to this idea that all the stories within this book are the same story. They are just as familiar as the references to Narnia or Alice in Wonderland are. We know how these stories go. "Change is what a story is," one character remarks. With our (us as readers and Zachary's) shared understanding of what these stories are, what they represent, Morgenstern can take those mutual understandings and break them. Twist them. A reference to Alice, for example, is this story's way of saying You know how this goes. But what if it went differently?

I could seriously write about this book for hours. It is such a triumph and I WILL defend it with my life. I would die for this book.