elisefm's reviews
61 reviews

i thought this was beautifully written with the perfect buildup, and a very surprising grotesque  development/ending. highly recommend 

i’m just a little sad that this book didn’t live up to my expectations. i thought the dwarves would be a far more prominent part of the book. i’m still a little confused why the book is called sea monsters. super intriguing beginning but i’m left a little disappointed. beautiful writing but not much plot or character development. i’m not really sure if i enjoyed it or found much interest in it

i really really wanted to LOVE this book. so many interesting, interwoven stories as erin morgenstern is so good at doing with night circus, and of course beautiful descriptive writing and world building. the themes are spot on, but i WISH that the ideas were explored further and that there was more time to develop character relationships. there were some bits that did feel a little spelled out when they didn’t need to, perhaps could’ve benefitted from a little more mystery. 

 in some ways i’d argue this book really could’ve been three books. which is what made reading and taking it all in actually a lot more confusing and overwhelming than i expected. there is seriously so much packed in 500 pages and so much is complicated, albeit genius. i will say that i was totally on board with the story for the first third of it or so, but then things got a little lost for me from there. the story wraps up alright at the end but so much is muddled in my memory from the middle about how all the pieces are out together and i’m left wondering if i should’ve cared more about certain characters. i’m also a little upset that i don’t love the characters because there just wasn’t time. and the love story aspects were a bit hit or miss. i’m more convinced by some of the lesser characters’ love situations than the main ones and i wonder if that really should be the case. 

so i cannot give this four or five stars, and it does not measure up to the near perfection of night circus where some similar themes and tropes and story building are explored so much better. but morgenstern IS a brilliant writer and super underrated when it comes to truly creative and mystical fantasy. i love how metaphysical magic is in her stories and she incorporates the unexpected in such interesting ways. 

my overall takeaway from the book is that while i do feel somewhat inspired and a little more tapped into my own creativity, i am mostly just confused even though much of the reading of the story was pleasant. it just could’ve been so much tighter to be an absolute masterpiece.  and i think there was so much potential for how all the relationships in the book could’ve blossomed.