[Review] The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

Rating: 4.5 stars

Published: November 5th 2019

Goodreads Synopsis:

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 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.

This was an intense, super abstract ride. I essentially equated The Starless Sea to "Alice in Wonderland on crack" because you're thrown into a mystical world amped up by a thousand. It's a story within a story within a story. Zachary Ezra Rowlins discovers a book called Sweet Sorrows, and finds that he is featured within its pages. He had a chance as a child to open the door to the Starless Sea, but chose not to. Now, as an adult, he has that chance to enter through that door, and start his adventure.

It's been awhile since I've read The Night Circus, but Morgenstern's writing is still enriching and vivid, drawing readers into the setting in its entirety. Normally I breeze through books, but The Starless Sea demands attention to each damn detail. This is not a bad thing in the slightest. It's beautiful and captivating to pay attention to everything on the page. It's super important, too. I attended the author's event at the NYPL, and when she brought up she loved video games (particularly Dragon Age), the reading that followed the event made even more sense. This is like a choose-your-own-adventure. You, or Zach, rather, are a character within a story. And so are the other characters, operating in and out of their own stories as both participants and observers. Interwoven between the narrative of Zach's are the many stories of our cast - Mirabel, Allegra, Dorian, the metaphorical pirate, the innkeeper and his lover, the Moon, and so forth. 

Perhaps this is a homage to the craft of the story and the power it can hold. The writing is beautiful. I cannot emphasize this enough. I dog-eared my copy (but again, I did this with The Night Circus, too). We become Zach in this story - we are the gamer, the reader, the maker of our own story. Zach reclaims the adventure as his own. It's one of those books you can fall into and really really can't get out of. 

Of course, there are certain elements I might be nitpicky about - the pacing and side characters aren't necessarily as developed/delved into as deeply as Zach and the aspect of storytelling (aka plot) might be. I wanted more of Dorian and Zach! But again, I nitpick. 

I could include a bajilion scenes and lines in the remainder of this review, to highlight how much I enjoyed it. 

This makes the story super meta:

"To be able to make your own choices and decisions but to have it be a part of a story? You want that narrative there to trust in, even if you want to maintain your own free will." (35)

A story is like an egg, a universe contained in its chosen medium. The spark of something new and different but fully formed and fragile. In need of protection. You want to protect it, too, but there's more to it than that. You want to be inside it, I can see it in your eyes. I used to seek out people like you, I am practiced at spotting the desire for it. You want to be in the story, not observing it from the outside. You want to be under its shell. The only way to do that is to break it. But if it breaks, it is gone. (175)

Not all stories speak to all listeners, but all listeners can find a story that does, somewhere, sometime. In one form or another. (187)

He wanted to see it as it was. The house and the town and the city across the sea. The multitude of additions and overlapping narratives. He'd wanted to add something to it, maybe. To make his own mark on the story. He hadn't realized how much he'd wanted to until faced with the reality that he cannot. He can't decide if he's sad or angry or disappointed.
Time passes. Things change. (231)

It is easier to be in love in a room with closed doors. To have the whole world in one room. In one person. The universe condensed and intensified and burning, bright and alive and electric.
But doors cannot stay closed forever. (240)

"I've spent a great deal of my life doing what other people wanted for me and not what I wanted for myself and I'm trying to change." (295)

"Be brave," she says. "Be bold. Be loud. Never change for anyone but yourself. ANy soul worth their star-stuff will take the whole package as is and however it grows. Don't waste your time on anyone who doesn't believe you when you tell them how you feel." (396)

Endings are what give stories meaning. (466)