Starless Sea (Morgenstern) - Book Reviews

Book Reviews
[A]n abstruse series of fragmented fables... [and] the Starless Sea, a labyrinthine underground repository of stories embedded in paper, ribbons, skin, funeral shrouds and candies…. Sound thrilling? It certainly might be, but it isn’t.... [It] is strangely devoid of tension…. We flit from story to story… never knowing where we might land, or who will turn out to really be who, or if the pirate is a real pirate or a metaphor, or whether any of it has a point.
New York Times Book Review


[M]ythical… a story about stories, all essentially relating to Fate and Time.… The Starless Sea is the kind of book that could spawn a Harry Potter-esque cult. I can imagine fan sites devoted to mapping, analyzing and connecting the dots among its fantastical intricacies. I predict readers for whom it will become a holy of holies, one of their most treasured books of all time. It’s that kind of book.
Long Island Newsday


The most joyous reading experience I’ve had in recent memory.… It is, not to put too fine a point on it, wonderful…  a master-class in plotting and prestidigitation… unabashedly romantic… [and] a warm, honeyed bath of words and ideas
Toronto Star


Assuredly beautiful…. The novel reads like panel after panel of mythic illustrations…. It demands that its readers interpret it in an older way; the way we read The Faerie Queene…. Well-written…. the novel’s scope and ambition are undeniable.
Guardian (UK)


A mystical adventure in an enchanted universe.… The novel is not simply a quest narrative—it’s also a meta-examination of stories that demands the reader’s patience—and then rewards it…. Morgenstern’s elegant, poetic prose keeps the pages turning as she begins to draw connections within a web of tales…. For Zachary, that pleasure outweighs any temptation he might have to return to school and his regular life. It leads, instead, to a journey of sacrifice and self-discovery as he unearths his own place in the puzzling book’s narrative. For everyone else, the thrill comes from watching him on the ride.
Time


Erin Morgenstern has magic to make… [in] a new fantastical fairy-tale for grown-ups…. The Starless Sea poses big questions about stories—the ones we read, the ones we live, and the ones we tell ourselves. And at the heart of her work lies the themes that have provoked those comparisons: redemption, sacrifice, fate, time, reincarnation.… The Starless Sea is a door to another world—one just waiting for readers to open it.
Entertainment Weekly


A richly imaginative ode to books and storytelling…. [T]his fantasy-filled novel entwines a mysterious underground world with the story of a grad student on a quest to understand his past.
People


(Starred review) Built from fables, myths, and fairy tales, Morgenstern’s long-awaited second fantastical novel delves into a vast subterranean library… This love letter to bibliophiles is dreamlike and uncanny, grounded in deeply felt emotion, and absolutely thrilling.
Publishers Weekly


(Starred review) [A] grad student discovers a mysterious book in his university library stacks…. What results is a magnificent quest,unfolding adventure and danger, gold-wrought fantasy, and endless provocation on what storytelling really means. Highly recommended.
Library Journal


(Starred review) Morgenstern's new fantasy epic is a puzzlebox of a book…, the very concept of what we expect and want from our stories…. She [gives] the book a mythic quality that will stick with readers long after they put it down. [R]eaders will be clamoring to recapture the magic of [her debut].
Booklist


(Starred review) A withdrawn graduate student embarks on an epic quest to restore balance to the world in this long-anticipated follow-up to The Night Circus.… This novel is a love letter to readers,… an ambitious and bewitching gem of a book with mystery and passion inscribed on every page.
Kirkus Reviews