This book is almost its own kind of fairy tale. The stylistic writing is on point and makes everything seem whimsical. While it wasn't the book for me, I can see the appeal and why Morgenstern has such a loyal following. In the right hands, this book is a reader's dream.

Wow. New all time favorite. All I can say about this is wow. I am really not even sure how to review it. It's a stunning, magical book, dripping with honey and whimsy. Like Alice in Wonderland, if Wonderland were a library. It is a story about stories, and I have not read many of those, yet this is my favorite of them all. The chapters jumped between stories within stories, and the revelations were perfect and beautiful, and oh, so right. It was like a nesting doll.

I loved The Night Circus. That was perfect. This is even more perfect. It's evolved prose. Morgenstern's writing completely flowered into its perfect form in this novel and I can't get enough of it.

As for the characters, I loved them all, though my favorite was definitely Dorian. And then probably Mirabel, and then Zachary. They were all so well formed, I loved following them all.

My two favorite scenes in the novel were the parties. First, the literary party where we meet Mirabel. Can I PLEASE go to one of those? And second, the party in the door that Dorian takes Zachary to. I was so enamored with that scene. So utterly drawn in. When I finished it, I turned around and read it again.

My other favorite element of the book was the fairy tales from Dorian's book. Wow, those were stunning. I could cry. Can Erin Morgenstern write a book of fairy tales please? Anyway, this book was perfect in every way. An ascendant book. A book that reminds you why you fell in love with reading. I fell in love with this book. An all time favorite, and it made Erin Morgenstern an all time favorite writer.

The Starless Sea s a journey through legend and magical places, through time and the center of the earth and through the imagination of a woman with an eye for beauty. Zachary Ezra Rawlins is searching for the end of his story or maybe a new beginning.

Having read Erin Morgenstern's "The Night Circus" and liking it very much, I was excited to read her upcoming novel, "The Starless Sea". After finishing, I'm feeling... pretty disappointed.

The Starless Sea is an extremely complex web of storytelling. It's a fever dream of perspectives and timelines, convalescing in an ending that wasn't even remotely satisfying after all we went through to get there. It's not a fun read, the prose gets way too dreamy, and it moves so incredibly slow, the story seems to be moving backwards... oh wait, it is. Picking this novel up after a couple of days break is almost impossible because it's so hard to remember what in the world is going on.

I'm sure some people will appreciate the dreamy writing and plotting style, but I was frustrated by it. Morgenstern's first novel had an abundance of dreamy elements but all felt like it was moving towards something. I didn't get that same feeling here. Needless to say, I'll probably not be recommending this one to very many people.

~ARC provided by NetGalley~

"We are all stardust and stories."

Wow...just wow. What a read! This was well worth the wait. When I got to the end I couldn't believe it was over. Definitely a must read in my opinion.

I loved Morgenstern's Night Circus enough to give it 5 stars on Goodreads (which I don't do every often!), so I was extremely excited to read her newest. The best way I can describe this book genre-wise is to call it very literary fantasy. The writing is lovely, but I struggled with the structure of the book, and even after finishing it, I'm not sure I could describe the overall plot. I found the characters, especially Zachary, to be interesting, but they weren't enough to root me in a story that seemed to move through space and time too quickly for me to keep up. The world-building is strong here, but the plot wasn't cohesive enough to tether me to that world. I am a very plot-oriented reader, and I'll be the first to admit that my imagination probably isn't as rich as I'd like it to be, but I struggled for much of this book. About a third of the way in, I decided to just enjoy the writing and the imagery and to stop trying to diagram the plot in my mind, which made my experience with reading it more positive; that's just not my preferred approach.

I honestly don't know what to say about this book before reading it a second time, and I don't think anyone needs someone else's opinion - if you loved her first work, you're going to read this one!

I read The Night Circus when it came out, because it seemed like something that was right up my alley, but I thought it was just OK. When I saw that this one was coming out, the premise sounded so great, I thought I'd give Morgenstern's work another chance, but at this point, I think I need to concede that I am not her ideal reader. While her imagery and prose are gorgeous, this work just never really came together for me. The nonlinear storytelling and large, shifting cast of characters made the plot hard to follow, and at the end, I still wasn't entirely sure how all the threads were supposed to tie into each other. All the other feedback I have seen has been largely positive, and I am glad so many people have gotten so much out of it; I really do think this is just a case of author and reader not being a good fit.

An epic story of love, betrayal, and flawless storytelling. In typical Morgenstern fashion, this is a story with amazing character and story development, a plot that draws you in and keeps you wanting more. Not only does the reader find wonderful dialogue but majestic descriptions as well. Additionally, one thing I loved about her previous book, The Night Circus, was the whimsical tone throughout the book. The whimsical feel is taken to a new level in this novel, and in the process leaves, you emotionally destroyed.

This book is like an Escape room in book form. I was pretty sure I wasn't going to like it because it starts out a little slow and strange but I totally got sucked in and really enjoyed the whole last half.

Narnia? Wonderland? If you liked those worlds as a child, The Starless Sea is the grown-up version of falling down a rabbit hole (or going down an elevator) into a fantasyland (aka a magical subterranean library). If discovering hidden worlds or fairylands is your jam, you're going to eat up The Starless Sea with a spoon.

The main character, college student Zachary Ezra Rawlins, stumbles across a book in his university library that very unexpectedly contains a story of his own childhood in it. Once he takes the book from the library, a shadowy, secret organization of people (the C.I.A. of archives!) looking to protect the world mentioned in his book start following him. Thus begins Zachary's underground adventures and search for The Starless Sea.

Zachary is the main story thread, but there are many other small stories and fairy tales tucked into his narrative. The story that unfolds feels like a puzzle or a fantastical mystery with clues, hidden doorways, mysterious characters, and a bit of time travel thrown in. The Starless Sea is also a love letter to libraries, stories, and myths. There are stories that can be eaten like mints, cupcakes frosted with poems, teacups with text baked into the glaze, and squish-faced Persian cats roaming the magical underground library. If you're looking for whimsy, this has it by the truckload.

Why is this enchanting, imaginative tale not 5 stars then? For me it was a bit too long, a little too drawn out, and the romance between the fortune teller's son and the man whose name is not Dorian is lacking heat or chemistry. It almost felt like insta-love. They meet at a party one time and then it's quickly head-over-heels forever love. I need more passion!

However, there are going to be many, many more who will love this and give it all the stars. Readers who enjoyed Every Heart a Doorway, The Ocean at the End of the Lane, or Morgenstern's first book will probably enjoy The Starless Sea.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC to review!

Whatever happened to Fate? Fate appears in nearly every ancient story we have, as well as a far number of medieval and Renaissance works of literature. The idea of Fate seems to be something that we’ve left behind as a culture. But in Erin Morgenstern’s The Starless Sea, the long-awaited follow-up to The Night Circus, we are given a completely original version of what might have happened to Fate. Once upon a time, Time fell in love with Fate. The stars wouldn’t have it and conspired to kill Fate. This act splintered the worlds; it took centuries and a lot of side quests to put things to rights.

None of this is apparent at the start of The Starless Sea. To be honest, it took me a long time before I was able to start putting together the big picture. Readers who would like to read Morgenstern’s new novel should remember the most important thing about The Night Circus: most of the time the scenery is the most important thing and not to fuss too much about the plot making sense. The Starless Sea runs with this principle.

The book begins (although the overall story begins much earlier) when a young man finds a strange book in his university’s library. The book isn’t in the library system, but a friend who works there lets him check it out anyway. The fact that the book is missing a lot of pages isn’t what gives our protagonist, Zachary Ezra Rawlins, pause. The fact that something that happened to him when he was a child is described in explicit detail in this weird book gives him great pause. With his interest truly and thoroughly piqued, Zachary leaves behind his life as a graduate student to go questing for answers.

Zachary’s journey is one of the strangest I’ve encountered in fiction, certainly in contemporary fiction. The Starless Sea runs almost in motifs rather than plot. There are bees, keys, stars, swords, moons, honey, crowns, feathers, and lots of dancing. As I said above, it took me a long time to figure out what was going on in this novel. There are so many layers, all linked with these motifs, that you have to pay attention to everything in order to fully understand this story about Fate in its attempt to resurrect itself. Seriously, every time I had worked out who some of the characters were (in their many incarnations) it seemed like Morgenstern would throw in another layer. You’ve heard the expression, “turtles all the way down“? Well, in The Starless Sea, it’s bees and honey all the way down.

Even though I’ve finish the book and I think I’ve worked out the novel’s thesis, I’m not sure how I feel about it. I liked a lot of it. But I wasn’t enchanted by it the way I was by The Night Circus. It took so much effort to figure out what the hell everything meant that I was never swept away by the admittedly gorgeous settings and mystical backstory. There are also just enough references to gaming and Choose Your Own Adventure that I had a hard time seeing the book as anything other than a literary puzzle box, instead of a story to sink into. I would only really recommend this to readers who love puzzles, who want something that requires a lot of thought and possibly some graphing paper. I don’t want to dismiss this book as bad. It’s not. The Starless Sea is a genuine feat of writing. I think my problem is that I didn’t read this book at the right time. But, perhaps, Fate put this book in my hands at this moment so that I have it in my inventory for later.

Beautiful. An absolutely unique journey into a world of stories. Morgenstern’s sophomore title is every bit as intricate as The Night Circus.

This is about stories. Not about books but the stories of people's lives.

Zachary Ezra Rawlins finds a book containing short stories and he's in one of them. This leads him to find out an underground library that runs on magic created by stories. There are people who are getting rid of the doors that lead to this place.

This is an enchanting book. Woven with Zachary's POV is a story from the books that he finds. With how fairy tale like the world is, it's a puzzle to know whether the stories are metaphors or are literal. I liked how the characters were trying to figure out the stories in the story.

An intense, complicated story about other stories. You have to really love stories and how involved and complicated they can actually be.

I couldn’t imagine how she could equal The Night Circus, but The Starless Sea is a marvel of magic, beauty and imagination. I’ve already ordered two cases for our library and book clubs—there is nothing like the magic of an Erin Morgenstern book. Unlike so many other things in life, an Erin Morgenstern novel is profoundly worth waiting for! Now there are two Morgenstern titles on my (very short and exclusive!) desert island book list!

This book was so beautifully and lyrically written, and absolutely recommended for people who enjoy fantasy series. This book is filled with mystery and magic, and is a love story to the art of storytelling. I feel like this is a story I could re-read over and over again and always discover something new!

I was looking forward to reading this once I heard Erin Morgenstern was writing a new book! I loved "The Night Circus" and this did not disappoint. It is very complicated, but worth it! There are so many twists and turns and jumps back and forth that you can get dizzy!

In a just a few pages, this book was in the running to be one of my all-time favorites. By the end, it had not disappointed. I could read any page of this book over and over for the sheer joy Erin Morgenstern's writing gives me. This was well worth the wait!

A very complicated but wildly enchanting book. It’s hard to know all the meanings contained in this book, but you’re in for quite an adventure!