The Starless sea

Locations
Call Number: Adult Book / Large Print / Fiction / Fantasy / Morgenstern, Erin
On Shelf At: Malletts Creek Branch

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Malletts Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Large Print / Fiction / Fantasy / Morgenstern, Erin	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Pittsfield Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Large Print / Fiction / Fantasy / Morgenstern, Erin	4-week checkout	Due 05-23-2024

"Zachary Ezra Rawlins is a graduate student in Vermont when he discovers a rare 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 a subterranean 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 of honey, 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 beautiful 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 rare book and in his own life"-- Provided by publisher.

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COMMUNITY REVIEWS

More window-dressing than story submitted by terpsichore17 on July 30, 2021, 12:27pm Where The Night Circus is timeless and evocative, The Starless Sea is self-conscious, wed to the zeitgeist (which will feel dated in 5 years), and generally hammers where it meant to tap (and/or, taps a spot so many times that it bruises).

Playing spot-the-allusion is fun, but books/stories as an *aesthetic* distracts from the actual narrative. I think the bees, owls, and cats were present to capture something, but never knew what. The cats especially seemed peculiar – too silent, nowhere near chaotic or destructive enough to read as *real* cats.

By the time I got to her, Kat’s search was such a relief from whatever was going on around the floods of honey.
When it all got resolved, I had the impression I’d been playing Monument Valley for 5 days straight.
Once I finished it, I was fully on board with Stories Wanting An End. Lots of window dressing, but not much depth.