Quirky Cat's Fat Stacks

The Starless Sea is the latest novel by Erin Morgenstern, and it’s a novel that fans have been waiting years for. That being said, it was, without a shadow of a doubt, worth the wait. Fans of The Night Circus will be over the moon for this piece.

Zachary Ezra Rawlins is many things. He’s the son of a fortune-teller. He’s a graduate student working on his game design degree. He’s fascinated by books. And one day, he failed to open the door made just for him.

So when the opportunity comes around again, Zachary wastes no time with hesitation. He throws himself headfirst into this new and fantastic world. One full of books, wonders, bees, and cats. And that is only the beginning.

The Starless Sea was a novel with a long wait, but it also proved our patience was worth it. It’s no wonder that fans have been buzzing about this book for the last few months (pun intended).

Writing

The Starless Sea was perhaps the most elegant piece of work in 2019. It was beautifully written, full of complexity and intrigue. Within this novel was a series of stories, all weaving in and out of one another.

It’s safe to say that Erin Morgenstern outdid herself with this novel. The world within The Starless Sea was fast and fascinating. We’ve all seen plenty of novels out there surrounding the concept of magical libraries. But we’ve never seen anything quite like this one.

The themes that Morgenstern wove into this novel made the piece, in my opinion. Keys, bees, birds, and libraries. They are themes we’ve seen before but also themes that many readers can resonate with. And that’s part of the reason why this novel was so powerful.

The other part is due to the characters that Morgenstern created. Zachary is just one of many characters the plot revolves around. He’s the main character in many ways. At times, he was just as clueless as us readers, giving us an avenue to learn alongside him.

The secondary characters and subplots are where this tale begins to shine. At first, these stories might seem disjointed, but it all makes so much more sense with time. And that makes it all the more beautiful.

Development

The Starless Sea is not a novel that can be rushed. It went along at what felt like a leisurely pace at times. But it was all building towards something climatic, something grand and larger than life. Those moments were explosive in force and made all the building up worth it.

It was fascinating to see how the different subplots worked together – for they all told a different part of one much larger tale. It was so flawlessly done that, at times, it was easy to get wrapped up in the moment and forget that there was a larger picture to consider.

One of the many subplots in The Starless Sea was a romance between Zachary and another fascinating character. There was something so endearing about this budding love. It made both characters feel more human, thanks to their emotions towards one another.

Conclusion

The Starless Sea was an amazing and enthralling read. It ultimately got inside my head and created one of the worst book hangovers I’ve ever experienced. But it was worth it. It was also worth the wait.

There is such a thing as a sophomore slump, but that does not happen here. Erin Morgenstern has completely blown her fans out of the water with her latest novel. And in the process, she has excited us all the more for whatever she comes up with next.

This review was originally written for Word of the Nerd, but has been ported over to Quirky Cat’s Fat Stacks now that the site has shut down.

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