The Starless Sea

By Erin Morgenstern

Blurb:

When Zachary Rawlins stumbles across a strange book hidden in his university library it leads him on a quest unlike any other. Its pages entrance him with their tales of lovelorn prisoners, lost cities and nameless acolytes, but they also contain something impossible: a recollection from his own childhood.

Determined to solve the puzzle of the book, Zachary follows the clues he finds on the cover – a bee, a key and a sword. They guide him to a masquerade ball, to a dangerous secret club, and finally through a magical doorway created by the fierce and mysterious Mirabel. This door leads to a subterranean labyrinth filled with stories, hidden far beneath the surface of the earth.

When the labyrinth is threatened, Zachary must race with Mirabel, and Dorian, a handsome barefoot man with shifting alliances, through its twisting tunnels and crowded ballrooms, searching for the end of his story.

You are invited to join Zachary on the starless sea: the home of storytellers, story-lovers and those who will protect our stories at all costs.

Review:

A story within a story within a story and still nothing like in(story)ception.What would you do if an event from your own life would come to you in pages of an unknown book?

That's what happens to Zachary. He once unconsciously lost his chance to discover the Starless Sea and he's confronted with that day as a chapter in a book he takes from the shelf in the university library.From there on, he's consumed by a world full of books and stories and the way that they are woven together.Woven together by lovers, Time and Fate.

Bees, Swords, Keys, Feathers, Hearts and Crowns, oh and owls and many many doors.This book took me quite some time to get through. I think mostly because of the many allegories and hidden meanings, many of which I still don't get at this point. But mostly because of the many shorter stories within the main story. It gave me more space to put the book down and let everything sink in.

So, rounded down, I'll give this one 3.5 stars for now since I really liked it, but felt like I didn't quite understand everything. I plan on re-reading this somewhere in the future!

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫