The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern
(Format used for this read: Audiobook)
I so so so enjoyed this authors first book “The Night Circus”…it was weird and mystical and so well written.
The very same things can be said about this book which is her second novel.
Here is a summary:
“From the New York Times bestselling author of The Night Circus, a timeless love story set in a secret underground world—a place of pirates, painters, lovers, liars, and ships that sail upon a starless sea.
Zachary Ezra Rawlins is a graduate student in Vermont when he discovers a mysterious 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 an ancient 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, 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 of those who are intent on its destruction.
Together with Mirabel, a fierce, pink-haired protector of the place, and Dorian, a handsome, 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 mysterious book and in his own life.”
This story was like a Neil Gaiman novel mixed with a little “Never Ending Story” with a few shakes of bees & honey on top.
If that sounds wonderfully and fantastically weird, that’s because it IS.
In the very best way.
Y’all know I love me some books.
Yall know I love me some magic.
And a story about MAGICAL BOOKS…well BRING IT ON.
I love books where the story just sweeps me away into an entirely different world….
BUT it also makes everything seem like it could REALLY happen….even though you KNOW there are no such things as mysterious realms with disappearing doors and secret underground fantasy worlds with special keys and magical bees.
I think these days if I had to pick a favorite genre it would be fantasy…because reality is just too much to handle right now.
This was a lovely and entertaining escape.
I kept thinking “Ooooo if I was Zachary or Mirabelle or Dorian or Simon or Eleanor what would be written in MY story? What magic would I see or experience in that realm?”
If you are looking for an imaginative world to journey into for awhile, I highly recommend this read.