The Starless Sea

I seem to have forgotten to write this review on completing the book, which is an egregious oversight on my part.

The Starless Sea is perhaps not for everyone, but it is the kind of narrative that I devour and then hunt about for crumbs making plaintive noises because I can never get quite enough to sate my hunger. The intertwining narratives seem disjointed at first, inviting both speculation and a sense of learning the fables of a foreign land to shed insight into the culture there. Soon, however, the fables begin to blend together, and before too long they become subtly joined pieces of a larger tapestry. Most enjoyable to my mind, however, is the fact that there is a huge portion of that larger image that never comes to light, but you can see the threads disappearing into the darkness. Every character, every bit of setting, suggests entire other epic narratives, some of which are given in detail, some in brief sketches, and still others are only barely visible shapes in the distant gloom.

I soooooo wanted to love this book like I loved "The Night Circus." I soooooooo want to support a novelist trying to follow up on her massively successful debut -- that has got to be so hard.

But about 200 pages in, I realized I really didn't care much for any of the characters. 300 pages in, I was ready to quit. The choppy narrative style, fuzzy character development, etc. were seeming more like a self-absorbed conceit.

Still, I was pretty sure if I stuck it out, the method to the madness (and long stretches of tedium) would be revealed. So I do respect and understand her ideas. And the paean to books throughout is lovely.

But.

I wish I had not discovered the connection between the story (-ies) and computer gaming, other than the mention early on that the main protagonist was a game creator in grad school (no spoiler here, not a big thing.). Because yeah, in the last quarter or so of the book, it feels like I am acid tripping in Leisure-Suit Larry or Space Quest.

I respect what she was doing. I bow to her HUGE artistry with words. But in the end it felt like an exercise in style over substance: affected and self-conscious. And desperately in need of a dispassionate, ruthless editor.

Glad I finished it, but a bit sorry I will never get those hours and hours and hours of my life back. I adored Night Circus, but can't in good conscience say more than huh. Well, alllll-righty then.

Final verdict: so terribly sad to say a hot mess of "Meh.."

Holy crap I adored this book. It is a bright and swirly and beautifully told story about storytelling, a fairy tale that is a metaphor for a fairy tale, and a puzzle-story with several intertwined self-referential narratives. It is the first book I’ve read in a long time that makes me instantly want to go back to read it a second time so that I can understand how all the parts fit together. This is exactly the kind of book I am crazy for, and it hit every heart-shaped button I have in my soul.

I dithered between four and five stars because sadly I thought many of the characterizations were weak, and the emotional beats could feel unearned. I was genuinely surprised by the central romance, because I did not feel it had been signaled at all before it actually happened. But the book is strong enough in every other way that I could forgive that, so it gets five stars anyhow.

I'm really torn between giving this 4 and 5 stars, but eventually decided on 4 stars because I really don't think it's a book for everyone. But, the people who DO like this style will ADORE it. Like her first book, the settings are magical, and imaginative, and dreamily surreal a lot of the time. This novel drifts around a lot more than the Night Circus however, shifting between people and stories and even times and places, and it's quite difficult to figure out what's going on and how they all relate until you get significantly into the book. If that's a problem for you, this book probably is not for you. If you can enjoy dreamy descriptions of gorgeous fantastical settings and be patient to see how they tie together, then yes, grab this book today!

It reminded me strongly of The High House by James Stoddard, and also a bit of Caraval by Stephanie Garber (both of which I'd also recommend if you enjoyed this book). It's hard to even describe the plot without either getting too complicated or giving too much away, but suffice it to say that boy finds a mysterious book with a chapter in it that exactly describes something that happened to him as a child, and becomes obsessed with learning more, which leads him to a masked ball, a mysterious underground (literally) society of story lovers and librarian types, a world where it's hard to tell where the lines between a story and reality blur together, and ultimately of course our protagonist may be the only one who can save the world (or at least fate and time) but only if he can outwit the forces out to oppose this who want the world to never change and always stay the same.