This was everything I hoped it would be and more. I absolutely adored The Night Circus, so I was both eagerly anticipating The Starless Sea and waiting with some nervousness, because what if it didn't live up to my expectations? But it so, so did.

Morgenstern's second novel again has a lot of fantastical elements that border on magic, but this time it's all focused around a giant underground labyrinthine library of sorts, where stories are collected and created and lovingly cared for. Not just anyone is granted access to the Harbor, and those who stay are carefully vetted. Zachary Ezra Rawlins, the son of a fortune teller, is one of the few allowed—and it turns out, they had been expecting him.

What follows is a blend of fantasy and thriller (and a little romance), laced through with messages of the power of stories in our world and in our lives.