REVIEW: THE STARLESS SEA (Erin Morgenstern)

Using the UK version of the cover because the North American design is absolutely hideous. Try to change my mind. You can't.

"A boy at the beginning of a story has no way of knowing that the story has begun."

Erin Morgenstern does it again.

I finished this book late in the night, and with nothing left to do with myself, cradled it to my chest and cried. I woke up with it beside me in my bed, and it felt like waking up with a loved one — a person who knows you intimately and completely. Like Zachary, I felt like I had been waiting for this place — this story — my whole life.

And Erin Morgenstern, Goddess of the Written Word, opened the door.

The Starless Sea is a story that is very hard to summarize by virtue of it's amazing storytelling. Layered and woven and mixed together, this beautiful tale follows several stunning threads, lead by our protagonist, Zachary Ezra Rawlins. And Zachary is one incredible character. A twenty-something grad student writing his thesis on video games, Zachary discovers a mysterious book in the school library. Filled with stories and myths and fairytales, there's one that stands out among the rest: his. Written in precise detail there on the page, Zachary finds a moment from his own childhood. From there, he ventures to discover what this book is and where exactly it came from. His adventure takes him from Vermont to New York City, to a endless, time-confounding underground library with stories upon stories of its own. Armed with nothing but the found book, two mysterious companions, and a set of cryptic symbols (a bee, a key, and a sword), Zachary must figure out where he stands among all these stories, and just how much there is to lose.

The Starless Sea is the most magical book I have come across in a very long time. Morgenstern's writing is at its absolute best in this enthralling, twisting tale: whimsical, yes, but also intimately familiar. Just as Zachary found himself in that mysterious book, I too felt like I had somehow been distilled in the amber of this story. As avid readers, I think it's safe to say we've all experienced an acute sense of something more, some other world just (or in this case, very far) below our own, waiting for us with open arms. A place where we might finally feel like we're home. But what if we find that place too late? That melancholic sensation of finding your sense of belonging only when it's time to leave is captured with sensational skill by Morgenstern, who imbues the narrative with such longing, loss, and humour that it feels impossible for it to be just a story.

Maybe "just a story" is disingenuous — after all, if any book makes the case for the power of storytelling, it's this one. For Morgenstern, "world-building" is an understatement; The Starless Sea is, at it's core, an exploration of the way we shape our lives around narratives. The doors we open, and the doors we leave closed. The way we might look at those doors month, a year, a decade later. If you could tell any story about your life, where would you begin? Who would you be? What would you build?

This book is utterly magical, not only in it's subject matter and dazzling prose, but also in Morgenstern's mastery of mood. I can't count the number of times I nearly dissolved into laughter on the train, only to be holding back tears the next moment. Often in the space of a single sentence, Morgenstern captures that strange phenomena of the "universally unique" feeling we all feel — that feeling we think that we alone carry.

And, of course, there are the bees.

This book is a hand in the dark for anyone who has ever felt like their story hasn't yet begun. It's for anyone in waiting, anyone who is still hoping to find their doorway home, and anyone who has found those doors in books. It's for exploring kids who became lost adults. It's for anyone still seeking.

The Starless Sea is, simply put, one of my favourite books of all time.

And I'd better end my review there, because if this novel has taught me anything, it's that endings have power.

*** I recieved an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All opinions and thoughts presented here are my own. Any quotations pulled may appear differently in the finished book. ***