I am a very lucky lady. I got myself an Advanced Reader’s Copy of The Starless Sea, the long awaited second book by The Night Circus author Erin Morgenstern. Most people will have to wait until November 5th to get their hands on this gem. The Night Circus was a magical story, and The Starless Sea is also a magical story. It is a cleverly woven tale filled with wonderful stories. The story of Zach, “The Son of the Fortune-Teller”, is the ribbon that connects all these wonderful stories. It is pure fantasy, difficult to tell what is real and what isn’t, but who cares, it is all real and it is all not real.
Morgenstern writes beautifully, her words flow just like the Starless Sea flows. She creates worlds within worlds, stories within stories, and characters within characters. She touches all your senses. One character in the book laments that the thing virtual reality is missing is the smell of a place, well, I could smell the Starless Sea! The basic premise of the story is an underground world where stories (in book form and other forms) are guarded and time is fluid. There is romance, adventure, and mystery, it has libraries, cats (lots of cats), and symbols, and through it all is an overwhelming love of stories. All of her cultural references are spot on – from the Strand bookstore to the Harry Potter Ravenclaw scarf! The story is unpredictable with the true nature and names of characters being revealed slowly.
My favorite book of 2019! Erin Morgenstern – please don’t make me wait eight years for your next book!