Oh nooo I am so beyond behind. I joined this Slack where I can talk about book endlessly and it’s sapped enough of my book-talking energy that I totally lost track of my reviews. I haven’t stopped reading, just writing these, so lets watch me play a giant game of catch up. I’ll group a lot together but! This one deserves its own post.
The Starless Sea. I loved The Night Circus beyond words and was ecstatic when she announced a second book and somehow this book managed to exceed all my expectations. I received my Kindle copy from the library and was not even 5% in when I returned it because this was one I needed to go buy to keep a physical copy on my bookshelf. This one is magical.
Morgenstern’s writing is a world unto itself. She develops these patterns that turn the written word into music and bring her pages to life. A universe beneath our feet accessible by magical doors and under attack by a singular force that seeks to preserve it. That’s the gist. But the words are something else entirely. I flagged a few passages that I just couldn’t get out of my head.
Reading a novel, he supposes, is like playing a game where all the choices have been made for you ahead of time by someone who is much better at this particular game.
She gave me an opaque plastic cup identical to the one I’d abandoned inside but with better bourbon in it, on the rocks. I accepted because mysterious ladies offering bourbon under the stars is very much my aesthetic.
Dorian laughs as Zachary takes a swig of the wine. It would probably benefit from decanting and maybe glasses but it is rich and lush and bright. Luminous, somehow, like the lantern on it. It doesn’t whisper verses or stories around his tongue and into his head, thankfully, but it tastes older than stories. It tastes like myth.
Where do I find a bottle of wine that tastes like myth?
The book can occasionally be very opaque and hard to follow but ugh that’s the fun, isn’t it? Keys and bees and swords and a secret society I would very much like to be a part of, please.
Completely agree – best book of the year by far!