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Sometimes I like to read books that make me think, but sometimes, I just want a book to feel like a new visit with an old friend.  That is what I’m looking forward to most about digging into A Perilous Undertaking by Deanna Raybourn.  If you and Veronica Speedwell aren’t old friends, please start with A Curious Beginning and then pick up book number two in preparation for our next Virtual Book Club on Friday, December 10th, 2021 at 7:30pm CST.  Either way, be sure to sign up here so you get the link to our chat!

Oh readers, you all know that sometimes things just don’t go as planned.  Some days you go to the library to select a book from the stacks to escape life, but not completely numb yourself, and you land in the middle of the page, as a character in the story.  No?  Well, that’s exactly what happens to Zachary Ezra Rawlings in Erin Morgenstern’s The Starless Sea.  Zachary is our lead protagonist in this epic that includes multiple books within the book as he and a few friends travel throughout this world and the one below trying to unravel the mysteries of Time and Fate, the Starless Sea and the Harbor, and just what the bee, key, and sword mean.  Sound confusing?  Well, honestly, it isn’t when you read it, at least after you get into it a bit, but explaining is hard.  I will preempt Ashley’s traditional bio and say when I read that Morgenstern has a degree in theater, it made all the sense in the world because this book is very dramatic and readers can see the distinct scene changes throughout (although it’d be very challenging to do on stage, for a variety of reasons).  

The Starless Sea is the second book from Morgenstern, published eight years after The Night Circus, which just turned 10, and our first from her.  I’m not sure that I entirely believe in seasonal reading, but I do know that beach read evokes a specific expectation of fun and easy to put down and pick back up (yes, I did in fact read Shadow and Bone at the beach this year, so my opinions may not be those of others), and I know some books just feel like they need to be read in a particular season, at least they do to me.  The Starless Sea feels like a winter book.  I can imagine curling up on the couch with a warm beverage (which I do acknowledge I do year round), and looking out on a snowy landscape, then reading late into the night, perhaps so late it’s early even, for days on end with this novel.  We don’t get that much snow where Ashley and I live, but if I were to have a snow week again this year (no thank you for all the remote work realities virus-that-shall-not-be-named), this would be a fantastic reading choice.  What does this tell you about the book?  I enjoyed the writing, the world building, and the story.  It isn’t a book that is easy to put down and pick back up because there is a lot going on.  (I don’t want to make it sound like you need some cheat sheet to read it, but think about a book that follows multiple story lines at once, and they all tie in together by the end – that’s what’s happening here.)  

I’m giving The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern 3.5 stars, but I’m only rounding up because Goodreads makes me.  I’m still not sure what I think of the story, but I’m very intrigued by it and interested in her debut, The Night Circus (and not only because my beloved Kendra Adachi LOVES it).  Will I read this again?  Maybe, but maybe not.  It is one of those books that will definitely read differently on the reread because of knowing how it all plays out.  If I do reread this, it’ll most definitely be during the cold of winter, and just perhaps with some tea, sweetened with honey.  

What’s a book that feels like a season to you? 

~Nikki

Darling Readers, both you and Nikki will probably be disappointed in me, but not as much as I was disappointed in this book. There, I said it. Phew, the hard part is out of the way. The Starless Sea is the sophomore effort of New York Times (and all the other things) number one Best Selling author Erin Morgenstern was a good book. I had a lot of unmet expectations, but I want to meet your expectations by talking about the author. Yes, Morgenstern is a graduate of Smith College, has a theatre degree, and currently lives in Western Massachusetts – in the forest with no reliable internet. Appropriately, her debut novel, The Night Circus, was written over the course of several Novembers during National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo. For more information about the online (but sometimes not) not-for-profit community of and for writers and creatives check them out here. Morgenstern started considering herself a writer in her mid-twenties and The Night Circus sold when she was 32. She admits to being a binge writer; she does not write everyday. Her cat’s name is “Lady Vesper Victoria Sparkles Motorboat Morgenstern-Scott. She is named Vesper after the cocktail, because her mother’s name is Mint Julep and we decided she also needed a cocktail name.” Which is something I find immensely appropriate.

Now, on to my feelings about The Starless Sea, and boy do I have feelings. Let me start with the fact I actually love a lot of the concepts in this book. I love how the characters talk about video games, specifically RPG video games where you as a character get to choose how the story or game plays out for you – multiple quests and side quests and which monsters to fight, etc. I love how the characters speak academically about the concept of story and how theatre and video games and novels are all different media of how to tell a story for entertainment. I totally geeked out on all of that in the first 10% of the book even though at the time I was feeling like it was a struggle to get into it. I was NOT a big fan of the book within a book within a book situation going on from the first page. Was it necessary and relevant, probably. Do I like that it was handled in that manner, absolutely not. I loved the characters. I loved the lusciousness of all the settings – they are vibrant and delicious places, both the ones based on real life and those based in fantasy. I did not love how approximately the last quarter of the book could have gone about twice as fast in its pacing and overall I think the entire thing could be cut down by at least one hundred pages and still have made the same impact. Do I understand why those choices were made because of the structure and concept and academics of the writing? Hundop, Yes. It doesn’t mean I have to LIKE them.

I think The Starless Sea became more about how I was mentally deconstructing the book into the academics of writing and structure and less about enjoying a really good story. Because it is a surprising and intriguing story, I just didn’t like how the way it was being told made me THINK of all the reasons why the author made the choices she did. I’m actually going to give this book a 2 star review, because, as it states on the Goodreads star ratings, “it was ok.” In all honesty, I could justify a 3 star review because of all the things I did like about it, but I had more expectations going into this book and they just weren’t met. It’s not going to deter me from at some point finally reading The Night Circus or from reading any other books Morgenstern publishes. I just will probably not ‘recommend’ her titles to the library before the release date.

Was there a book you recently read that you might feel didn’t justify a place on your holds list?

~Ashley

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