DNF REVIEW: This Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

Title: The Starless Sea
Author: Erin Morgenstern
Pages: 498

Release Date: November 5th 2019
Publisher: Doubleday Books
Format: Hardcover

Genre: Fantasy, Adult, LGBTQIA+
Goodreads Rating:  4.19 (of 6691 ratings)

I was like that girl in the one story that, instead of opening a door to a nice, new world, I fell down a dirty, dark hole. I knew I was going as an underdog – I’m not an adult fiction kind of gal; Morgenstern’s first book put me into a four month reading slump; and this type of fantasy just straight up confuses me. However, I was ready to be victorious!! Until, well, I wasn’t.

📌 I was confused?? I mean, there were parts that I did understand, and I would feel like I would understand them…only for them not to seemingly matter or never crop up again. By the time I got around to trying to figure something out, I found myself no longer caring how a bee mattered in the grand scheme of things. NOTHING SEEMED TO MATTER OR MAKE SENSE. Sure, I’m sure it made sense eventually (I have some doubts, though, since Morgenstern had a lot to put together). It’s like the bone and the dog. Morgenstern held the bone out so far for so long that no matter my desire to have it, I was done and out.

📌 Everything…felt…like…it…was…going…at…a…glacial…pace. I read 174 pages of this novel, and I felt like I accomplished exactly zero percentage of anything. When I finally went to mark the “I’m Finished” button on Goodreads and saw that I had, in fact, only been reading it for 4 days, I think I lost it for a second because I felt like I had been reading this book for like ten years.

Me @ “Started Reading Date”

📌 I felt invested in nothing. The characters were okay. Zachary was pretty chill. I didn’t mind him. Everyone else that had appeared just felt like background noise with no discernible characteristics. The storyline was pretty cool at parts – I always more invested in the moments with Zachary but some of the random stories were intriguing. In the end, they weren’t enough to keep me going, though.

📌 I felt that the writing in this story wasn’t as great as The Night Circus. I’m not the biggest fan of stories with really, really intense and flowery writing. However, I was willing to be immersed into the beauty of this story. I just never felt the magic, though? The Night Circus did create lush descriptions – and while I might have griped they were too long – I just never got the same from here? I never felt truly transported. Some of the stories really did feel like fairytales or folktales, but I just wanted more. 

Oy, I knew that I might have a hard time with this one, but I didn’t think it would be this hard. Despite how hard I really tried with this one, I had to stop at 174 pages in. I think people that really love an immersive and surreal adult fantasy – and that have a lot more patience – will find this a masterful and lush read. However, this girl is tired. A Snow White rating, since I do the DNF. 

representation: (Didn’t make it far enough to identify all)
content warnings: (Didn’t make it far enough to identify all)

  
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