What Did I Just Read...?? // The Starless Sea Book Review // Patreon Presents
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 ก.ย. 2024
- Hey hey folks! Welcome back to another video! We have a spoiler-free book review today for The Starless Sea - hope you enjoy!
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The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern - tidd.ly/3aj5ct5
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I'm currently reading the starless sea and I have to say, though it's enjoyable, it also takes ALOT of patience to get through. I keep on putting the book down, because it just switches so much and it can get quite anti-climatic. I definitely agree with the fever dream thing you said!
I will always admit that Zachary was a complete bore and I didn’t care for him as a character one bit, but I loved the settings and atmosphere and found everything so cosy. I did take me over a month to read because it’s definitely an experience rather than a journey. Towards the end it was a bit tedious and I did skim, but the library and fairytales cancelled out the flaws for me. ✨
I felt the same way about this book. It literally took me like 8 months to finish it and in the end, I was like “well that wasn’t worth it”
It’s funny to see this video in my subscription feed because I literally just pulled the Starless Sea off my bookshelf because I’m really in the mood to read it. The problem is that I didn’t like the Night Circus so I’m super nervous and intimidated to read this one. It is, however a good test to see if I just don’t vibe with Erin Morganstern or just that one book
I read the starless sea & I think that the world building that Erin Morgenstern can achieve is incredible. I could picture the scenes so clearly in my head & the writing was so pretty. But she focuses so much on the world building, that I feel like her characters are kind of an after thought.
In my opinion the characters are so bleak & boring & most of them only exist to further the "plot" in some way. My favourite characters in the book were the giant bees who are only in the book for 20 or so pages, considering it was almost 500 pages, that's saying something. I didn't care for the romance, it wasn't developed well at all, they knew each other for a few days, barely spoke to each other, but then suddenly they were in Love? Yeah ok. The last 100 pages just dragged on forever in the end the ending was so anticlimactic & I was sat there thinking "So what was the reason for anything that happened?"
Honestly if the concept of the book wasn't so fascinating & the world building wasn't so amazing, I probably wouldn't have finished the book.
I have The Night Circus on my shelves that I intend to read at some point, people say that even though they enjoyed The Starless Sea, they think the night circus is better. So I really hope it is.
I got the vibe with the “love stories” too. Like there were a lot of parts between people where the writing was just, “they sat and talked for hours and suddenly knew EVERYTHING about one another,” and it was just too much telling instead of showing.
I have this on my shelf, I read The Night Circus and did not love it, but this one sounded more my kind of thing.
*Me, with a very low tolerance for whimsy reading this book*
Book: the sun and the moon were in love
Me: here we f****** go
My reaction was “of course they are” so not much better 😂
This book took me like 4 months to read. When I finished it I felt confused on what the point of the story was.
4 months? Wow 😅 I can see why though
Some authors really just hit the crack pipe and sit in front of a keyboard
I DNF’d this at 265 pages. I just couldn’t do it anymore. It was awful. There were some beautifully written passages and the short stories/tales could have been fascinating (I also liked them better than the rest of the story) but it was just going nowhere for me. And instalove??!!!! In an adult fantasy? Based on absolutely nothing except how somebody smells. Ugh. It could have been done so much better. I dislike flowery writing when there’s no substance behind it.
I'm not alone! I think I'm up to chapter 5 and I don't know if I can finish this. I thought it was because the audiobook version I'm listening to has probably one of the worst male readers trying to do a female voice. It makes me cringe every time. But also the story is very convoluted and yet not in a good way. Thanks for the review.
Another fever dream style author is J Fforde of the Thursday Next series. To a lesser amount, LF Baum of the Wizard of Oz series is like that too. Then there are the Alice in Wonderland books by L Carroll. Though I wonder, fever dream influence or are some authors under the influence of psychedelic drugs? Don't know. IMO these authors bring a type of cognitive queasiness/nausea to the table which I don't like.
I came close to DNFing Sunless Sea with 90pg to go 'cause I wuz so done with it. Too much whimsy became honey-cloying, complete with overused, repetitive symbolism. Like author give me a break. And like u I wasn't a fan of the main character & his doings.
didn’t enjoy night circus at all so was hoping this one would do it😭 i was wrong
I feel u i am currently reading /torturing myself with that book I want it to be over its pointless
I totally agree that this book is very interesting from a construction and theoretical point of view, but it lacks in alot of other areas. The visual language of this book makes me think it translate very well to screen, but as a character-driven reader, I found character development to be one of the weakest elements of the book. Each character has an interesting backstory but they either get rushed through or leave us guessing who they are so I never felt attached to any of them or invested in their relationships.
I really liked it haha! Love hearing everyones thoughts about this book though because it's so "marmite", you either love it or hate it 😅
I started reading The Starless Sea and had to force myself to set it aside for awhile. I felt like I'd fallen down the rabbit hole, and might have trouble climbing out. Your description of a fever dream was very apt. I've decided that the story reminds me of One Thousand and One Nights in that there are fantastical tales interspersed with Zackery's life, much as Scherazade told a tale every night so that the Sultan wouldn't kill her. He wanted to hear the next night's tale. I suspect I will keep reading because I want to know what happened with Zachary. I also really like Kat.
Omg I thought I was the only one who struggled to get through this. I was so confused, I have adhd and could not keep track of much that happened between each story and chapter and characters. Eventually switched to audio book so I could get through the last third.
I couldn't agree more with this! I'm so close to finishing this book and I'm so baffled by it that I needed to see what other people had to say to make sure it wasnt just me. It felt like such hard work trying to work out what the point of it was. Felt like whimsy for whimsy's sake rather than it adding fun to a story.
Oh my goodness I just finished it, thank you for affirming my feelings! Just when I thought I was making connections and that it was starting to make sense it just ended and that was that. So pointless! I definitely agree with you, I felt like things were just thrown in for the sake of it. Haha, here I was trying to take notice of small details thinking they would be important later on, oh how wrong I was!
I love this book so much!
I can't believe so many people don't like it.
it's quite a reader too, i read 50 books since last july
but yeah it does feel like a drug trip.
I had an idea a year ago to write a character in a book, and tries to game the book writing system to end up good, but then i started this book and it was exactly what i was trying to write! !
How has Codie taken this news? 😂
This book was the epitomy of pointlessness; no characters, no plot, no pacing... I don't have time for airy, nonsensical reads with no substance.
I feel that 😅
Having just finished the book after a long slog I agree with all the points you made. I started off enjoying it but about half way though I stated to think on no not another door, not another key, not more bees. Glad you mentioned the example of Tea bag sentance as I must have read it over so many times and just thought I was missing something there like some obscure reference and just had to move on when infact yes it was describing a bad cup of tea!! The book was over satuated with imagery to the point it all started to become meaningless. Yes there was some wonderful writing but it just did not hold together. I trudged on to the end thinking maybe everthing falls into place but no it didn’ t and makes all the reading worth it but it didn’t. I’m all doored, keyed, beed out. Loved the Minight Circus so much I did not want that to end.
Oh no I'm literally on page 75 and I'm just feeling a bit meh... as soon as you said about the "it's all a dream" trope I was like yeah, this is gonna be a dnf. I was going to read up to part 2 but I think I'll just quit now
Edited to say that it feels quite similar to Strange the Dreamer and Muse of Nightmares to me, which didn't work for me at all, and neither did the Night Circus so 🤷🏽♀️
I found myself skipping descriptive paragraphs frequently
I'm so on the fence with this one. I've heard so many mixed feelings, and it sounds like it should theoretically be up my street but also...idk with so many people not really enjoying it? Ehhhhh
It’s a really hard one to judge beforehand!
@@AFrolicThroughFiction I guess I’ll have to just give it a go 😅😂
I think she drew inspiration from Narnia AND The Magicians...it's funny because the author of The Magicians literally used Narnia to create this story. The book "A Starless Sea" came from "The Library" which is located in the same universe as The Magicians (I think Narnia is also just another dimension of reality within ours it just takes place in the modern time with adults not children which comes into play with The Magicians). Especially when she says some books require gloves to be held... just like the "The Poison Room." It is literally a radioactive room with books that contain certain knowledge that could be dangerous if in the wrong hands. Essentially too dangerous to be in normal circulation. Like how there is a book written for every person to ever exist....kinda like how Zachary basically found a book that is sort of a part of his story. Of course there are individual stories for each perspective and these timelines will overlap and be in other books..
So to me, this books are extremely nostalgic for these other stories... about the wonder and magic of the world.
They ending didnt payoff for me at all. Enjoyed the world building in the first half or two thirds but it became exhausting because it didn't actually come together. Completely agree on not caring about Zachary enough, and found his romance with Dorian pretty unconvincing (no, not because it's 2 men ok). I think I cared most for Kat and Zachary's mom. The fables are cool but it was frustrating it didnt come together....
I have to say that I did really like it but I can see why some people wouldn't, it is very whimsy and wordy.
listen to the audiobook. It's 18 hours long, but the narration is amazing and really brings it to life
I feel like I’ve heard so much about this one that I need to experience it. I’m glad I’m not going in blind tho because I have heard similar things to what you are saying! 🖤🖤🖤
The first half was really great in terms of the vibe and pretty poetic moments... but after that it became very all over the place and confusing. The adventure part of the book seemed almost rushed yet never-ending with no rules. Night Circus is still amazing.
I agree. first half 5 stars, second half 4.5
Another thing that drove me crazy reading this book : every Zachary chapter starts with Zachary Ezra Rawlings .AAAAAA I hate it
We weren’t forgetting his name, that’s for sure 😂
@@AFrolicThroughFiction his only characteristic is him not wanting ppl to call him Zach
I just finished it and I am soooo confused. All those different stories and times and characters (all kind of flat in my opinion) and I don’t get the whole point of the story. I feel like the description on the back of the book describing Zachary finding a book leading him onto this journey of finding out about this whole world or whatever is kind of everything that happens but there is no „goal“ if you know what I mean. I liked the whimsical style of the writing but it felt like it was too much and all over the place. I liked that in the first half of the book but then it just got kind of annoying and more and more confusing.. 😕
So glad to hear you didn't enjoy it! The Night Circus is one of my favourite books. So I was sooo disappointed after reading The Starless Sea! I really feel, cuz her first book was such a success, she felt she had to come up with something epic. But she tried too hard! It feels like she scrambled so much into this book, I mean all the different tales and settings and ideas. Though some of the tales were very captivating. But to me it didn’t seem quite necessary to have so many of them. And the way she tried to create these magical settings. Yes, they were unique, but in the end these didn’t quite work for me, they felt too forced and not naturally flowing. I do appreciate the overall idea - the different tales and stories being a part of a bigger story, everything being connected and coming together in the end. But I think it could’ve been executed in a better and more captivating way. Just a huge disappointment!
ugh you voiced all my thoughts and feelings about this book so perfectly! it was so overly whimsical that it just felt silly to me to be honest. but you disliking the starless sea gives me a lot of hope for the night circus which is still sitting on my shelves!!
What a great spoiler free review Ashleigh. I'm still to read The Starless sea, I'm kinda on the fence with different reviews I have seen... but on the flip side not every book is for every person. I hope that you are doing ok and returning to a more somber place after all the live shows you have done recently. X
I hope you enjoy it more than I did! ☺️ and thank you!
Thank you! This book captivated me at first and ended up frustrating the heck out of me! It felt like hearing about someone's dreams after they'd stayed up too late reading Lewis Carroll and playing Fallen London. I was fine with maybe 300 pages of that but it keeeept goooing.
Can someone please please please tell me how many chapters are in this book ‼️‼️
This book had all the right things going for it. It had books, cosiness, mystery, a wonderland adventure, what could go wrong? It just failed to deliver so much so I had to skim the last couple hundred of pages because the plot had gotten too drawn out for no unifying purpose. At the very last half of the book, it just felt like lazy writing.
This is a really well thought out and balanced review, thanks for sharing your thoughts 💛
Do you know that gif of Edna Mode (from The Incredibles) watching flames roar with a gleeful smile on her face? That was me watching this video!
:D
This is exactly how I felt about this damn book. It took me a month to read and put me in a ginormous slump
Thank you for this. I strongly suspect I'd have the same feelings if I ever read it. So now I'm fairly certain I won't :)
These comments about how people said it took them a month to read make me feel so much better, because I enjoyed the story at the end, but it was a struggle to get through 😂
Took me a year and a half to finish this because I was getting bored or annoyed or just forgot about this book's existence on my shelf
The only thing I liked about this book is the whimsy (& a bit of the writing) but hated every thing else
There are so many elements to it but did they fit together? Ehhhhh 🥴
Hey my lovely, great to see you back and I have so been waiting for this video
The first time I picked this book up was shortly after I had read The Night Circus, for me this was a BIG mistake as trying to read these two books so close together on my part was just madness as even though they are from the same author the books are cut from a completely different cloth. Picking the book up this time because I had left a much longer time between reading I thought it was going to be easier...wrong. I literally just could not get myself to retain the information given to you in the book. The amount of times I had to reread parts and trying to make sense of it was difficult. Yes I have health issues where “fibro fog” is a real thing but I have never suffered reading a book until now and I questioned whether it was my fault or whether it was just down to the book and I have to say it was in this case the book.
This book for me was slower than slow and that is another thing I struggle with as I need a book that will grip me within the first part of the book and this just couldn’t do that. I wanted to like this book but sadly I just didn’t get it.
Am looking forward to the From Blood and Ash read very much 🤗
i DNF it after 260 pages. no plot. protagonist is boring and did not decide anything. he is pushed by others to do everything.
i did not like the Night Circus neither, but i finished it.
I agree 100% ! I ended up dnfing it....
worst book i ever read :D