“The Starless Sea” by Erin Morgenstern – Realm of the Lost Stories

Erin Morgenstern's imagination takes her to places many authors don't even know the existence of, her novels always brimming with originality.

In The Starless Sea, she lets her talents shine bright once again, following the story of Zachary Ezra Rawlins, a graduate student in Vermont who discovers a mysterious book. Inside are numerous tales, and one of them has been ripped straight out of Zachary's childhood.

Erin Morgenstern Opens the Secret World

In the era of video content, the written word is beginning to lose its appeal and power to many people, and not because they aren't intelligent enough, but due to the simple fact they were never taught to take pleasure from interacting with a text.

It's an act which not only can make us grow our inner worlds, but also forces us to think and use our minds in an active manner for a change.

Though this pleasure is lost to many people, Zachary Ezra Rawlins has been spared from it, in Erin Morgenstern's second novel, The Starless Sea. The story follows Zach, a graduate student in Vermont, as he makes a personally-fascinating discovery when he finds a mysterious book he had never heard of.

The pages of this book are abundant with many different stories, from prisoners in love to strange key collectors, but most importantly, Zachary realizes something unsettling: one of the stories was ripped directly from his own childhood. Curious as to who could have possibly recorded his existence, Zach embarks on a very unusual investigative path.

After uncovering a series of unlikely clues, Zach finds the way to a mysterious underground club in New York hosting a masquerade party. Perhaps more importantly, the club is, in fact, an ancient library hidden far beneath the surface, serving as a home for innumerable lost cities, people and stories across time and space.

Caught at the centre of this literary maelstrom, we are treated to many stories forming an intricate web of connections lost to all but those inside of them. The starless sea is infinite, and Zach is about to set sail for the journey of a lifetime.

The Kaleidoscope of The Starless Sea

First things first, I think we need to broach on the subject of the author's immensely successful debut novel, The Night Circus. It truly was an extraordinary effort, and I believe it stands to reason it would have always been incredibly difficult to follow with a novel of equal quality.

With this being said, while The Starless Sea probably isn't on the same level as the first novel, I suggest you don't let it dissuade you from reading it, especially since I think it's reasonable to judge standalone novels on their own merit, rather than the author's previous success.

I think the main factor which serves as a barrier of entry to enjoying this book is the structure of the narration, especially since many people didn't seem to be expecting it.
There is a central story around which everything is built, but for the majority of the time, we are treated to short stories which relate to the main one in one way or another.

These stories are seemingly randomly, jumping back and forth in time from start to finish. I must admit, at first it was somewhat irritating to see story arcs consistently being disrupted in favour of new tales which felt unrelated, but once the bigger picture started to become more apparent, the irritation faded away as I was increasingly capable of identifying the purpose of the passages I was reading.

In other words, I feel this novel appears hostile to the reader at a first glance and difficult to follow, but I believe it is very much worth sticking with it, especially once you learn to simply enjoy the stories for what they are, rather than their larger meaning.

The Darkness of the Lost

I believe there is a second aspect about the book which has really caught people off-guard, and it's the amount of darkness and depressing imagery we are treated to. From the premise we might imagine a lost world of endless wonders and beauties, but in this case, the lost world pulls towards the darkness in its entirety.

I must warn you, there is a decent amount of graphic imagery, and much of it seems to have been written with the intent of disturbing the viewer. There is also the occasional outburst of violence, and all together, I wouldn't say there are many moments which make you feel good, nice and warm.

So what precisely makes it worth reading?

In large part, I think the quality of the author's prose makes many passages remarkable and poignant, whereas they would have fallen flat on their faces under a different writer's hand. Additionally, the darker elements aren't simply there for the mere sake of it, often commenting on or exploring facets of human nature.

Additionally, I found it quite amazing to see how Morgenstern managed to fuse the realms of fantastical dreams and reality. The further we get into the novel, the more we see a natural overlapping of these two worlds, and the deeper Zach descends into the world of fantasy where the Starless Sea reigns supreme.

I should warn you, this book doesn't exactly have an ending in the traditional sense, at least not one which explains everything and neatly wraps up all the plot points. Instead, I feel like it's an adventure which urges to reader to connect the dots on the web as they see fit, and perhaps analyze their own lives in relation to the written word and its infinite possibilities.

The Final Verdict

The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern, while not a perfect novel, remains a unique, original and excellently-written work of fiction in its own right.

As long as you're ready for the disjointed narrative and the darker themes it carries with it, I think you'll love this novel for all it has to offer.

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Erin Morgenstern Personal site Erin Morgenstern is an American author and multimedia artist, the one responsible for writing The Night Circus, a novel that was translated into more than a dozen languages within two years of being published, not to mention earning her the Locus Award for Best First Novel, with the contract rights for a major motion picture having been sold to Summit Entertainment.