The Starless Sea - Erin Morgenstern

I’m going to precede all of this by saying I LOVED The Night Circus. It pretty much became my entire personality for a while because I loved it so much and I received my copy of The Starless Sea as soon as it came out in 2019. I picked it up to read it as soon as my grubby little hands could get hold of it.

But I DNF’d it.

About 40 pages in, I couldn’t work out what the hell was going on and I put it straight back down. And I was gutted because everything about the plot screamed LOVE ME to me.

I didn’t get rid of my copy; it’s a gorgeous book and I knew that at some point, it would be the right time for me to read it. It has sat on my shelf for so long. It’s moved around countless houses. It has changed post codes.

And last week, I thought – it might be time.

Again, 40 pages in, I didn’t have a clue what was going on. But I haven’t DNF’d a book yet this year and I wasn’t about to start. So I continued.

About 150 pages in – still lost.

About 200 pages in, it’s clicking it – there are things that are starting to click.

About 300 pages in – I think I’m going to cry, this is gorgeous.

This is not a perfect book. The story chops too much too early for (I think) a lot of people to want to invest themselves in What Happens Next.

And whilst I wanted to love it SO much, I just don't feel like I'm satisfied with it. The writing it beautiful. The premise is just incredible. But I feel almost hollow by the end of it.

Have I missed something? Is there something deep and profound that completely skipped my notice?

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