Actual rating 2.5
High on style but not enough substance to give that style meaning. We spend most of the time just wandering through the story with no clear objective or impetus to avoid or acheive something, just experiencing the world the author envisioned and that leads to a fairly boring experience. I imagine the core narrative is the romance, but it's not a 'good' romance. The author tries to sell the romance on two scenes and a book full of wistful yearing, which would be fine were it not the main emotional nuclease for our MC. ( )

I was in two minds about reading 'The Starless Sea' as I found Morgenstern's previous novel, [b:The Night Circus|9361589|The Night Circus|Erin Morgenstern|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1387124618l/9361589._SY75_.jpg|14245059], rather underwhelming. It felt pretty but insubstantial to me. These days I have to make snap decisions about what books to borrow from the library, though, and 'The Starless Sea' has a very pretty cover that caught my eye. Unfortunately, it caused me the same frustrations as [b:The Night Circus|9361589|The Night Circus|Erin Morgenstern|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1387124618l/9361589._SY75_.jpg|14245059], with the bonus irritation of knowing I should have expected them. Don't get me wrong, it isn't a bad novel and I can imagine other people really loving it. What I perceive as flaws wouldn't necessarily be considered such by everyone. To begin on a positive front, I did rather like the main characters and there are some fun details. The darker plot twists appealed to me and I liked the ways things wrapped up at the end.

What made it difficult for me to get invested in and swept away by the novel was how twee I found it. Everything is so whimsical, beautiful, mannered, and convenient. There is little sense of strangeness or threat, despite many concepts in the fantastical setting being ostensibly very weird. Something about the tone, or perhaps the writing style, never felt visceral to me. It was the same with [b:The Night Circus|9361589|The Night Circus|Erin Morgenstern|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1387124618l/9361589._SY75_.jpg|14245059]: pretty but insubstantial. In addition to and overlapping with this, I couldn't find any great depth or significance to the stories-within-the-story. The whole novel is about fairy tales and their importance, yet it didn't capture for me why such tales persist. Surely it is because their message provides a meaningful allegory for emotional themes that remain important to us? Fairy tales have the depth and texture of history behind them, so are very difficult to newly invent out of whole cloth. The stories in 'The Starless Sea' didn't have the emotive power to seem like genuine fairy tales to me. The motifs of bees, swords, and keys felt largely decorative rather than meaningful. I did like it when the bees finally turned up in the dolls house at the end, because they were pleasantly odd. Keys were used as keys throughout, so didn't seem like a metaphor for anything. The sword was likewise used as a sword. The fact that they passed between stories was interesting, though.

As the book wore on and I struggled to enjoy it, I wondered whether the problem was my cynicism. Perhaps someone who just took the book at face value would be swept away by it? Various references to [a:Donna Tartt|8719|Donna Tartt|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1409871301p2/8719.jpg] novels reminded me that her books sweep me away, especially [b:The Goldfinch|17333223|The Goldfinch|Donna Tartt|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1378710146l/17333223._SY75_.jpg|24065147], and in fact I often sincerely enjoy novels. Even recent novels in which fantastical events happen to young Americans, like [b:Plain Bad Heroines|50496875|Plain Bad Heroines|Emily M. Danforth|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1584977118l/50496875._SY75_.jpg|66539403]. I can only conclude that Morgenstern's writing style just isn't for me, although I like the concepts she writes about. There's a mysterious magical library, queer romance, and bees in 'The Starless Sea', yet it was too twee for me to enjoy them properly. ( )

DNF after 200 pages, no motivation to go on reading. The world seems wonderful, there are some wonderful phrases and ideas, but the book is chaotic and seems to have no plot. I have no connection to the characters, so of the three (world building, plot and characters) I only like the world building, which seems to be not enough for me to like and enjoy a book. ( )

This book does not really have a firm plot, but to be honest that is what I like about it. This is not a book- it is a world you get to live in while reading, an underground library with stories come to life and friends to help you along the way, and that, to me, is what reading is all about Charlie Brown ( )

innamoratissima
da leggere e rileggere ( )