The Starless Sea, and the problem with books that try too hard
- Polly Angelova
- Jun 26, 2020
- 6 min read
I loved this book. I still have no idea what exactly happened in this book. I think this book was trying too hard. If you're wondering how all of these can coexist, join me as I try to unravel the tangle that is The Starless Sea.
I wish I could start by telling you what this story is about, but I really can't. There are so many metaphors and stories within the stories, that by the end I was just completely turned around.
We start with the story of a pirate and a girl, which, throughout the course of the novel, you come to realise are also Time and Fate. But to make matters more confusing, they also have their separate tale in one of the books the characters encounter, where Time falls in love with Fate, and disaster ensues. Both the realistic and the metaphorical story are then mushed together into the great reveal in the final act of the book when Zachary comes to the realisation that The Keeper and Mirabel are in fact Time and Fate. You know, because, reasons.
Okay, so on one hand I loved that. The threads of the three stories weaving together to leave us with two of the book's main characters as the protagonists in an age-old tale is kind of poetic. But also, it's pulled completely out of thin air. This is the first of many instances in The Starless Sea where the explanation is not so much arrived at as it is sprung upon us straight from the author's brain, and treated like the most logical conclusion.
Which upsets me, because I love putting the pieces together and solving puzzles. It just doesn't feel like a puzzle. It feels more like a painting that Morgenstern pulled out of her attic and declared as a puzzle that's been put together by the main character.
On the opposite end of the stick we have The Ballad of Simon and Eleanor, which I actually managed to put together before the major reveals were made in the narrative. Before Zachary comes across the titular novel, we first meet Eleanor in another in-book book (it's bloody confusing, isn't it!), and witness her getting lost as a child. When she's reintroduced in The Ballad, it took be a few snippets to make the connection, but when I did, I had the satisfying Oh! feeling and was instantly more invested in.
This part of The Starless Sea is by far the most put-together. Through it we learn how the book Zachary discovers came to leave the underground world, we are presented with the connection between them and the other stories, as they end up parenting Mirabel - which is apparently a super big deal! - and we are treated to some other less important nuggets of insight, like the cause of the great fire that devoured the doll house. I am unsure how I feel about the resolution to their arch, but overall the best plot line by far.
In The Ballad we also get some meaty villain backstory, although I am reluctant to call Allegra a villain. She's presented to us simply as the Painter, a caring motherly figure that brings Eleanor up and then goes on to look after Mirabel as well, teaching her all the painting business that then allows her to open new doors to the Starless Sea. So, you know, pretty important!
Later on (which could be earlier on in her personal timeline because chaos) we also meet her as an acolyte who decides to be hipster and give up an eye instead of her tongue during initiation, which ends up presenting her with visions of the future and ultimately driving her to start closing all the doors. Before she leaves her underground home to become Allegra once more and try to save the Starless Sea, she finds time to paint a bunch of other important prophecy stuff, like Zachary and Dorian's ultimate shipper fanart, because reasons.
I enjoyed solving this puzzle too - in this case, Morgenstern does a decent job of scattering breadcrumbs along the way to lead readers to the solution without the plot-ex-machina intervention of Zachary's amazingly insightful brain. They are, admittedly, blink and you'll miss it crumbs, which isn't helped by the sheer volume of the book, but at least they are there.
Then we have the 'main' love story between Zachary and Dorian, although I will come out and admit right away that I was way less invested in them than Simon and Eleanor. They are meant to be? Maybe? Except for the bit where one of them stabs the other? Potentially attempted murder happened earlier on too? It's unclear - as is, to be fair, their entire thread.
I was super stoked when really early on we're told Zachary is gay - anyone who's read my other reviews would know I am living for this uptake in LGBTQ+ representation, and I think it's about time fantasy and sci-fi had more openly gay characters. Sadly, though, I didn't quite feel the spark between those two, and not for lack of trying.
Aside from their prophesied love, they don't really have any palpable connection, to the point where it took me a few chapters of their story to clock on to the fact that Dorian was supposed to be the love interest. The whole thing is very anticlimactic, and the most boring case of insta-love that I've encountered in my readings. If you're going to have them get together because Destiny, at least give us some scenes of the two interacting or descriptions of how much they fancy each other. Goodness knows Morgenstern is not shy about her lengthy descriptions!
Instead, they wade their way through a semi-nonsensical strong of events, aided by The Innkeeper and the Moon (another pair of characters come alive from an in-book book, whose love story is still better than Zachary and Dorian), until aforementioned accidental murder happens. Don't ask, I don't get it either.
There are some sentient bees, who are low-key revealed as the kitchen, and it all goes very topsy-turvy, so I completely lost the plot despite my best efforts to follow. Not to worry though, ultimately Zachary is saved, as he ends up with Fate's heart. That she doesn't need because she's immortal now? Remember how I said her being conceived out of time by Simon and Eleanor is important. Yeah, it all ties in I guess.
The last in-book book was the diary of Kat, Zachary's real-world, as she tried to track down his movements. I love Kat, and I was super chuffed whenever her parts came on, offering some information about what was happening above ground. I legitimately though through her narrative we'll get some non-metaphor answers about what happened to the Starless Sea, Zachary and Dorian, but alas.
Instead, we get roped into some enigmatic clues that my brain was too drained to decipher properly, a whole mind-boggling tie-in with the Owl King, and an ending that was wholeheartedly unsatisfying for a number of reasons, the most glaring one being the lack of answers it provided.
Having tried very had to make sense of the narrative, and read through a bunch of reviews on Goodreads, I get the impression that this is the type of book where only the author understands 100% what's going on.
It's hard to tell whether Erin Morgenstern set off to purposefully confuse the readers, or the metaphors and ties and parallels which make sense to her as the storyteller just don't quite come through. Either way, it felt pretentious in that lofty way some writers have, often accompanied by platitudes such as 'What do you think it means?' and 'It's up to your interpretation...'.
No, Erin, shut up. I came here for a fantasy adventure with some potentially cool multiple worlds. And while I love books which make me contemplate, The Starless Sea tries too hard to make you think too hard about every. single. thing. By the end it started feeling more like English homework and less like leisure reading.
Many are super disappointed with the story, but I've made peace with spending over 18 hours listening to the audio book because the language is beautiful, I enjoyed the connections I did get, and appreciated the love of books and stories the narrative revolves around.
3/5 stars
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