Book Review: The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

     For those who believe and who need it there is an escape. A magical world that exists at the same time as our own, and yet not at all. This place is a place for the thinkers and the readers of the world. The keepers of the stories and the only way to access it is through doorways that are always there and yet not. This place is the Starless Sea. Each door will take you to a harbor and that harbor will lead to an underground library of sorts where anything is possible. 

    In rare cases someone gets more than one chance to enter into this world. Such is the case for Zachary Ezra Rollings. He was first presented with the choice in the form of a door painted on a wall that he did not try to open and then much later he read about that day in a book. This book was much older than he is and sets him on a path to finding a way into this world, which in turn leads to the biggest adventure he has ever known. 

    For it is not safe to go alone...take this. 

    I can honestly say that I found this book intriguing and that I enjoyed it, but in a confusing way. For a large portion of the book I had no idea what was going on and was just waiting on it to make sense, although I was enjoying the little stories and side quests that I was discovering along the way. Zachary is a gamer, and being a gamer myself, I feel this book is an apt description of what often happens in an open world game. You start with a plot in mind and you have all of these little side stories along the way. These side stories may have a part to play in the overall goal of the story, or they may just be something fun for you to sink your teeth into. That is something that you will find within these pages. 

    This book is great for someone who has trouble staying focused because it will feel like you are jumping from story to story with no end goal in sight. Then, everything is going to tie itself up nicely while leaving you wondering what happens next. There is love and loss, mystery and adventure. There are LGBT aspects and straight aspects. All of which are beautiful and amazing and so complex. 

    I truly hope that you give this book a chance. I got it as an audiobook through the app Libby with my library card and it took me a while to get through (it is an almost 19 hour audiobook), but it is available on Amazon for $11.99 by clicking here.