The blurb for this book says it is a “…a timeless love story set in a secret underground world—a place of pirates, painters, lovers, liars, and ships that sail upon a starless sea.” I think that description encapsulates much of the mystery of this book, which is not quite fantasy, although it is quite fantastical, and not quite a mystery, since many of our questions about the Starless Sea are never addressed or answered, nor is it quite a love story, at least not in a traditional sense. What it is, however, is a very intriguing book about a quest of self discovery.

Zachary Ezra Rawlings, is a graduate student in Vermont. During the course of his research he discovers a strange and compelling book in the stacks. The book seems to be a collection of stories about another world where prisoners tell stories to earn their release and lovers who must send messages to each other slipping them under locked doors because they are in different times and different places. But then he comes across a story that is taken from his own life and suddenly Zachary is desperate to learn all he can about the book and where it came from. 

Zacahry’s investigations lead him to a charitable foundation located in New York City which is coincidentally having a masquerade party as a fund raiser and he decides to attend. Although the party seems to be a normal fund raising event, Zachary is soon led to a back room and then through a doorway into another world. Here is a world where books and stories are kept and with much sacrifice are guarded. He soon learns, however, that there is a war going on between those who want to preserve this world and those who want to shut it off and lock it away. Caught in the middle of a war that he does not understand Zacahry, tries to pursue his own story, to find how a childhood memory ended up in the book he found and led him to this strange underground world.

Fascinating, and disquieting, this book makes you wonder whether it is purely a book of fantasy or a deep dive into the disordered mind of someone who is suffering from mental illness. There are times when overlap between the two becomes quite discordant and yet Morgenstern manages to keep the story on track just enough so that the fantasy prevails. As Zachary discovers who he is and faces into a past he never knew, the story moves to more solid ground and we begn to see the wholeness in the disparate things that have been revealed. Complicated and discordant, I often found myself questioning the author’s choices and wondering what point she was trying to make. Once I was able to let go of my critic, however, I was able to just allow the stories to float in and through me, which I think may have been the authors main intent–to create a world where we can just be and let the stories take us where they will on a starless sea.

Brenda’s Rating: ***1/2 (3/1/2 out of 5 Stars)

Recommend this book to: Lauren and Marian

Book Study Worthy? Yes

Read in ebook format.