I read The Night Circus in January and I loved it. Probably one of the best book I’ve read in a long time. It was frankly excellent. Erin Morgenstern is talented. She is the moment. She is an icon.
Earlier this week, I started The Starless Sea audiobook and oh my! I wanted to love this book so bad, so so so bad. Unfortunately Morgenstern missed the mark. The book was confusing at time or just completely boring. The love story between Dorian and Zachary was unbelievable. When Dorian said “I love you” to Zachary it was literally out of the blue.
The imagery and scenery were amazing, but there was no common thread. I finished the book and I’m still unsure how the characters connect contrarily to TNC.
Honey, bees, sea, stars, sword…. how many times do I have to read those words?
I’m excited for what Morgenstern will publish next because I love her writing style, but TSS truly miss the mark for me
by hater_first
16 Comments
I think it had promise but there was just no delivery. Agree the characters were pretty flat and uninteresting but the world was a neat concept. It’s no Night Circus though.
I’m about 70% of the way through the book now: the designated stopping point for the book club I’m in.
And I am not enjoying it *at all*. I love the world that she has created, and some of the side-stories are neat (like the inn-keeper, or the time-displaced lovers). But the main story and characters are not doing it for me. I would’ve dropped the book and thrown it into my DNF pile, if it weren’t part of a bookclub that I otherwise really enjoy.
I disliked The Night Circus and really enjoyed The Starless Sea.
I loved both books. Try Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell if you haven’t yet!
Somebody on Goodreads put it so well, but Zach (excuse me, Zachary Ezra Rawlins, because his full name is important for some reason) is like tailor-made to appeal to introverted nerds – he’s doing a degree in programming, loves videogames, wears glasses, he’s socially awkward, etc. It’s like he was designed for people who enjoy books to step into his shoes, at the expense of having no discernible personality himself. And we barely know a single thing about Dorian so their romance was like, “Oh, we’re in love because a painting said so.”
It seemed like she’d come up with loads and loads of really beautiful and cool phrases and lines and just shoved them all into one book
Haven’t read Night Circus, Starless Sea was my intro to this author and I was truly captivated by the story start to finish. Read it a couple of months ago and I still think of it and think of the beautiful world/s created and the depth of the imperfect characters. I also had the special joy of seeing my wife finish it, recommend it to me and having her delight in my reading it and my reactions. Honestly can’t criticise it.
This is so interesting to me! I read The Night Circus and thought it was good, not extraordinary, but I enjoyed it. But I absolutely adored The Starless Sea, like recommended it to everyone I know as the best book I’ve read in ages. This seems to be very common in the reviews I have read, you loved one or the other, but not both. I wonder why that is.
I agree with this post. I was left confused as I read more and more of that book. Absolutely loved the night circus though.
Why do the books come up so often on here ? I must see a thread on either one at least weekly. That seems much more than their real world popularity would account for.
I originally wrote this elsewhere, but…
I think Morgenstern’s problem, if you want to call it that, is that she’s less interested in writing narrative than she is in beautiful little moments of prose. And they are beautiful – i honestly think her little slices of magic and wonder are breathtaking. But the connective tissue that’s meant to tie everything together in her books has always felt vague and perfunctory to me.
In “The Night Circus,” whether by design or lucky accident, the structure worked well enough that the book still worked for me. The nature of the competition and the way nobody knew how exactly it was supposed to turn out meant that the whole book, rather than feeling unfocused and lacking a clear narrative objective (which, to be clear, it was), it felt like a long slow build towards something. And if that “something” at the end was kind of unsatisfying, at least it fulfilled the promise of the premise.
“The Starless Sea,” though, lacked even that modicum of direction. It was all her beautiful moments and ideas and prose, but tied together in a jumble instead of a line.
I’m still interested to see what she’ll do next, because i still think she’s an amazing *writer* even if i don’t know if i still like her as an *author*.
Same boat over here. I adore “The Night Circus” but was meh on “The Starless Sea.” To me, it felt like a series of beautifully crafted creative writing exercises with not enough substance to hold them together.
i agree so much!
tbh, i only made it about a quarter of the way through, i was just so bored. i don’t mind slow, plotless novels, i even really love them sometimes. i just feel like if you’re gonna go slow-paced, introspective and atmospheric, it has to have very strong characters, and TSS… doesn’t.
it’s like a very pleasant poem i don’t have the interest to try to comprehend, but not like a novel. imo, TNC was the perfect blend of beautiful poetic prose AND strong likeable characters with a vivid setting and an actual discernable story. this was just. mush.
The Starless Sea is one of my favorite books of all time. As is The Night Circus. Sorry it missed the mark for you!
I couldn’t get into it either. It was too “out there” for me.
Agreed… I listened to the audiobook of both of these novels as well and felt very much the same way. I was thoroughly engrossed in The Night Circus. The Starless Sea was so lush and beautiful, but there was so little plot structure that I kept wondering where it was going and if it would ever have a central conflict to work through. Definitely not one I will recommend.