The Starless Sea

This book is my new favorite. It was captivating and magical in all the right ways. The stories fill your head and keep you thinking of them until you can read more. I never wanted it to end.

What a fantastic book! I thought “Night Circus” was incredible but this book was phenomenal. The way both stories make you feel, see, hear everything in your imagination - like you are in the stories. LOVED this book!!!! Must read.

The world building is strong, but that’s about all this book has going for it. The loose ends and plot holes aren’t really tied up, the characters are one dimensional and either don’t develop or develop so quickly it doesn’t make sense, and the pacing of the story makes for quite a frustrating read. The only thing that encouraged me to finish this book is that I paid money for it. Perfect for someone who wants to read an account of someone’s fantastical dream.

This story (stories) are reminiscent of the coming of age stories that young readers have classically loved (inkheart, Harry Potter), but for adults. We forget that adults, as well as children, lose and find, and lose and find ourselves through the choices we make; or don't. This heartwarming book of stories that come together, reminds you that sometimes you have to believe, and just take the risk. No matter how silly we seem.

I totally love The Night Circus but it would be a tough decision if I had to choose which is better! The most unlinear but beautiful story I think I’ve ever read. I had to force myself not to read it all at one go because it’s so rich and nuanced. The kind of book you read once with a sense of wonder and magic. I’m sure rereading it will be wonderful but will never quite recapture it’s original brilliance. Edit- just re-read this Sept 5, 2023 and it’s just as good the second time around. Don’t expect this to be similar to The Night Circus. Two very different books but both immensely enjoyable no matter how many times you read them

It felt like I was reading a dream, and I’m not really sure how feel about that.

The most enchanting, twisting, un-put-downable book I’ve ever read.

Chaos. Rambling. Often felt as though I was stuck in someone else’s head and not in a good, comfortable, or relatable way. Unfortunate because I loved The Night Circus.

The Night Circus became my favorite book after I inhaled it within a day of buying it. It was the answer I gave whenever someone asked what my favorite book was. When I was asked to suggest something good to read. When someone new to my life was interested in wanting to explore a part of my heart, I told them to read The Night Circus. But now, perhaps only until Erin writes another book that unlocks a part of me that I feel compelled to tell others that they should also consider unlocking, it is The Starless Sea. There aren’t really the right words to convey how much you love something and what that love means when it comes to something that feels intimately personal and yet doesn’t belong to you. I can only say that if you know, you know. Get the book, it’s worth whatever it costs a millionfold. Thank you, Erin. 💕

This book sneaks up on you as first you think it one thing, then another, then another. I found it very satisfying, especially once I stopped trying to solve it and instead just became steeped in it.

I am so In love with this book. It’s kind of hard to explain because it’s stories interwoven into one another. But it is so magical and worth the read!

What a beautiful read! I enjoyed every minute.

Just now finished. Took me a month of steady reading. I haven’t felt this in tune with a book for a while. Reading a book that puts so much awe at the action of reading and then remembering that you are also actively reading was such a fun feeling. If anyone needs music while reading, Toshifumi Hinata’s “Hitotsubu no Umi” “A grain of sea” album gives such an ambiance that is fitting to the books feel. Amazing detail, amazing story.

I loved the Starless Sea because the wildly imaginative and creative “world” was ignited in my mind. I felt a part of that world, and it is one I think many of us would have loved to be real. While the story had some elements that were oddly underdeveloped (like the Owl King)…and maybe took turns that seemed unnecessary, the world created by this book is so fantastic that I could look past that and still love it. I love being sad because a book is over. I know then it was well worth the time.

amazing. this is the sort of book i would NOT want to be turned into a movie congrats erin if youre reading this you blew my mind.

Absolutely mind-boggling & Fantastical. I got lost so many times. And had to take several breaks. But it was a very appropriate read for a new year.

If you like to let go of the world that you know and allow a book to build a new world in its place, this is the book for you. If you are a storyteller or a lover of stories, this is for you. If you are happy enough allowing a story to unfold, not even sure which story will matter most, this is for you. If you are comfortable in conversations that wander off topic and meander into random pockets of fancy before ever circling back to “the point”, this is for you. If you don’t like embellishments and think whole chapters should be cut because they don’t, in the end, directly correlate to the “main” narrative, then you will hate this. If you think parenthetical statements and asides are noisy and distracting, then you will hate this. If you like to take the most direct route to a destination and never say “Ooo, I wonder what’s over there” before getting a bit lost on the way back, then you will not like this at all. Not all books are for everyone, but if this is the book for you, the you will likely read it twice and some chapters more than thrice.

When I was very little, my grandfather told me stories about “the Stacks”, a sort of library between worlds that existed in the Twilight Realm but had anchors in every place imaginable, and books on every subject, myth, and every life lived. When I picked up this book, I was ecstatic, thinking this was along those lines. And that ecstasy never went away, because while it wasn’t the story I was familiar with, it was so much MORE. I bought it to read at work during my extensive downtime on slow nights, and that was both a blessing and a mistake. It was a blessing in the sense that, sense I could only read bits at a time, I was able to draw it out, to really savor the story and ponder things and make connections before picking it back up again. (There’s nothing I hate myself for more than just speedily devouring good books and missing the anticipation and wonder of really soaking it in.) It was a mistake in the sense that good GRIEF this is a hard book to put down. I didn’t want to leave this universe, wanted to stay with the cats and the bees and curl up in one of those cavernous luxury hotel rooms and just keep reading forever. Literally had to set alarms to pull me out of it to do my hourly cleaning sweeps. I don’t want to spoil anything in this review, I just wanted to express my love for the story and the world created here (and the casual, NORMAL representation that doesn’t make a show of being representation and instead just reads like it’s natural and no big deal, like I WISH other books did. That sort of easy representation matters so much, thank you truly). I’m desperately holding out hope that there will come a second novel maybe picking up where this one left off, but in the same breath I’m content and warm and happy enough with where this left off that it wouldn’t deeply saddens me if this the only one. TL;DR: Buy this book, it’s absolutely beautiful and engrossing. You won’t regret it.

A really great story so beautifully written.