The Starless Sea

The Starless Sea is the most beautifully written book I've read in a long time. An instant favorite. I read a library copy but I'm going to buy my own because I loved it too much and I feel like I could read it again and pick up on new things I missed the first time.

It was a lovely ode to stories and story telling. At first I didn't want each chapter of Zachary's story to be broken up by a small story, not because I didn't love the little story, but because I was so interested in what was going on with Zachary. But that didn't last long as I pretty quickly started looking forward to those chapter breaks and the intriguing stories I'd get to read. Everything was so engrossing that I could almost forget the “main story” while reading those “side stories”, and then I could almost forget the side stories while reading the main. 

And on that note, I love that I went in thinking the book was mostly about Zachary and his adventures but it ended up being about so, so much more. I guess it could be argued that a great many books are about more than their main character, but by the end, Zachary didn't feel as much like the MC as he did in the beginning. Everything was the MC, I cared about everything as much as I cared about him. In a lot of stories, side characters and side stories aren't as important but I love that EVERYTHING is important in The Starless Sea.

Oh! and I liked all the video game references. I understood all of them, and I could tell Erin Morganstern played video games too so that was fun.