Obsessed and bewildered that a book (especially one that was donated in 1993) had predicted his life before birth, he attends a masquerade in New York City in an effort to unmask the enigmatic secrets surrounding the starless sea. The “not yet” haunts Zachary and the revelation of his missed opportunity turns his world upside down. The door vanished the next day, and the book cryptically points out that Zachary hadn’t then found his way to the starless sea. As a young boy, he came across a magical door that called to him wavering between the urges to tip over into the unknown or cling to familiar safety, he chose the latter. Bursting with interwoven tales of guardians, acolytes, and keepers by the starless sea, the book also contains an anecdote from Zachary’s childhood. Graduate student Zachary Ezra Rawlins discovers a mysterious and mishelved book in his university library collection. After what seemed like eternity, I wondered if The Starless Sea could possibly live up to eight years of bubbling yet excruciating anticipation. Unfortunately for me, it would be eight years before the next book.

At the time, I made a mental note to purchase Morgenstern’s next work in a year’s time. I adored it - it was magical storytelling from start to finish. I was a high school freshman when The Night Circus came out and picked it up because it was on my library’s “new and exciting” shelf (thank you, awesome school librarians). Is Erin Morgenstern’s The Starless Sea the most anticipated sophomore novel of 2019? Based on the exhilarated book noises on my Twitter feed, the answer is yes.

Genre: Literary Fiction, Science Fiction/Fantasy

The starless sea erin morgenstern