This book does not really have a firm plot, but to be honest that is what I like about it. This is not a book- it is a world you get to live in while reading, an underground library with stories come to life and friends to help you along the way, and that, to me, is what reading is all about Charlie Brown ( )

innamoratissima
da leggere e rileggere ( )

Absolutely breathtaking! I will reread this story for many years to come. ( )

What I like about this book is that it exaggerates an experience I almost always have of whatever book I am reading or listening to, being mirrored in my own personal experience, or just as frequently, the other way around—I will experience something first and then it appears in the next chapter of the book I’m currently reading, or there will be matching themes, or characters, or concepts in two books I’m reading simultaneously that are otherwise completely different in genre, author, etc., or an audio book I’ve had on hold for weeks will become available, and turn out to be narrated by the same performer the book I just finished was narrated by. Case in point: I’d been listening to Julie Berry’s “The Lovely War” and had been waiting for my hold of this book. There are THREE common narrators in both. That there are multiple narrators in both is coincidence enough, as most of the books I listen to have a single narrator. And, to further this little story of coincidences, the next book I listened to also shared a narrator from this book, Fiona Hardingham. Again—different author, different genre, and nothing I’d planned. I do sometimes follow narrators, but until The Lovely War, I’d never heard of Fiona before.
But enough about me—this is quite a masterpiece of beautifully elaborate imagery threading through interweaving stories—so much so that I think some metaphors and such were lost on me. I recognized some Alice in Wonderland allusions, I think. It’s rather long, and I did get lost a few times. I may listen to it again sometime. I’d love to know if the symbols were intended to have a deeper (broader?) meaning than I comprehended.
I’ll probably be reading reviews for insights I’m sure are to be had.
( )

I've been trying to type up a review that would properly express how much I connected with this book but the words just aren't there. What I CAN say is this "The Starless Sea" is beautifully written, achingly wistful, and just creates such a fascinating world of stories that really spoke to me in a multitude of ways. I can absolutely see how people wouldn't like this book; it's a bit weird, and it doesn't provide a bunch of upfront answers and conclusions, plus the narratives sort of hop all around at points. And I feel like that should annoy me but it didn't at all, and I loved that I almost didn't know what I was going to get when I turned the page. I really think certain books come to people at the right moment in their lives, and this was one of the books for me. ( )