Despite having had The Night Circus sat on my shelf for a couple of years (I'm 100% intimidated by it), this is the first Erin Morgenstern book I've read. 2020 is my year of reading fantasy, but this is one of the few high fantasy books I've gone for. It was completely out of my comfort zone, but something I'm really glad I read.
Zachary Ezra Rawlins was living a normal life until he came across a book in his local library that has a short story about his own life and how he came across a painted door as a kid in it. Determined to discover how his life has ended up in a book, Zachary ends up on a total adventure into a world he never imagines. He's on a voyage to find the starless sea, and his life and whole understanding of what life is changes as he moves deeper into this unknown world.
This felt in part like a story about stories: not only are the chapters interspersed by parts of short stories included in the book as fairytales/fables in Zachary's world, but everything in the book is spurred on by stories. This is one of the few high fantasy novels I've read and it was something that I only felt I started to understand right in the last quarter of the book or so. The imagery was very vivid, but I felt a little like I was clutching at straws the whole way through. It made for a beautiful read, although definitely one that I feel like I'd need to read another couple of times to really properly understand.
My one main gripe with it is that I wasn't really feeling the love story. It felt very forced, and almost as though it was an afterthought that was written into the book later as a way to add another dimension to the story and make things a little more dramatic. I would have loved to see the pair really get to know each other? Or have a bit more chemistry?
I gave this four stars because I really enjoyed all the stories and how they worked together, but there were moments I felt a little lost.
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