The Starless Sea

I am genuinely so frustrated with this book. The first 50 pages or so I hated it, because it felt so pretentious but also like it had missed being shredded by a proper editor. Then, I fell into the rhythm and started to like all the weird nonsense sentences and missing commas and constant barrage of over-imagery. Halfway through I hated it again.

The problem with The Starless Sea is that it doesn't know when to stop. There are so many of the same stories over and over and over again, followed by a key, sword, or, god forbid, more bees. So many reviews say it doesn't have any plot or compelling characters. I disagree, because there is a plot and the characters are compelling, but they are stretched out so thin over nearly 500 pages. It should clock out at 300, maximum.

I got so sick of the imagery and the weird narration that in the last 100 pages, when the characters talk about how all stories need endings, I was nearly yelling that the ending should've happened already. When the ending finally came, I couldn't appreciate it but for the relief that it was over.

Overall, The Starless Sea is a creative concept and has some clever and beautiful writing in it, but it's far less fun to read a book so convinced of its own cleverness and beauty it becomes a chore to slog through it.