He turns it over in his hands and then puts it down on his desk. Interspersed throughout his narrative are the wondrous books he comes across, and the stories and characters within these books may be more real than not. Secret organisations, book burnings, subterranean libraries, magical doors, pirates, men lost in time, mysterious entities, and many other-worldly things fill Zachary’s epic quest. Soon Zachary finds himself leaving the safety of his college life behind him in order to discover more about Sweet Sorrows. “He had thought there could be no stranger feeling than stumbling across a book that narrates a long-ago incident from his own life that was never relayed to anyone, never spoken about or written down but nevertheless is unfolding in typeset prose, but he was wrong.” Curiouser and curiouser still, Zachary believes that one of the chapters in Sweet Sorrows is about him. Zachary soon discovers that, not only is the book missing from the library’s catalogue, but that internet searches regarding it come up blank.

This fantastical adventure has many beginnings, the most notable being perhaps the one in which Zachary Ezra Rawlins, arguably the novel’s ‘true’ protagonist, comes across an odd book titled Sweet Sorrows. Those who seek even if they do not know what (or where) it is that they are seeking.” Silent siren songs for those who seek what lies behind them.įor those who feel homesick for a place they’ve never been to. Heavily inspired by fairy tales, myths, and- surprise surprise-video games, The Starless Sea takes its readers into a metatextual romp filled with books, stories-within-stories, and magic.

To me, The Starless Sea was not only a fun and entertaining read but one that wonderfully managed to pay homage to various forms of storytelling, often by incorporating and subverting established tropes and elements of the fantasy genre. “Do you believe in the mystical, the fantastical, the improbable, or the impossible? Do you believe that things others dismiss as dreams and imagination actually exist? Do you believe in fairy tales?” Thankfully, in my case, I was perfectly happy to suspend my disbelief. Within the first pages readers will realise whether they find this type of elusive narrative to be inviting or off-putting. Its playful style and recursive storytelling are definitely not for everyone. This is the type of book that readers will either love or hater. “A boy at the beginning of a story has no way of knowing that the story has begun.”

Secret libraries + magical doors + stories within stories within stories = my kind of book

The starless sea book review