The Starless Sea opens Goodreads in a new tab

My thoughts

2.5/5stars I don't think I will be picking up anything else by this author anymore. The writing style which I first thought of as fascinating (while reading [b:The Night Circus|9361589|The Night Circus|Erin Morgenstern|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1387124618l/9361589._SY75_.jpg|14245059] ) is just too whimsical for my taste. I loved the concept of the book, the world building but let's get real it got too boring and too repetitive for 500 freaking pages. This book could either have cut down on atleast 150-200 pages or I don't do something more than the clueless boring gay fortune teller's son getting lost in time AGAIN AND AGAIN like we bro we get it: you're dumb as f*ck now move??? If there is a gay romance in a story I'm 90% gonna end up loving it, irrespective of the other plot but OHMYGOD this book couldn't even do that? The romance was so vague, it wasn't developed to anything close to it's full potential (kinda seemed insta-love-y to me, idk) and on top that THERE ISN'T EVEN MUCH OF THIS IN THE STORY, I literally sat through almost all of the second half of this book in hopes of getting like one page of the romance??? But it wasn't there?? When I actually started reading it, I was in love, betting this would be a 4 or 5 star read but as I kept reading more the storyline got lost in the midst of beautiful words and phrases and then I started to realize I didn't care for Zachary Ezra Whoever anymore and therefore not for the book as a whole too?? I did enjoy reading the short stories within the book but I think the author's plan of weaving all of them into this one big huge story by the end of the book failed miserably because: 1. It took way too long and by then the main plot got too vague and we lost interest in the main character only and 2. it got kind of complicated with so many different stories and this whimsical world with no lines between the real and imagination. Again, like I said if you REALL REALLY loved the night circus, you should try this one, it's for you. But if the night circus left you wanting a bit more from the story even the you were in awe of the writing style, I'd suggest skip this one because it's exactly same except with even worse of a plot line. This is not for me. This writing style, this author: No. Just no. “Not all stories speak to all listeners, but all listeners can find a story that does, somewhere, sometime. In one form or another.