Once in a while a book hits you in a way that feels so personal and so special that you just want to believe that it’s true. I felt that way when I read Erin Morgenstern’s first book, The Night Circus. It is one of the most fantastical and riveting love stories I have ever read, and The Starless Sea, her second novel, is my favorite book that I have read in the last year. This book centers around the idea that all throughout the world there are doors that will take you to a subterranean world on the edge of the Starless Sea that is dedicated to books and storytelling - with rooms that contain massive libraries, theaters for acting, halls that whisper fairytales and more. In this special universe some people pass through, others stay there to enjoy it for a long time or visit regularly and others take on roles to help maintain it.

The story follows a young many named Zachary who finds a book in his university library that is called “Sweet Sorrows” (I LOVE that name!) and gets drawn into a cast of characters and time-spanning mystery that surrounds the Starless Sea. The book goes between Zachary and his journey and stories and excerpts from several of books that he finds and reads along the way. The stories weave together at the end, crashing into each other in the final act of the story as the complex truth about the library and the other characters is revealed.

This is book for readers who love to read and Morgenstern excels at building complicated, beautiful and dynamic worlds that feel stunningly realistic and full of rich details. As someone who enjoys most forms of storytelling, I came out of this book believing that if the Starless Sea did exist, a door would someday appear for me to find it. I gasped out loud, I cried, I laughed, and I wished that this was a real place that I could see for myself.

Related Classic:

As I mentioned above, Erin Morgenstern’s first novel The Night Circus is another must-read. While it isn’t old enough to be a “classic,” I have read it multiple times and I think about it regularly. The story there centers around two young people who are the proteges of famous magicians (who can actually do magic). The magicians make a bet to see which of the two will grow to be more powerful, centered around a traveling circus where they create exhibits, build infrastructure and out-do each other in a magical battle. Like The Starless Sea, the story weaves between various characters and timelines, and between the magic of the circus and the very real world that it exists in.