NATIONAL BESTSELLER • From the bestselling author of The Night Circus, a timeless love story set in a secret underground world—a place of pirates, painters, lovers, liars, and ships that sail upon a starless sea.
Zachary Ezra Rawlins is a graduate student in Vermont when he discovers a mysterious book hidden in the stacks. As he turns the pages, entranced by tales of lovelorn prisoners, key collectors, and nameless acolytes, he reads something strange: a story from his own childhood.
Bewildered by this inexplicable book and desperate to make sense of how his own life came to be recorded, Zachary uncovers a series of clues—a bee, a key, and a sword—that lead him to a masquerade party in New York, to a secret club, and through a doorway to an ancient library hidden far below the surface of the earth. What Zachary finds in this curious place is more than just a buried home for books and their guardians—it is a place of lost cities and seas, lovers who pass notes under doors and across time, and of stories whispered by the dead. Zachary learns of those who have sacrificed much to protect this realm, relinquishing their sight and their tongues to preserve this archive, and also of those who are intent on its destruction.
Together with Mirabel, a fierce, pink-haired protector of the place, and Dorian, a handsome, barefoot man with shifting alliances, Zachary travels the twisting tunnels, darkened stairwells, crowded ballrooms, and sweetly soaked shores of this magical world, discovering his purpose—in both the mysterious book and in his own life.
"I think the best stories feel like they’re still going, somewhere, out in story space."
Erin Morgenstern has done it again. She's written a story where I've fallen completely in love with everything about it - the characters, the atmospheric setting, the intrigue, the world - all of it came together in a book that's pure perfection to me.
I've read where other people have mentioned that this feels like a love letter to stories (it does) and that Erin Morgenstern makes the reader work here (we do). And I've read where others who found this story is confusing (it is at times). But still, even when I was confused, or had to work out the mysteries of the all the clues (I was not able to figure out the answer to everything), I was so enthralled by every line of this book.
It was another absolutely beautiful, fantastical, unique story. And I cannot wait to see what this author writes next!
Reading updates
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Started reading
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6 December, 2019:
Finished reading
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6 December, 2019:
Reviewed