The Starless Sea

Title:  The Starless Sea

Author:  Erin Morgenstern

Publication Information:  Doubleday. 2019. 512 pages.

ISBN:  038554121X / 978-0385541213

Book Source:  I read this book based on how much I enjoyed the author's first book The Night Circus.

Opening Sentence:  "There is a pirate in the basement."

Favorite Quote:  "There is no fixing. There is only moving forward in the brokenness."

Keys. swords. Bees. Ancient books. Books worth stealing and worth protecting. A secret, labyrinth like library with acolytes, guardians, and keepers. A young man who is reader and a gamer. A fable about fate and time. A story of a pirate and a girl. A tale of owl kings. An adventure that may or may not be real and may or may not be happening. The dividing line between reality and fantasy is blurry not just because this is a fiction work but for the characters in the story itself. Who is real? Who is part of an imagined story? Does that line blend? Is it all real?

To some extent, that is what this book is about. Not the most clear of descriptions, but that is absolutely this book.

I love books that define themselves:

"Reading a novel, he supposes, is like playing a game where all the choices have been made for you ahead of time by someone who is much better at this particular game. (Though he sometimes wishes choose-your-own-adventure novels would come back into fashion.)" The choices end up being predetermined, but there are so many threads to be followed that, at times, it appears that you may be choosing after all. The "why" behind the story does come, and it connects all the dots between the stories within the story and reinforces that the choices were predetermined.

"Stories are personal, you relate or you don't." This book is clearly not for everybody. It is a twisting, turning flight of fancy that is at times very, very slow and at times so jumbled that it is hard to keep clear. However, for me it works. Like The Night Circus, the visual writing leaves a complete image of   the starless sea and all the surrounding harbors, even though none of them exist. More than anything else, what makes this book work is the picture it paints. The "where" of the book becomes at least as important if not more so than the "who, what, when". The "why" is the ultimate revelation of the book. The writing builds an entire fantastical world with sights, sounds, and even smells of the starless sea and its harbors.

"Books are always better when read rather than explained." This statement is absolutely true for this book. It is not a linear story. However, I willing follow along all the paths until they do come together, and I am left wondering what happens next. I am not quite ready for the adventure to be over. The ending hints at a new beginning perhaps? I am still not entirely sure what happened or rather if what I understand is what was intended. To me, it does not matter because what I understand becomes my unique experience with this book.

"Sometimes life gets weird. You can try to ignore it or you can see where weird takes you." The book is different from much of what I have read except perhaps for Erin Morgenstern's first book. For both, I follow the weird, and it leads to an enjoyable reading experience.

Please share your thoughts and leave a comment. I would love to "talk" to you.

The Book of Speculation

Title:  The Book of Speculation

Author:  Erika Swyler

Publication Information:  St. Martin's Press. 2015. 352 pages.

ISBN:  125005480X / 978-1250054807

Book Source:  I received this book through a publisher's giveaway free of cost in exchange for an honest review. Thank you Shelf Awareness.

Opening Sentence:  "Perched on the bluff's edge, the house is in danger."

Favorite Quote:  "We carry our families like anchors, rooting us in storms, making sure we never drift from where and who we are. We carry our families within us the way we carry our breath underwater, keeping us afloat, keeping us alive. "

Simon Watson lives alone in a house on a bluff in Long Island Sound. The house threatens to fall to the sea at any moment. Simon is alone. His sister Enola lives on the road as a traveling performer. His father is gone, and his mother drowned many years ago on July 24.

One day, a mysterious book arrives on Simon's doorstep - a book with words, names, sketches, and perhaps a key to the past. As Simon loses his job, the book and his family's history becomes his project. In his research, a startling pattern emerges. Generations of women in his family have drowned at a young age over the years; all have died on July 24. How considering that so many in the family can hold their breath under water for over ten minutes? Why? Is his sister next?

Simon's search leads to family history that goes back to the 1700s and to the world of Hermelius Peabody and his "troupe of traveling entertainers." Alternating chapters of the book travel between Simon's research and the mysterious, magical world of the past. The past is filled with color and intrigue - a traveling circus, a mute boy, a fortuneteller, and a killer. Comparatively, Simon's chapters seem prosaic - job, money, house, research. The past is the story; the present is trying to figure out the past to stop history from repeating itself. The past is magic and mermaids; the present is ordinary humans making do. The past is a drama; the present introduces too many connections and elements to that drama to remain true to any given one. A thread of continuity is needed between past and present; the book however connects every dot and ties in every character, making it unnecessarily jumbled.

Magic, mystery, and family history make up The Book of Speculation. Simon is a librarian, and the story centers on an antique book. It seems a recipe for a book I would love. However, something seems missing. It's not a bad book, but something keeps it from being the engrossing story the description suggests it could be.

I have seen this book compared to The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern which I loved. For me, this book does not have the same sense of enchantment. The two do have the traveling circus setting in common, but that is where the similarity ends.

The Book Speculation seems full of action, but it reads really slowly. Even in the middle of storms, arguments, and even killings, the pace of the book is really slow. The characters also seems not to develop or engage me emotionally, especially the main character Simon. The ending answers the questions of the book, but the story seems unresolved. The writing itself is dark and atmospheric as are the illustrations drawn by the author. At times, they almost capture me, but not quite. This book is odd. I feel like I should have loved it. I didn't, but find it difficult to explain why. Just the idea that something is missing and speculations of what that magical missing element of the story might be.

Please share your thoughts and leave a comment. I would love to "talk" to you.

The Gracekeepers

Title:  The Gracekeepers

Author:  Kirsty Logan

Publication Information:  Crown. 2015. 320 pages.

ISBN:  0553446614 / 978-0553446616

Book Source:  I received this book through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program free of cost in exchange for an honest review.

Opening Sentence:  "The first Callanish knew of the Circus Excalibur was the striped silk of their sails against the grey sky."

Favorite Quote:  "Is it really a choice when we have no other option?"

The Gracekeepers tells the tale of a world covered mostly with water, and clearly divided between the "landlockers" and the "damplings." The "landlockers" hold fast to their real and reclaimed land and hold a clear distrust of the "damplings." The "damplings" make their home upon the water and find land to be disturbing and dirty.

The Excalibur is a boat - surrounded by other smaller boats. Together, they are a traveling circus. Members of this circus include Red Gold and his pregnant wife Avalon, Red Gold's son Ainsel, the orphan girl North and her performing bear, and several others. Callanish is the only main character not associated with the circus. She is a gracekeeper - someone living alone on a tiny slip of land responsible for conducting dampling burials at sea. The graces are tiny birds that are part of this ritual- why or how is never really explained.

The Penguin Random House website describes this as a book "for readers of The Night Circus and Station Eleven, a lyrical and absorbing debut set in a world covered by water." Having read and loved both books, I was excited to read this one. The book jacket states that it is inspired by Scottish myths and fairy tales; I loved The Snow Child which is based on a Russian fairy tale. I started this book, fully expecting to love it.

This book is beautifully visual. I find myself in the middle of the vast ocean on a seemingly tiny ship, with the feel of the cold water and the taste of the salt. Interestingly, this picture is not even the reality of the book. The Excalibur circus numbered thirteen members and an assortment of animals, including horses and a bear. The sail is large enough to be a big top. Even knowing this, I am left with the image of a small, worn out, and battered enclave on the wide open, desolate seas.

The book jacket states that it is inspired by Scottish myths and fairy tales. The story fully incorporates the fairy tale elements. Avalon is clearly the wicked stepmother; she is even introduced in the book in a scene where she is eating an apple. Red Gold, the circus master, is in the role of the father and king. Ainsel has the looks of Prince Charming. North is the orphaned child, hoping to find a way out. Callanish is perhaps the princess imprisoned far off from society or perhaps the misunderstood witch.

The story is so much more complex than a fairy tale. A key theme seems to be that not all is as it appears. Red Gold's plans hide a guilt. Ainsel and North do not want to live together happily ever after. Callanish has secrets in her past that lead to her lonely life; she is forever hiding her true self from the world. Performers hide their identity and relationships. Other performers make themselves appear male or female depending on how you look at them. The sail of the Excalibur is also the circus big top. A mysterious and hidden pregnancy exists.

Everything and everyone has layers and hidden meanings. Unfortunately, somewhere, the bigger picture of the story gets lost in the details of its layers. I find myself unable to really associate with or develop an affinity for any of the characters. Overall, I find a sense of sadness but not a compelling reaction to any one character - a lot seems left unexplored in the story.

I leave with a lingering picture of the environment - the water, the cold, the smallness of the land and the boat - more so than the characters or the story.

Please share your thoughts and leave a comment. I would love to "talk" to you.

The Illusionists: A Novel

Title:  The Illusionists: A Novel

Author:  Rosie Thomas

Publication Information:  Overlook Hardcover. 2014. 480 pages.

ISBN:  1468309900 / 978-1468309904

Book Source:  I received this book through a publisher's giveaway free of cost in exchange for an honest review.

Favorite Quote:  "Devil well knew that apart from endless practice it was audacity, force of personality and the glamour of the stage itself that created magic out of mere mechanics."

A young man who reinvents himself as a showman with the name "Devil." A dwarf who is a performer and a thief. A young woman who who is quite modern and independent for the times. A friend who is master wax modeler. An inventor whose life revolves around the automatons he builds. These are some of the characters who populate The Illusionists.

Chance brings them together in London in the 1870s. From then on, their futures are inextricably linked. Devil's ambition is to one day own his own theater. Some share that dream with him; some wish to see him fail. Carlo is the performer who both fights and takes advantage of his physical differences in his search for fame. Eliza falls in love, but also works hard to forge a relationship that is a partnership between equals. Jasper has known Devil since childhood; he knows his background and his secrets. Jasper has chosen a path different than Devil's, different yet linked. Heinrich Bayer is a man of science who embodies his automaton creation with human feelings and relationships.

They come together at the Palmyra Theater, a decrepit concert halls that many including Devil wish to bring back to life as a performance theater. Interestingly, the name Palmyra is the name of an ancient city in what is now Syria. It is first mentioned in history in the Babylonian records from the second millennium BC. Its use in this book may be related to the fact that aside from the temple, the most notable remain found in Palmyra is a Roman theater dated to the first century AD. The reader is in fact introduced to the theater, "It was named the Palmyra, yes. That's a town in Arabia, you know. Something like Babylon. What a name, eh?" An interesting historical tidbit in what is otherwise a fanciful book.

The book has ups and downs, but not a major conclusion or event. It seems to simmer along. The characters move towards their goals; they encounter hardships and help. Successes and failures. Yet, a climax never develops. I waited for something more that never really came.

This book perhaps suffers from the comparison drawn for the book. I loved the first Rosie Thomas book I read, The Kashmir Shawl. That book enveloped me in its story and the emotion. Also, it surprised me in that it did not end up where expected. The Illusionists does not elicit the same response. The characters are much less sympathetic, and the story is much darker and slower. Also, this book has a much darker central theme; it is about ambition and how far people will go to accomplish a goal.

This book has been likened to The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, which I loved. For me, this book suffers by the comparison. For one, the imagery of The Night Circus is beautiful and magical; it creates and becomes the illusion of the book. The Illusionists is more about the characters and plot than the imagery. It is about the relationships, the intrigue, and the machinations, not just the illusion. As such, this book ends up with a much more pragmatic "down in the trenches" tone. The magic and the illusion in the book is there, but the book is much more about the mechanics behind the illusion. I guess I would have preferred the illusion.

Please share your thoughts and leave a comment. I would love to "talk" to you.

The Confabulist: A Novel

Title:  The Confabulist:  A Novel

Author:  Steven Galloway
Publication Information:  Riverhead Hardcover. 2014. 320 pages.

ISBN:  1594631964 / 978-1594631962

Book Source:  I received this book as a publisher's galley through NetGalley free of cost in exchange for an honest review.

Favorite Quote:  "The truth wasn't easily identifiable. You could spot a lie, but the opposite of a lie wasn't always the truth."

The word "confabulist" does not exist in the dictionary. The closest words are "fabulist" and "confabulate." According to the dictionary, a "fabulist" is a person who invents or relates fables or a person who lies. The verb "confabulate" in psychiatry means to "replace the gaps left by a disorder of the memory with imaginary remembered experiences consistently believed to be true." The implied question in these words of what is real and what is an illusion lies at the heart of this book.

This book is a proposed story of Harry Houdini and about a man named Martin Strauss. The lives of the two seem to interconnect in so many different ways over the years. The book weaves back and forth through different time periods and through Martin's memories. Somewhere, the line between reality and illusion is blurred, and the two merge. To complete the illusion, the book is populated with historical figures such as the Romanovs and Arthur Conan Doyle.

The book begins with three intriguing ideas:

Martin is told that "You will in essence, Mr. Strauss, lose your mind."

Martin thinks, "What is a memory anyway, other than a ghost of something that's been gone for a long time? There are secrets that I've kept. Maybe they should stay secrets."

Martin declares to the reader, "What no one knows, save for myself and one other person who likely died long ago, is that I didn't just kill Harry Houdini. I killed him twice."

The story then proceeds to draw on all three ideas. It tells of Martin's past and his uncertainty.
It also tells a story of Harry Houdini - his role as an entertainer, his relationships with his mother and his wife, his beliefs in the difference is giving people a show versus preying on their spiritual beliefs, and his unusual role during the World War. Martin's story weaves in and out of Houdini's story. The more intriguing parts of the book are Harry Houdini's.

In a lot of ways, this book reminded me of The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. It has that same magical quality about it, and a similar circular approach to the story. Fanciful and not be believed, yet believable at the same time.

Please share your thoughts and leave a comment. I would love to "talk" to you.

The Night Circus

Title:  The Night Circus

Author:  Erin Morgenstern

Publication Information:  Doubleday. 2011. 387 pages.

Book Source:  I read this book based on its publicity because it sounded like an intriguing book.

Favorite Quote:  The finest of pleasures are always the unexpected ones.

The Night Circus is a first novel and a flight of imagination. It is a book of magic, fantasy, and romance. It is the story of Marco and Celia, bound together together in a competition by their guardians before they are even aware of themselves or each other. It is also the story of all those who surround them and effect their competition and a story of the circus itself.

Marco is an orphan adopted by a man known as Alexander. Celia is the daughter of the magician known as Prospero. Alexander and Prospero train their charges to duel in a competition of magical skills in which there can only be one survivor. The reason for the competition between the two is eventually explained towards the end of the book. However, it is not crucial to the book. Wondering about it simply adds to the mystery of the book.

The venue for the challenge is Le Cirque de Reves - The Circus of Dreams - a magical place of black and white unlike any circus I've ever seen. Marco and Celia do not completely know the terms of the game and fall in love. They fight against their destiny of competition. This desire grows stronger especially as the competition effects more and more people. The book builds to a magical conclusion.

"The circus arrives without warning." This is the statement with which the book starts. The book captured me and drew me in without warning. The story moves in circles, parts flowing into each other, much as the descriptions of the circular pathways of the circus. It kept me wondering what was coming around the next curve. The book creates vivid images of the circus and the acts within it. While reading, I thought this would make a wonderful movie. Apparently, others agree with me. Movie rights for the book have already been sold.

The imagery of the book is beautiful. The story is fanciful and beyond belief, yet you believe in it anyways. It does not lend itself to be easily described and must be read to be experienced. I found myself absorbed and had a hard time putting the book down. A great first book. I can't wait to see the movie and see what comes next from Erin Morgenstern.