ashleys_little_library's reviews
816 reviews

It’s only fair to start by saying I don’t really read fantasy. But the reasons I didn’t like The Starless Sea are not just because it’s a fantasy. I had a couple big problems/disappointments:

- I liked the premise and setup of the story, but I felt like there wasn’t much of a plot driving the story forward. At any point, I could’ve sat this book down and forgot about it, but I pushed through since I was intentionally challenging myself.

- There were several points where I just had no idea what was going on because of how abstract it was. It’s hard to get absorbed in a story you keep getting lost in.

- I was super hype for the m/m romance, but it fell short of my expectations. It was just like, all of a sudden they were in love? In a 500 page story I expected some build up and tension.

- I liked the short stories interspersed between the main narrative more than the main narrative itself. So that’s.. not great haha.

That’s the long and short of it. Overall I was just disappointed, but I’ve heard The Night Circus is way better so I’m still willing to give that a shot.

And just to balance the scales, what I did enjoy about The Starless Seas it the atmosphere it builds. Particularly when reading some of the short stories I could feel the cold snowy weather or hear the lapping of the wind. Definitely good writing, just not the story for me.

I really enjoyed Glennon’s story and reading about how she carved her own life, her own path for herself. It’s empowering, insightful, and honest. If I ever have children, I feel like it will be great to pick back up then because of how much she talks about how we shape our children. Definitely a thought-provoking read that I’ll be sitting on for a while as I learn to embrace my inner goddamn cheetah.

I gave this book 3.5 stars, which was disappointing because I really thought it’d be a 5 star read for me. I love the setup of the story and the overall plot, plus I can’t get enough of books that develop a suspenseful tone through an ominous setting, but this was just a little slow paced for me.

On top of that, I’m not super into ghost stories. I really enjoy books that allude to the possibility of the supernatural, or the supernatural seems to be at play before a real life circumstance comes into the light, but this story hinges on the suspension of your disbelief when it comes to ghosts which just isn’t for me.

I almost put it down about halfway through once I realized this and was feeling bogged down by the pacing, but I pushed through. What I did like about this book was it’s unapologetic spotlighting of badass women. That I can get down with.

So overall while this wasn’t my ideal thriller, it wasn’t bad and if you’re into ghost stories I think you’d really like it.

This book was tons of fun to read! I will say it took me a few chapters to wrap my mind around all the different characters and their connections, but once I was really into it (around 50-70 pages) I was truly hooked.

Whodunnit style mysteries are one of my favorites so I had a feeling I would love this one. The feeling of isolation you get from the setting of a remote island and the ominous tone from the lapping waves and stormy weather really set this story up to be so enticing. I also really enjoyed the choice to include so many character perspectives and the development of each of their motives against someone. What’s the most exciting about this book is not only are you trying to figure out whodunnit but you’re also trying to figure out who was murdered.

Tons of fun and definitely recommend for all you murder mystery, whodunnit lovers out there like me.

Complicated feelings about this one. I thought the writing and character development was stellar. The characters really came off the page for me and I felt fully immersed in a cold, isolated Alaskan town setting.

But, I felt like this book went on for longer than it needed to (by about 100 pages) and it felt like the characters were being tortured for the sake of creating drama. It was like one punch after the other for all the characters in this book, especially (no spoilers) for the one in the end who is seriously changed. I've just never read a book that threw this many punches to its characters for this long throughout an entire story, so still figuring out how I feel about that.

This is one of those books that isn’t really driven by plot or even characters. It’s more driven by theme, specifically desire, loneliness, vulnerability, and womanhood.

It’s also framed in conversations, meaning there’s less narrative flow between scenes like you typically expect in a novel.

Because of all these factors, this reads more like a memoir than a piece of fiction. As a fan of memoirs, I didn’t hate the ambiguity of this novel like I could imagine some readers might. But I do wish it had a bit more structure in the plot.

It’s a quick read and it’s not for everyone but I’m glad I picked it up!

I liked the writing in this book and I think the author has potential. This was a cool idea, I just had a lot of disappointment reading it:

- The book jacket told me pretty much everything that was going to happen. It was page 225 of 275 before the last bit of info of the book jacket happened in the book so there was no mystery or thriller aspect. Overall, just really slow pacing.

- Another reason for the slow pacing is the style of this work. Every other chapter is a chapter from the book our main character is writing. Both perspectives are written in first person, the characters are completely indistinguishable from one another, and the storylines are pretty similar. Talk about confusing. I can’t imagine listening to this on audiobook. You would have no idea what was going on!

- I felt weird about making closet homosexuality a plot twist. I dunno, just not into it. Also, repressed memories as a plot twist kind of seems like a cop out. I get the whole unreliable narrator thing but the reader never stands a chance of figuring anything out in that scenario.

- Christine (Chris) officially wins the worst friend ever award. If your best friend is completely emotionally unstable and repressing memories to cope with her trauma, why would you just straight up unload all her baggage on her when you’re already worried she’s at risk of harming herself??? Really? What was her purpose in this book at all? We see her for about 1 chapter, then suddenly Liza thinks she’s the murderer (and is like chill and kind of flattered by it?) and then suddenly she just decides to push Liza over the edge? What???

- There was no closure or resolution. Not even a seemingly purposefully ambiguous conclusion. For the beginning 200 pages to be so slow paced, it felt like the author rushed through the last 70 and then didn’t feel like wrapping up the story.

I only read this book because I got it for $3.50 at my local bookstore and it was chosen as a Book of the Month in 2017 so I assumed it’d be great but oh boy what a let down. Wouldn’t really recommend this one, but I’d be interested to read more recent work from this author.

If you don’t read a ~ton~ of psychological thrillers, I can see how this would be a 5-star read for you so don’t take my 3-star rating as a sign that this book isn’t so great. It’s not ~not~ great, it’s just... annoying?

If you’ve heard or read anything about this book you know there’s a twist coming. So naturally as a reader you’re working to figure it out the whole time. No spoilers, but once the big twist was revealed I felt a little... conned? Like it was almost a waste to read the whole book in a way.

I don’t know - it’s tricky to explain. I have a lot of feelings about this book and I don’t want to give anything away, but my general feelings are:

- it’s a clever story
- I was invested in Alicia’s story (she’s the silent patient)
- the experience of reading the main character’s story was frustrating because you learn almost nothing about him and he’s the narrator of our story
- there’s some loose ends at the end of the story, some red herrings that aren’t really settled

3.5 stars — I went into reading this book without totally knowing what to expect. What I thought would be a novel about a woman stuck between two great men really turned into more of a descent into the darkest moment of her life.

I was waiting for the MC’s most recent love affair to play a larger role in the story line the whole time and he just sort of disappears. And although you definitely feel the whole time that she won’t really end up with Oscar, it’s really kind of painful to be dragged along through their relationship through the entire book just for it to end abruptly. I’m certainly not sold on Silas in the end. And when her brother comes and sleeps with Adam I was all “the heck”!!??

What I will say is that I enjoyed following these characters and appreciated reading a novel that felt more real and relatable than most do. I was cheering for Casey to get her sh*t together the entire way, and finished reading feeling hopeful for how her story would continue.

Love love LOVED this book. I loved the characters, the creepy setting, the slow burn of the suspense building, and the often poetic writing style. I can’t think of one thing I didn’t like about this book. I’ll definitely be picking up more of her books in the future!