The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern
Genre: Contemporary fantasy
Short Summary: There is a magic library place underground. (There's hardly any more to the story than that, so I think that's a fair summary).
My rating: First reading: 5/5 stars (November 2019)
Second reading: 2.5/5 stars (November 2020)

My thoughts:

Plot: 1/5 stars
More accurately utter lack of plot. The little plot there is is a confusing mess, and the vast majority of the book is just random stuff happening and the setting being described. For a book about stories, one would imagine that it would have, you know, a story, right? Wrong. Apparently describing random stuff is a better way to write about stories.

Characters: 2.5/5 stars
Here is the cast:
Zachary Ezra Rawlins is just a normal guy who likes to play video games and read and. . . uh, that's about it. He's so gosh-darned normal it would be horrible if he actually had something like a ✨personality✨

Dorian is the love interest. That's all there is to him. He is a love interest. Thus he has to be mysterious and broody.

Mirabel (forgive me if I misspelled her name; I listened to the audiobook) at least has a little bit of something that might have been a personality. She was a little annoying, though.

The Keeper does little more than spout random profound stuff.

Agatha . . . Well. She actually had potential, but

Spoiler

she dies before she can actually do anything

Kat is the only character I actually liked. Now, here's a character who actually had emotion and depth. Why couldn't she have been the protagonist? Why are we stuck with Zachary Ezra Rawlins the Bland?

Writing: 3.5/5 stars
I honestly don't know what to say about the writing. I really love this kind of writing usually -- the attention to detail, the descriptions, the gorgeous word usage. But. If writing gets in the way of having a story. . . I'm not sure if I like it as much.

Setting: 3/5 stars
For a book in which the setting is the main focus, I can't even picture the setting. It's too sprawling, too broad, too much. Contrast this with the circus in The Night Circus. The circus is contained, easy to picture. It's one particular place. It's not a giant world like the Starless Sea and its harbors and its dollhouses and its everything else.

Do I recommend it? Not really. If you like description-heavy books with a focus on setting, I'd recommend The Night Circus instead.