Ahoy there! I enjoyed the night circus and was excited for this supposed sea yarn. And I was bored mateys. Bored! I thought the set-up for the book was interesting but ultimately did not live up to its premise at all. There was some beautiful writing in places, especially in the short inner fairy tales, but I didn’t really care for most of the characters. And the only one I actually liked didn’t get nearly enough page time. I struggled to finish this one and almost abandoned it about 50 times. I would pick it up and read a chapter and put it back down. I kept reading because I thought that if the characters didn’t move me then perhaps the world building would. But no. I have absolutely no urge to visit the starless sea. Other than the cats and the Kitchen, there was no appeal. Not much of the action even takes place on the sea. The promised pirates and ships were lame. The descriptions of the world were repetitive and the parts of the starless sea itself barely explored. I also didn’t like how the story threads tied together. I thought the plot was headed that way and hoped I was wrong. The writing was also kinda choppy and fragmented and had short chapters that didn’t flow well. The majority of the book just didn’t make sense. And I basically hated the ending. I be very glad that I got this from a local library and didn’t spend me hard-earned loot on it. Disappointed for sure. Arrrr!

Side note: What in the world was the purpose of the owls?