“Everyone wants the stars. Everyone wishes to grasp that which exists out of reach. To hold the extraordinary in their hands and keep the remarkable in their pockets.” – 2/5 stars!

Attention! This book contains: pirates, bees, cut out tongues, realistic doors, dice, old books, fortune-tellers, bookshelves, swords, painters, parties, bunnies, doors, honey,  ginger cats and owl kings.

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’m surprised with myself, I can’t believe I was able to finish this book because of the amount of times I considered DNFing this. It took me more than 4 months to read it, but I finally did it. I was really bored and unmotivated the entire time, but I kept going because I was hoping it would get better.

Let me start by saying this: the highlight of this book is the writing, because it’s absolutely stunning. It’s probably one of the most beautifully written books I have ever read… so why the low rating?

There’s a lot of things I didn’t enjoy about this book. Even though the writing is beautiful, there is so much going on that it was difficult to keep up with everything. The plot is very confusing (and I honestly couldn’t even identify one), and there are so many mini stories in different chapters that it’s difficult to fully understand the whole picture of the book. I felt lost most of the time.

The characters were okay but I didn’t feel any connection to any of them. I really tried, but I couldn’t care less about them! And not only that, but I was also confused about some of the revelations about family relationships and such.

There’s also an attempt at a romance, I guess? I honestly felt like it came out of nowhere and it had no substance to it. The guys talked a while and then they had a connection? There was no hint of a romance for most of the book, so when it was mentioned I was even more confused.

Another thing that confused me were the changes in timeline. It’s not as evident in the beginning, but in the last third of the book there’s so much going on that I couldn’t fully understand what was happening. The scenes kept changing each chapter with the same characters, and (again, I know) I was really confused.

I will say I really like the symbolism of this book (with the bees and doors), but at some point it gets very repetitive and it feels more of the same.So, long story short: I was confused and bored. Don’t get me wrong, I completely understand the value of this book and I get why some people would consider this an amazing work of art. Unfortunately for me, it was way over my head. I still have no idea what I’ve just read and I still don’t know what the book was about. I originally had The Night Circus by the same author on my TBR, but I’m definitely skipping that one. This author is not for me!

xoxo,