Genre: fantasy
Rating: 4.5 stars (out of 5)
Review: This is a book about the power and magic of stories. It is best read in print, and possibly by candlelight, for all the magic to come through, but even reading the e-book was very magical.
There's no meaningful way to sum up this book or to adequately capture the beauty of the language except to say that the story is wonderful and the language more than does it justice. But here's a taste (and definitely not the best taste, but the easiest one to take out of context): "I don't know if I believe that [endings are what give stories meaning]. I think the whole story has meaning but I also think to have a whole story-shaped story it needs some sort of resolution. Not even a resolution, some appropriate place to leave it. A goodbye. I think the best stories feel like they're still going, somewhere, out in story space." And later, "...no story ever truly ends as long as it is told."
Morgenstern is true to her word here. In and around all this magic and fancy, there's an actual plot, which is brought to something sort of like a resolution by the end. But this story definitely keeps going. Not in the sense of needing a sequel (although I wouldn't complain), but in the sense that it will live in my head for a long time to come.
FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for this review.
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