The Starless Sea ★★ Erin Morgenstern, Doubleday Books

There was great excitement for Morgenstern’s sophomore book after her bestseller, Night Circus. That novel took readers on a spectacular ride through magic — its darkness and light — and was a powerful love story that enchanted. The Starless Sea, however, falls into the secondbook trap of tripe and takes the reader on an endlessly frustrating ride with unnecessary stops and starts. There’s Zachary Ezra Rawlins, who, as the reader is told many, many times, is the son of the fortune teller. In a book he checks out of the college library is the story of a painted door that he saw when he was younger. This starts him on a phantasmagoria adventure to find out about the book, which leads him to different stories in a world below the world below the world. Recommended for those who enjoy hyperworld building and plotless storylines.