The Starless Sea

My favorite of 2019

Chapter one introduces the pirate and the maiden, two introduces the acolyte, and three introduces the son of the fortune teller who doesn’t open the magical door. In chapter four a grad student finds an old unidentified book on the shelves of his academic library and reads about the pirate, the acolyte, and himself and the time from his childhood when he didn’t open an improbable door painted on the side of his mother’s store. So begins the adventures of Zachary Ezra Rawlins. This is a beautiful, complex set of stories within stories--with magical doors, intriguing mysteries, and star-crossed love. Fans of Neil Gaiman or Alix E. Harrow’s recent debut should take note.