Vodka at Versailles

A pleasurable read for me, but I certainly understand people who don't like this book. The plot is a shaggy dog, with constant winding trails that lead in directions that sound promising but ultimately either go nowhere or are unconvincing (the romance between Dorian and Zachery that turns out to be the heart of the book? Meh). But Morgenstern can write. It occasionally reads as though Donna Tartt had decided to take a crack at fantasy, but that's not a problem for me. On the other hand, much like The Goldfinch and The Little Child, The Starless Sea starts with an immaculate first chapter and then takes an inordinate amount of pages to circle back for the "aha!" moment. However, the prose is so seductive that I didn't mind, and it was fun finding the Easter eggs Morgenstern strews throughout the book. I am probably going to reread this in the next little while, because since I finished it two weeks ago I have found myself circling back around it once or twice a day.