First time reading this author. It wasn’t super exciting for me at the start, had to trudge through until “Ballad of Simon and Eleanor” which was where things really picked up.
I liked a lot of things about this book. The inclusion of Kat into the plot at the end was really good. I liked the whimsical fairy tales, especially Simon and Eleanor and how their story panned out, despite everything that happened.
I’m not particularly sold on Zachary-Dorian as a romance? Implied age-gap aside, Zachary seemed to like Dorian because he’s cool and suave, but there’s not much reason for Dorian to reciprocate? Maybe aside from needing company after leaving behind his assassin life, but that’s not compelling enough for me I guess.
I am glad it had a happy ending, but there are so many things I couldn’t understand.
– Zachary’s death: the “bees” said he was “the end”. Was the only reason he died was to create a dramatic, climactic ending for the story? Why was there a need for an “ending”, for the sea to rise and swallow up everything? Was it to resolve Time and Fate’s (Mirabel and Keeper’s) story?
– The story sculptor: at the end the bees let Zachary meet the story sculptor, who turned out to be Mirabel. But the sculptor was also the person who made the box/story/concept to hide Fate’s heart, and Fate was also Mirabel? Is Mirabel playing/representative of multiple characters?
– Who was the silhouette in the book crypt?
– Why bees and honey? Yes their speech pattern was absolutely hilarious, and there’s a theme between a Keeper and Bees, but what do they represent, what purpose do they serve? Are they the story tellers? Why are they also the Kitchen? Why is the sea made out of honey specifically?
– Owl King (and owls in general): I understand the title is passed along many generations of owls, none of whom are named. But Dorian met an Owl King before coming to the inn, what did that moment mean? And the sword (that allegedly “will kill the king”) targeted Zachary instead. The owls in the original Time and Fate story were antagonists, ripping Fate apart. And in the present they did come attack Zachary and Mirabel when they descended. But otherwise they were… kinda chill? Some stories had them be pretty peaceful, like when the middle daughter killed a King and just lived with an owl, or when Simon said “the owls guide and propel the story forward, why are you afraid?” Are they inherently good or evil, or are they simply a neutral plot device to move the plot along in different stories?
– What were the voices in Zachary’s head right before Simon came and snapped him out of it? Who or what’s the force that’s stopping Zachary on his “quest”? Again, is it the owls? Is it the “stars”, the ones that conspired against Time and Fate? What did Simon mean by “we are the stars?” Why were the stars happy at the end?
– What happens at the very end? Kat opens a door into a new Harbor, where Zachary, Dorian, Simon, and Eleanor are heading to? The sea floods the old harbor? Will Mirabel and Keeper join them, to create new doors to invite more people to join them? Everyone being alive aside, the new Harbor/Sea seems so lifeless and barren, where all the books and architecture has been destroyed/consumed, so is it a really a good thing that it lives on?
I know this is a lot of questions, and some of them might be dumber than others. I’d love to hear your guys’ explanation of what these details meant, thank you!
by Megabot555