Reading guide for The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

Reading Guide Questions

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!

1. A single book takes Zachary on an adventure. What book that you've read would you want to take you on an adventure?
2. Why does Allegra want to destroy the doors?
3. What are the pirate and the girl metaphors for?
4. The Starless Sea is made up of six books. Is there a main character or narrator for each? Or do they each have the same one?
5. How do the stories intersect in The Starless Sea?
6. The books in The Starless Sea are "Sweet Sorrows," "Fortunes and Fables," "The Ballad of Simon and Eleanor," "Written in the Stars," "The Owl King," and "The Secret Diary of Katrina Hawkins." How do they differ from one another, in particular book six from the first five?
7. Why didn't Zachary open the door when he was younger? Why do you think he found "Sweet Sorrows" in the library years later?
8. What do you think Katrina finds at the end of the book when she opens the door with a crown, a feather, and a heart?

Unless otherwise stated, this discussion guide is reprinted with the permission of Anchor Books. Any page references refer to a USA edition of the book, usually the trade paperback version, and may vary in other editions.