The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern first came out in 2011 and has many great reviews and people claiming that the book is pure magic… Although I might not agree about the story, I do agree that the writing and language used is enchanting.
The Night Circus is born to bring something new and unique to the world that no one has done before and with a lot of effort, planing and care, the idea becomes reality. But little do people know about what is happening behind the scenes – how the magic is real and circus is just a playground for two competitors, to prove their skills and set up the best magical exhibitions possible. With years going, they are so attached to the circus that it couldn’t possibly survive without them, but one has to lose for one to win, while both of them care about the circus and don’t want it to crumble to dust, they have to find a way for it to survive and for one of them to lose.
The book was amazing, I don’t want my rating to get in your eyes and you would say – “Oh, I’m not reading that!” No! It is a great book, but it didn’t speak to me well enough and I didn’t feel it in my heart as much as I would have liked. I know that other people will and that’s why it is definitely worth a read.
I haven’t really been to circus (or have when I was really small and don’t remember it) and have never really found it enchanting, but the circus in this book was wonderful. I did drink in descriptions, that I usually dislike, and wanted to know more about tents and magic that is creating all of it. Sometimes a description was too long or too boring, I will not deny that, but mostly it was interesting and magical. The writing suited occasion very well. It was both helpful in setting the circus scene as well as the century (18th-19th century) and I just cannot stress enough how much I enjoyed the writing and language used.
Because of the large amount of descriptions we don’t get to know the characters or the magic very well. I still don’t know them and have a feeling that there’s so much more to explore, but based on the fact that I would like to think that this book had at least six main heroes + descriptions of all the tents, there wasn’t enough time to explore and get to know them all. And that was the main problem with the story – it tried to do too much – I couldn’t decide whom to cheer for, whom to follow and be interested in, because I didn’t know enough about the characters. And I think that is the main reason I liked the descriptions so much, because circus itself is the character we find out the most about.
I did find some things weird and amusing – like the fact that Bailey wakes up much earlier then the rest of his family. As far as I’ve always known – people working in farms wake up really early in order to attend to all the animal’s and themselves, so that stroke me as really weird. And there were few other moments that seemed just as unusual (in a bad sense – they kind of broke the magical feeling).
But if I had to choose my favourite character, I guess it would be Celia – simply because the story starts with her and usually reader associates and attaches to the first main character. But I liked twins just as much, probably Widget more. Oh and the kittens of course!
The thing that kept me going was also connected with Celia and without spoiling, I cannot really say much, but I was just really excited to know when at last she will pick up the wrong umbrella.
Talking about the challenge, I didn’t get much of explanation about how the magic really works in this book. I mean – how all that mix of symbols actually can do anything? Or about how the challenge is happening – we got the answer to ‘why’ (although I didn’t think it was a good answer), but we never got (or I didn’t understand) why it is happening with the rules they had. Because when Alexander explained things, it just seemed that they do it the way they do because that’s just a tradition without any real meaning .
I can’t really say that I understood completely what happened to Celia’s father and what – at the end happened to contestants. I mean I got the idea (winning-losing thing for one), but I wish it would have been explained more. Just because the characters do not know exactly what’s up, doesn’t mean that the reader cannot know at least a bit. It does leave an impression that it wasn’t thought through entirely, it didn’t seem well explained.
Overall I liked the book quite a bit, but it wasn’t a page turner and unfortunately didn’t touch me deep enough. If it would have, it would be four stars, but now, I gave it three stars on my goodreads page. And wouldn’t suggest it to people who like fast paced books, because this one is defintely slow. And I am quite sure that my boyfriend would be bored to death when reading it, so I do not suggest it to people who like superheroes and a lot of action – the magic might give the superhero vibe, but it really isn’t the same at all.
And oh, I found it really funny that a morning star is writing about the night circus.
January 15, 2016 at 21:17
I read this book as it was assigned reading for a book club I’m part of, and agree the descriptions of the circus are remarkable. I found it to be rather confusing at times, finding that I had to really concentrate on keeping all the story lines and characters straight in my head. The only ones I can currently remember are the young brother and sister, and the outsider that comes to find them. I can’t even remember what their names were.
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January 16, 2016 at 11:16
I honestly didn’t follow the time lines. 😀 I know I have to blush, but I just read it without paying much attention to the dates. Sometimes I would look at the date, but not year and it could bring some great surprises to me.
I think that partially I read this book so slow because of the remembering and thinking about everything as well.
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January 15, 2016 at 21:33
I’ve hear a lot about this book, and the reviews weren’t always really positive, but you made me really curious!
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January 16, 2016 at 11:13
🙂 Good to hear that. I feel like it is really unpredictable, if you will like it, because I usually dislike description, but here they were my favourite part. I guess the only way to find out is to pick it up and have a go.
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January 15, 2016 at 21:37
Great review! Totally agree with everything you said. The descriptions were amazing but there was no connection/feelings between me and the characters
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January 16, 2016 at 11:12
Good to hear that I’m not the only one, sad to hear that one more person didn’t enjoy this book as much it should be enjoyed! 😀
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January 16, 2016 at 01:24
I loved this book! But I really wanted to say you might want to add “spoiler alert” to your title since the second paragraph kind of gives away the secrets.
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January 16, 2016 at 07:08
My thoughts exactly! The writing of The Night Circus is exquisite, but with so much description and the constant switching from one person to another, it kept me at a distance from many of the characters. I’d say it was like watching a movie without the sounds – you can see the magic and follow the progression of the story, but because there is no music you’re not pulled into the scene itself.
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January 16, 2016 at 11:11
Yes, I completely agree and I think that I wanted more descriptions just because it developed the scene and circus (if one thinks of circus as character) and if the author would push me to get to know the characters better, eventually I would get attached to them and want more of them.
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January 16, 2016 at 08:36
SPOILER ALERT, THIS COMMENT CONTAINS HEAVY SPOILERS.
This is actually one of my favorite books of all time, but I can totally see why it wouldn’t work for some people. I read it as a series of epic love stories (Celia and Marco, of course, but also Tsukiko and Hikari, and Bailey and Poppet), so it wasn’t about the setting and the magic so much as the emotions. But it’s funny, because some people don’t find any emotional connection! So interesting to see other people’s reactions to books 😀
Excellent review, thank you for sharing!
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January 16, 2016 at 11:09
I felt like the romance wasn’t strong enough for me. I definitely got my breath taken away once by C&M and got really excited about it, but as much as I loved Kiko, it just wasn’t enough for me to feel enough? With Penelope I saw it there and new it is there, but it didn’t give me the goosebumps, I guess again – it wasn’t enough.
It all was just so indefinite that, if you imagine yourself Poppet, you are not quite sure what you feel and how strong it is.
And now I’m starting to see, that perhaps it is not that bad – because the exaggerated love that often is seen in books and films is also terrible.
Thanks for the comment, you left me thinking! 😀
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January 18, 2016 at 21:38
Haven’t read this book yet, though I want to. But I’ll definitely keep your criticisms in mind when reading it. Because I’m into both slow paced and fast paced books, but I normally don’t know if I’ll enjoy reading a book until I pick it up and give it a try. But if the description of everything is great, I’m sure I’ll enjoy it because of the writing more than anything else. But will just have to wait and see for now.
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January 19, 2016 at 04:36
What a coincidence! I just finished this book too! And I absolutely agree with you about understanding the challenge and such. I never really understood whether they were actually using real magic or if they were magic tricks… loved your review though! 🙂
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January 20, 2016 at 13:09
I really enjoyed this book for the mystery of it. I can see how it might not speak to everyone though. The images and mystery were what drew me into it. Thanks for sharing!
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January 25, 2016 at 20:32
I enjoyed this book a lot but man was the pacing a pain. I would’ve loved it more if there weren’t so many parts that bogged the story down. Great review!
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January 31, 2016 at 22:18
Great review! I didn’t even think of that about the morning star and the night circus connection- that’s really clever as well 🙂
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February 1, 2016 at 14:32
I read this book last year, and it is one of my favorites. I would say being a circus fan did influence my reading 🙂
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February 2, 2016 at 23:27
High on my to read list, but it has been since it was published. I must try harder!
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