The Night Circus: A Novel

In my whole life, I have never read a book like this. I already feel like no review I could write would ever fully do justice to this enchanting tale. As soon as I finished The Night Circus, I knew that I will read it again one day! The first thing that drew me to The Night Circus was that beautiful, beautiful cover. What's the golden rule?! "Never judge a book...blah, blah, blah" In this case, you should. Who couldn't be intrigued by those beautiful costumes? The black and white and the dash of red?! And then I read the tag line... I was sold. I downloaded it, skimmed a few reviews and then left it waiting on my kindle for a few months. When I finally decided to read The Night Circus, I was pleasantly surprised to find the book starts in the late 1800's. I think this immediately made the book more charming for me. I loved imagining the costumes, the theatres, the cities and the dinners. And of course, the circus itself! I felt like my imagination wasn't doing it justice; that my mind couldn't quite comprehend the beautiful circus and the wonderful things it holds. And yet, the way the book is written, it puts you right there in the middle, drawing your attention to the sights, smells and sounds of the circus. It is just magnificent. The Night Circus begins before the idea of the circus is even conceived. It centres around two characters, children at the time, who are unknowingly entered into a challenge. They know not what the challenge is, when it will be, how it be will be played out and what will happen as a result of the challenge. The book follows them during their many years of training whilst the circus is being dreamt up by it's creators. With the circus finally opening, both find themselves linked with the circus in their own way and they finally cross paths. What happens from here is a beautiful visionary tale of magic, mystery, loyalty and love. I constantly had no idea how this book was going to end. It is so well written. You are constantly learning something new about the circus and watching new characters interact with each other and develop their own links to the circus. I loved the characters; all of them. The two main characters are both wonderful; both very likeable and charming. I loved their story - like a magical Romeo & Juliet whose futures are entwined long before they meet. I loved that while we knew certain things about the circus and its acts, others remained a complete mystery. I loved the way characters were brought in and then, in some cases, removed later when they were no longer needed by the circus. For the first time, I finished a book and and actually wanted to write to the author and tell her how much I loved her book! It was completely different to what I expected and a hundred times better than I thought it would be when I read that single tag line. I looked it up afterwards and found that apparently this book is advised for teens... well, I'm almost 32. And I adored it. Apparently it's for fans of Harry Potter and the like. I've seen the films but I haven't read the books so I couldn't really compare the two. I wondered why this book was advised for teens. Is it because adults don't believe in magic and so it doesn't seem realistic or feels too farfetched? If that's what it is then it's a shame... this book requires imagination in abundance but that's it's charm. Imagine a world where everything in this book is real. Imagine it is possible... Breathtakingly beautiful and a wonderfully enjoyable read. I can't recommend enough!

The story is about a series of events that occur inside ‘Le Cirque des Reves’ to the performers and the circus itself. The circus is only open at night hence its name. The book in each chapter is from a different perspective of a different person, somehow connected to the circus. The plot of the story is to end the challenge between Celia and Marco. The story is mainly about Celia and Marco who are illusionists. At a young age both of them are bound together to a challenge, they are told it is to find out whose powers are stronger but is actually very different, I am not going to give this away. Once they are both taught how to use their powers, they are given a place to test their powers, which is the circus. Along the way the people of the circus including Marco and Celia meet many others who then become connected to the circus. These people are the different chapters who tell their stories from a different perspective. I liked this book as it tells a story but not only from one person but from others. You can connect to how they feel and although their perspectives are different the stories are similar as they meet someone from the circus, for example Bailey meet Poppet and they fall in love. Poppet and Widget are born the day the circus opens and they too have magic, Widget can see the past but Poppet can see the future. They are the only people in the circus to age from the day the circus opens. There is a fire that never stops burning and this is another reason why I liked the book. It intrigued me that but when I found out the reason for this and that Marco was the one who lit the fire, I wanted to know why he did it. The only thing I disliked about the book was when it ended, I won’t give away what happens to Marco and Celica apart from that they fall in love. I wanted to know if they found a way out and if the circus did indeed carry on. I also didn’t like what happened to Herr Thiessen in the end and thought that once you find out why he did it, that Celia’s father could have not done that. My favourite characters were Isabel, Arthur and Widget. I liked Isabel as I thought it was interesting that she decided to boost her ability to read the future by joining the circus. Arthur was one of my favourite as he was mysterious yet he was still kind. Widget was another of my favourites as he could read the past and when he read stories and had a small tent to create his stories, he did it in an unusual way. I rate this book 9/10 because it is a book you won’t put down until you’ve stopped. There is action, mystery, romance and more and something is always going on. At some points the book went on a bit into too much detail for my personal liking. I would recommend this book to anyone of any age above 12

Every once in a while a book comes along that amazes you. That leaves you speechless, that leaves you incapable of words, that leaves you wondering how you're going to adequately review a book that is so much more than any words you can type. For me, The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern is that book. I feel that no matter what I say, no matter what I write, my review will never, ever do justice to the amazingness of this book. I could type for days about how much I loved the book and I still wouldn't feel as if I had adequately gotten my point across. To really, truly believe just how good The Night Circus is, you simple have to read it. No amount of reviews you read, no amount of authors can tell you how good it is; you have to read it yourself and if you do read it (and I really think you should) then you should prepare to be amazed. The Night Circus is like no book I've ever read before. It's truly spectacular and, better yet, it's truly unique. I'm sure there are many books about circuses or about magic, but none will ever come close to how special and how utterly captivating The Night Circus is. It's not the kind of book I normally read - it isn't Chick Lit, it isn't a crime novel, it doesn't seem to have a genre but anybody who likes a good story will enjoy this. You don't have to be a circus fan, although it will probably help. You just have to like well-written fiction and you have to have a bit of an imagination. There are thousands of books published every week that say they're fiction, but The Night Circus is true, proper fiction. It's not something you can see happening, it's not true-to-life, it's good ol' fiction and it's stunning. It's fiction in its purest form, a proper story. Something I'll re-read many times, with a story I'll never forget. There are so many threads to The Night Circus, so many different elements and characters that help make the story what it is but it's so easy to keep it all going. The central plot is the circus itself, of course, but there are so many layers to the novel that it's hard to define just one main plot. It all adds up, it all comes together, all the strands, all the plots, to make an extraordinary read. There's Celia Bowen, daughter of Prospero the Enchantor; there's Marco, who came from nothing to be something; there's the other folks who live in the circus; there's a boy named Bailey who becomes a major part of the book; there's the Murray twins Widget and Poppet; there's Herr Thiessen, a clock-maker, and then there's the people who started Le Cirque des Reves. There's so much detail, so much thought that's gone into the novel and it's mind-blowing. There's not a chance I picked it all up during my first read and I'm going to have to read it again because it's the kind of book you can read again and again and I have no doubt that during the second read I'll notice things I never noticed before. It's that kind of novel. Erin Morgenstern is a genius. She's a magician. Her mind must be an amazing place to be because The Night Circus is just so rich with detail. It's so captivating - so much so that I truly would love for The Night Circus to be real. I'd love to go and be part of that. The book just blew my mind. After reading it I can see why it's billed as the love story of the year, why it's billed as the best debut this year. Heck, it's one of the best debuts ever. It is truly one of the best books I have ever read. I literally found myself reading the book slowly on purpose. I didn't want it to end. I didn't want to reach the end because there was something so magical about reading about everybody. I grew to love the characters so, so much and all I can do is urge you to read the book. It's beautiful inside and out; the UK hardback is one of the most stunning books you will ever see, with so much detail having been put into it and the story inside is even better. It's the complete package. I will never read a book like The Night Circus again. It captivated me from page one and I loved every page. All of the hype is deserved, and more. Just read it, I swear you'll love it.

Fabulous Read. An enchanting and well written book - Great narrative.

The Night Circus is a baffling novel. To be honest I’m not even sure how much I liked or disliked it. Without question it casts an abiding enchanting spell. Though I did often feel my time might be better spent reading something more substantial. But The Night Circus is a novel that demands a more committed reader participation than most novels. If as an adult you participate in a children’s game with a hard-boiled rational prerogative you’re probably going to ruin the game. The same is true of this novel. As a reader you have to enter into its whimsical spirit to enjoy and help sustain the illusion. Because the novel does need the imaginative cooperation of the reader to work. There’s very little plot to this novel. Basically two magicians, Prospero the Enchanter and "the man in the grey suit" or "Mr. A. H---" – are pitting their illusionist skills against each other through appointed pupils. Prospero chooses his daughter Celia, while Mr AH chooses an orphan, Marco Alisdair. The mysterious circus will be the battleground for their contest though the rules or even the nature of this contest are never made clear, neither to them nor to us. There’s a certain amount of self-indulgence (or self-pleasuring) in its sprawling length. It could have been 200 pages shorter without making any difference to its premise or reach. It’s a bit like reading a succession of tenuously connected dreams – no coincidence one of the string-pulling characters is known as Prospero for the circus itself is like an elaborate fantasy inside someone’s head. The prose is relentlessly visual and relentlessly whimsical. It is also a novel that is constantly veering towards sentimentality. However, it does have its strengths (as its huge success would imply). Most notably how cleverly Morgenstern cajoles us into taking for granted all the impossible illusions created by the novel’s two main protagonists. She manages to turn the worlds of realism and illusion inside out so that virtually everything in her created world has a secret magical narrative off the beaten track. And it’s also impressive with how much imaginative vitality and invention Morgenstern sustains her wholly implausible story. At the end of the day what this novel offers is escapism from our day to day life and probably your level of enjoyment will depend on how much desire you have to make this escape. I discovered I find the world most of us live in essentially much more interesting and compelling!

I'd been meaning to read this book for a while now, and certainly it came with high expectations. The essential premise the book is built around is that of a 'game' being played out between two competitors, Celia and Marco. The two have been pitched against each other from a young age by their respective teachers, 2 magicians with very different schools of thought; the venue for this competition being the Night Circus. Firstly, what I loved about this book - the setting and sense of atmosphere evoked is simply enchanting. The Night Circus is like something out of dreams, and Morgenstern captures it so vividly with her descriptions - not just visually, but in a way that appeals to all the senses, you can literally smell and taste the circus. I also liked how the story started off with a sense of mystery, and thought there was a good set up for the 'game' to be played out between Celia and Marco. There are a host of colourful characters throughout, some loveable like Poppet and Widget, others shrouded in mystery. The 'game' being played out between Marco and Celia gets complicated by their developing feelings for each other, and the evolving romance between them plays out sweetly and in a dream-like way that fits the tone of the book. Whilst the concept of the story and the setting were really good, I was ultimately left a little disappointed in the story's actual execution. Once the 'game' is underway and the Circus set up, not much actually seems to happen until the end of the story. The tone gets a little darker as it progresses, with suggestions that the magic involved at the Circus can have repercussions, and also as the 'game' draws closer to its conclusion. However, for me personally Morgenstern was rather too vague in her allusions to all not being quite right at the Circus. I would have liked to know more about the implications Marco's and Celia's magic had, particularly as it transpired that the challenge was not so much about what wonders they could produce, but rather how they managed the consequences. In parts it seemed as if Morgenstern had sacrificed actual plot progression and substance for her lyrical prose and descriptions of the Circus, and whilst I very much appreciated the latter, I would still have liked more 'meat' to the actual story. There are different time frames in the book, and a whole sub-plot that follows a character called Bailey. Whilst I appreciated how this fitted into the book overall, I thought perhaps a little too much time was spent here, and again at the end it was as if things just conveniently came together, with the right person being at the right place at the right time. Overall an interesting and unique read, but not quite living up to all the hype for me personally.

There is nothing i can say about The Night Circus that other 5 star reviewers have not already said, but nonetheless feel a need to add my appreciation of this fantastical, immersive book to the rest of the songs of praise and delight. If you like the darkly glittering world of the magic realism of adult myth and magic a la Angela Carter, chances are this first book (alas, there are no more to read, as yet!) by Erin Morgenstern will snap you into its beautifully formed world and not let go. As I read this period late Victorian story with shifting time scales and locations, a story of two rival magicians, one working from the outside in, and one from the inside out, to dislocate reality, I was reminded of Carter, of Prospero's fantastic island (one magician is indeed called Prospero the Enchanter - though his daughter firmly resists being called Miranda), but also, increasingly of the fantastical, dreamy, yet perfectly physicalised world of Coleridge's poetic fragment. This is a world to wonder at, delight in, and even more, to yearn to find. Morgenstern describes the phyysical world of the circus in precise and sumptuous detail, so it feels as if it must be real. Her story, in many ways, is a simple one - two professional opponents engaged in a game and conflict against each other, stopping at nothing to win. However, the opponents are magicians, disguising what they do as 'stage magic' and illusion, though in fact, this is glittering magick - think Christopher Priest The Prestige (GOLLANCZ S.F.) , though with a feminine, more sensual and delicate sensibility. Not so much steam-punk more sensual fin de siecle decadence and artistry - a sort of Arts and Crafts delight in the stuff of the material world, the costumes, the clocks, the perfumes. Another pointer might be The Stockholm Octavo - since Morgenstern, like Karen Engelmann, has an artist's, sensual feel for the look and material heft, colour and taste of her world. This is also a love story, and a story which dislocates the reader's sense of time and place, making us as convinced of this world which shimmers in and out of time and space, as are the fictional characters who visit the circus. I have one criticism of Morgenstern - she has spoilt my love of reading fiction for a while - the brilliant creation of her Night Circus world has seeped into reality, and i am still half in habitation of it, so unable, yet, to surrender to another author's imagination. I envy anyone about to start reading this book! For myself, all I can do is don the black and white, add a small dash of red to my clothing, and hope to be spotted by a fellow reveur who may tell me where the night circus is next due. Magical!

My initial reaction to The Night Circus was one of wild enthusiasm. Just like a young, wide-eyed spectator embarked on a magical tour, I was enthralled by the colours, the shapes and movements, by all the sounds and smells of the circus. "A feast of the senses," the book, typically self-reflective, says of the Night Circus. Not only did the richness of the descriptions fascinate me, making me gasp at the breadth and depth of the author's imagination, but also the elaborateness of the narrative, moving backwards and forwards in time, shifting in and out of the story and switching from first to second then to third person narrative. There is no doubt that Erin Morgenstern's magic worked on me. I was hopelessly hooked on the beautiful, ephemeral world of the Night Circus, wishing it would last for ever. Only when that world began to unravel and the illusions crumple, leaving me feeling bereft and equally unravelled, did I realise how much the book had swayed me. One thing troubled me, however. A minor thing, maybe, but worrying all the same. I listened to the book in an excellent audio rendering by Jim Dale. Periodically I found my thoughts wandering, unable to remain with the story. I set myself to pondering why that should be. As a result, my enthusiasm gave way to a more wary ambivalence. The book, like the Night Circus that it describes, is one continuous breath-taking illusion, as if the story and all that is related to it, was pulled from a hat, and in that monumental slight of hand, it becomes strangely insubstantial and disconnected, and us, as readers, with it. The form of the novel seeks to reflect the illusion of the circus itself and, like with the illusionist's performance, we as readers are not sure if it is mastery or trickery or both. The author seeks to engage the reader by anticipating his or her reactions, substituting herself for the reader by using the `you' form and describing our reactions to the circus in a way that echoes the performance of the illusionist who manipulates spectators' perceptions to make them see what she wants. But do we let ourselves be manipulated? The author also evokes the growth of a large and faithful following of the circus as if to conjure up, by association, something similar for the book, involving the reader in anticipation of the book's success and suggesting how that might feel. The narration attempts to embarks us, not so much by what happens to the characters, but rather by the intensity of the descriptions of strange and wonderful scenes. Coming as a string of exquisite cameos of the circus, these scenes, delightful and captivating as they are, rarely have anything to do with the characters and, if characters do appear in them, those people are a support for the circus, rather than the circus being the context in which the characters evolve. If a story is seen as the trials and tribulations of a number of characters, most of this book distracts from the story. It is possible that therein lies the book's greatest slight of hand and its greatest weakness, as a story at least. One of the outcomes of preferring the weird and wonderful of the circus, and binding the characters to that spectacular world, rather than letting them grow and develop in their own right, is that the intense emotions they experience reach us distorted and diluted, making that young man and woman seem unattainable. In comparison, the parallel story of the two twins born at the inception of the circus and their growing relationship to an outsider named Bailey, is far more touching and heart rending than all the trumpeted fears and doubts and passions of the two main characters. Postscriptum. Having listened to the Night Circus a second time, I can only say the story is stimulating on so many different levels that any reserves I might have expressed above pale in its brilliance. Erin Morgenstern is a genius. This review was first published on Secret Paths: http://about-books.secret-paths.com/?p=261

En sevdiğim kitaplar arasında artık

Nice book

Erin Morgenstern liefert mit ihrem Debütroman The Night Circus (Der Nachtzirkus) ein ungewöhnliches und nachhallendes Lesevergnügen ab. Zunächst erscheint einem die Entscheidung, im Präsens zu erzählen, sehr gewöhnungsbedürftig, doch nach einer Weile stellt sich dadurch verstärkt der Eindruck ein, das Ganze direkt mitzuerleben. Durch die episodenhafte Aufteilung der Kapitel und einer nicht chronologischen Erzählstruktur, die in der Zeit vor und zurück springt, erfährt man zunächst auch nur die grobe Rahmenhandlung und ist darüber hinaus als Leser ebenso ahnungslos wie die beiden Spielfiguren Celia und Marco. Die Autorin schildert die Welt dabei sehr plastisch und schafft es trotz einer wenig ausgefallenen Sprache, Leben in jedes Zelt und jeden Charakter zu hauchen. Als Freund bildhafter Beschreibungen ist man mit The Night Circus daher gut beraten. Doch auch die Ideen selbst verstehen zu faszinieren, es ist beinahe enttäuschend, dass man als Leser nicht die Chance hat, den Zirkus leibhaftig zu besuchen. Anfangs bleibt lange unklar, was die eigentliche Handlung dieses Romans ist und was der Zirkus damit zu tun hat. Man entdeckt gerne jedes einzelne Zelt und kann sich als Leser an den wunderbaren Ideen und Beschreibung ergötzen, doch was der Zweck des Ganzen ist, wird nur vage angedeutet. Erst nach und nach setzen sich ab Buchmitte alle Episoden zu einem großen Puzzle zusammen. Die Handlung erstreckt sich über ca. 30 Jahre und wird durch die Sprünge in der Erzählung bereits komplex, doch auch die Beweggründe und das Verhalten der Protagonisten werden erst dann nachvollziehbar, wenn man sich immer mal wieder einen Moment Zeit nimmt, um sich in die Figuren hineinzuversetzen und über ihr Handeln und ihre Reaktionen nachzudenken. Das Buch macht einen traurig und glücklich zur selben Zeit, wenn man versteht, was das alles für die betroffenen Charaktere und ihr Leben bedeutet. Dieses Gefühl spiegelt auch perfekt wider, wie der Nachtzirkus – The Circus of Dreams – auf seine Besucher wirkt, und erklärt, weshalb ihm eine Schar von Menschen rund um den Globus folgt. Er berührt Sehnsüchte nach Geheimnissen, Magie und Mystik in der Welt. Es erwarten einen hier keine großen Spannungsmomente, keine epischen Schlachten, nicht einmal aufgebauschte Dramatik oder ein fulminantes Finale. The Night Circus schafft es auf ganz alltägliche, sanfte Weise ergreifend und faszinierend zu sein, angereichert mit einem Hauch von Magie, die sich nicht in bombastischen Effekten zeigt, sondern im Erschaffen von Attraktionen. Für den Romantiker wird auch bald ersichtlich, dass … nein, das wollen wir an dieser Stelle nicht verraten. Nur so viel: das Verhältnis zwischen Celia und Marco entwickelt sich auf erwachsene und beiläufige Weise, vermag es aber trotz hintergründigem Ablauf, die Pläne der beiden Wettväter gründlich zu stören und den Wettstreit zu einem noch grausameren Akt zu machen, als er es ohnehin schon ist. Neben stark gezeichneten Charakteren, die mit jedem Kapitel mehr Persönlichkeit bekommen und einen dazu bewegen, Interesse an ihrem Leben zu entwickeln, ist vor allem die Idee interessant, wahre Magie hinter technischen Konstrukten zu verstecken um sie glaubhaft zu machen. Der Roman spielt in unserer realen Welt um 1870 bis ca. 1900, später wird auch ein noch deutlich neueres Datum angedeutet – das einen von Schmunzeln begleiteten Aha-Effekt auslöst – und so bleiben die Magier selbstbestimmt unerkannt und verbergen ihre Talente hinter dem Scheinbild des Zirkus. Bei allem hat man stets eine gewaltige Welt aus feinen, detaillierten Scherenschnitten vor Augen, sobald man den Zirkus betritt, was sicherlich der reduzierten Farbgebung und künstlerischen Beschreibung zu verdanken ist. The Night Circus ist keine schnell zu verschlingende Lektüre. Daher die Warnung: wer leichte Kost für zwischendurch sucht, wird mit diesem Roman sicher nicht glücklich werden. Allen, die Bücher vor allem emotional erleben und erfühlen wollen, ist dieser faszinierende, ruhige Roman dagegen dringend zu empfehlen. Ansonsten verhält es sich mit The Night Circus wie mit der Farbgebung der Zelte in schwarz oder weiß: Entweder man liebt es oder man hasst es, dazwischen dürfte es kaum Graustufen geben.

A estória é incrivel, muito outonal (cheio de descrição de aromas e ambientes aconchegantes!) e embora seja um livro de fantasia não da a sensação de ser direcionado a um público infantil ou algo do gênero. Em relação ao livro em si a qualidade é a esperada de uma edição econômica de bolso que se encontra fora do país... as folhas de papel jornal e a capa de papelão fino, e mesmo que as páginas sejam pequnas a fonte das letras é de um tamanho bem razoável!

I love that there's no one main character, the circus on itself is a character, while you follow people involved with/in it, you get to know many characters and their perspective. It's written in a way that you can imagine everything and feel you're part of the world. The love story between the "main" characters is worthy of Aphrodite, 100%, is that love that's so strong it hurts, that's hard to keep because there are so many obstacles in the way but it's not just a love story, you still have this magic that all fantasy novels have and it's wonderful. You might get thrown off by the way you jump in the time line but it all makes sense at the end. I really enjoyed it, I picked it up after Ashley Johnson mentioned it in 4-Sided Dive and after knowing it was part of the inspiration for Candela Obscura... Let me tell you, I will never doubt Ashley's taste in books.