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Erin Morgenstern

The Night Circus Hardcover – September 13, 2011

by Erin Morgenstern (Author)

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The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night.

But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway—a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will. Despite themselves, however, Celia and Marco tumble headfirst into love—a deep, magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands.

True love or not, the game must play out, and the fates of everyone involved, from the cast of extraordinary circus performers to the patrons, hang in the balance, suspended as precariously as the daring acrobats overhead.

Written in rich, seductive prose, this spell-casting novel is a feast for the senses and the heart.

Print length

400 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Doubleday
Publication date

September 13, 2011
Dimensions

6.39 x 1.4 x 9.51 inches
ISBN-10

0385534639
ISBN-13

978-0385534635
Lexile measure

950L
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“People see what they wish to see. And in most cases, what they are told that they see.”
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“We must put effort and energy into anything we wish to change.”
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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Amazon Best Books of the Month, September 2011: Erin Morgenstern’s dark, enchanting debut takes us to the black and white tents of Le Cirque des Reves, a circus that arrives without warning, simply appearing when yesterday it was not there. Young Celia and Marco have been cast into a rivalry at The Night Circus, one arranged long ago by powers they do not fully understand. Over time, their lives become more intricately enmeshed in a dance of love, joy, deceit, heartbreak, and magic. Author Morgenstern knows her world inside and out, and she guides the reader with a confident hand. The setting and tone are never less than mesmerizing. The characters are well-realized and memorable. But it is the Night Circus itself that might be the most memorable of all. --Chris Schluep

Review

Praise for THE NIGHT CIRCUS:

"The Night Circus made me happy. Playful and intensely imaginative, Erin Morgenstern has created the circus I have always longed for and she has populated it with dueling love-struck magicians, precocious kittens, hyper-elegant displays of beauty and complicated clocks. This is a marvelous book."
-- Audrey Niffenegger, author of The Time Traveler’s Wife

"If this novel is just cotton candy, it's cotton candy spun from strands of edible silver...With no more lust than a late volume of Harry Potter, Morgenstern manages to conjure up a love story for adults that feels luxuriously romantic. When Celia calls their circus a 'wonder and comfort and mystery all together,' she could have been talking about this book."
--Ron Charles, The Washington Post

"A Romeo and Juliet tale drenched in magic realism, The Night Circus defies both genres and expectations. In short, it's a showstopper."
--The Boston Globe

“Erin Morgenstern's debut novel, The Night Circus, is quietly, enchantingly perfect…reading this novel is like having a marvelous dream, in which you are asleep enough to believe everything that is happening, but awake enough to relish the experience and understand that it is magical.”
--Newsday

“[A] dark and extravagantly imagined debut…The plot follows the separate and then intertwining lives of Celia and Marco, both forced to spend their lives pitting their unusual talents against each other in a cruel competition. But their world is Morgenstern’s most vivid creation, a fantastical circus featuring illusionists whose powers transcend mere sleight of hand; like those performers, the author entices her audience to suspend disbelief and rewards its members with captivating pleasure.”
--People magazine

"Morgenstern's exquisitely realized world will have the reader wishing to run off and join this circus."
--USA Today

"Morgenstern’s Circus is the stuff that dreams are made of, and nothing short of a wild ride."
--Elle magazine

"Magical. Enchanting. Spellbinding. Mesmerizing."
--Associated Press

"[A] few pages into this story of a mysterious circus and its two stars, a young man and a woman who are both capable of real magic, and you know you are in the presence of an extraordinary storyteller."
--The Daily Beast

“Morgenstern’s novel feels crafted from the fabric of a dream, and the circus itself never fails to astound. For me, the only real disappointment was that I couldn’t buy a ticket.”
--The Christian Science Monitor

"[T]he world of The Night Circus is elaborately designed, fantastically imagined and instantly intoxicating -- as if the reader had downed a glass of absinthe and leapt into a hallucination."
--Rachel Syme for NPR.org

"Two star-crossed magicians, Celia and Marco, duel for supremacy against the backdrop of a big top unlike any other. Morgenstern conjures up a world of dark enchantment and romance in this dazzling foray into the dreamscape of illusion."
--Family Circle

"A beguiling, gripping read...Ms. Morgenstern has crafted a thrilling and transporting tale. In so doing she makes it clear that of all the shapes magic may take, storytelling is often the most powerful of them all."
--The Economist

"Debut author Morgenstern doesn't miss a beat in this smashing tale of greed, fate, and love...a giant, magical story destined for bestsellerdom. This is an electric debut on par with Special Topics in Calamity Physics."
--Publishers Weekly, starred review

"Self-assured, entertaining debut that blends genres and crosses continents in quest of magic… Generous in its vision and fun to read. Likely to be a big book—and, soon, a big movie, with all the franchise trimmings."
—Kirkus Reviews, starred review

“To enter the black-and-white-striped tents of Le Cirque des Rêves is to enter a world where objects really do turn into birds and people really do disappear…Debut novelist Morgenstern has written a 19th-century flight of fancy that is, nevertheless, completely believable. The smells, textures, sounds, and sights are almost palpable. A literary Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, this read is completely magical.”
—Library Journal, starred review

"This big and compelling first novel ushers in a menacing tone with its first sentence: "The circus arrives without warning."...With appeal for readers not particularly geared to fantasy but who plainly enjoy an unusual and well-drawn story, this one will make a good crossover suggestion."
--Booklist, starred review

“‘Dark as soot and bright as sparks,’ The Night Circus still holds me willingly captive in a world of almost unbearable beauty. This is a love story on a grand scale: it creates, it destroys, it ultimately transcends. Take a bow, Erin Morgenstern. This is one of the best books I have ever read.”
—Brunonia Barry, author of The Lace Reader

“A riveting debut. The Night Circus pulls you into a world as dark as it is dazzling, fully-realized but still something out of a dream. You will not want to leave it.”
—Téa Obreht, author of The Tiger’s Wife

"Every once in awhile you find a novel so magical that there is no escaping its spell. The Night Circus is one of these rarities -- engrossing, beautifully written and utterly enchanting. If you choose to read just one novel this year, this is it."
—Danielle Trussoni, author of Angelology

"Pure pleasure...Erin Morgenstern is a gifted, classic storyteller, a tale-teller, a spinner of the charmed and mesmerizing -- I had many other things I was supposed to be doing, but the book kept drawing me back in and I tore through it. You can be certain this riveting debut will create a group of rêveurs all its own."
—Aimee Bender, author of The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake

“The Night Circus is a gorgeously imagined fable poised in the high latitudes of Hans Christian Anderson and Oscar Wilde, with a few degrees toward Hesse’s “Steppenwolf” for dangerous spice. The tale is masterfully written and invites allegorical interpretations even as its leisurely but persistent suspense gives it compelling charm. An enchanting read.”
—Katherine Dunn, author of Geek Love

"The Night Circus is a very atmospheric tale in which things are seen in the half-light of another century's lamps. Morgenstern makes much of these shadows. She also clearly savors objects such as unusual clocks, vanishing rings, flaming cauldrons and strange carousels, and will make you savor them as well."
--Los Angeles Times

"Puts me in mind of Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes lightened up by Harry Potter. This will be big."
--Library Journal

"This dueling-sorcerers premise brings to mind Susanna Clarke's magnificent 2004 novel, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell...[Morgenstern] employs her supple prose to conjure up a series of wonders: A maze made of clouds, a ship of books floating on a sea of ink, a tent that seems to contain a vast desert."
--Salon.com

"Erin Morgenstern's The Night Circus is a standout. With echoes of Alice Hoffman (fairy tale magic), Audrey Niffenegger (teleporting) and J.K. Rowling (young wizards, here magicians), Morgenstern's debut is lifted by its poetic writing, winking literary allusions and thematic cohesion."
--The Kansas City Star

"Erin Morgenstern has crafted a debut that is original and surprising and fitted it with a wonderful conclusion. She's revealed herself as a writer worthy of notice."
--The Denver Post

"If the preamble -- so aptly titled 'Anticipation' -- doesn't make you sit right down on the floor of your library or bookstore to see what Morgenstern conjures up next, you may not be the right reader for this novel. I'll wager, however, that you will fall quickly under her spell."
--Star Tribune

"So should you read Erin Morgenstern's debut novel, The Night Circus? The short answer: 'Yes.' The Book is engaging and magical, entrancing the reader every step of the way."
--Huffington Post

"The circus is a veritable cornucopia of sights and sounds and appetizing scents. It is a fantasia, a fairy tale writ large and come to life."
--Slant Magazine

"The Night Circus succeeds on a grand scale...Morgenstern's lush descriptions are magnetic, as if conjured by spell. The joy of reading this book is its offer of pure escapism."
--Nashville Scene

About the Author

ERIN MORGENSTERN is the author of The Night Circus, a number-one national best seller that has been sold around the world and translated into thirty-seven languages. She has a degree in theater from Smith College and lives in Massachusetts.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

ANTICIPATION

The circus arrives without warning.

No announcements precede it, no paper notices on downtown posts and billboards, no mentions or advertisements in local newspapers. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not.

The towering tents are striped in white and black, no golds and crimsons to be seen. No color at all, save for the neighboring trees and the grass of the surrounding fields. Black-and-white stripes on grey sky; countless tents of varying shapes and sizes, with an elaborate wrought-iron fence encasing them in a colorless world. Even what little ground is visible from outside is black or white, painted or powdered, or treated with some other circus trick.

But it is not open for business. Not just yet.

Within hours everyone in town has heard about it. By afternoon the news has spread several towns over. Word of mouth is a more effective method of advertisement than typeset words and exclamation points on paper pamphlets or posters. It is impressive and unusual news, the sudden appearance of a mysterious circus. People marvel at the staggering height of the tallest tents. They stare at the clock that sits just inside the gates that no one can properly describe.

And the black sign painted in white letters that hangs upon the gates, the one that reads:

Opens at Nightfall
Closes at Dawn

“What kind of circus is only open at night?” people ask. No one has a proper answer, yet as dusk approaches there is a substantial crowd of spectators gathering outside the gates.

You are amongst them, of course. Your curiosity got the better of you, as curiosity is wont to do. You stand in the fading light, the scarf around your neck pulled up against the chilly evening breeze, waiting to see for yourself exactly what kind of circus only opens once the sun sets.

The ticket booth clearly visible behind the gates is closed and barred. The tents are still, save for when they ripple ever so slightly in the wind. The only movement within the circus is the clock that ticks by the passing minutes, if such a wonder of sculpture can even be called a clock.

The circus looks abandoned and empty. But you think perhaps you can smell caramel wafting through the evening breeze, beneath the crisp scent of the autumn leaves. A subtle sweetness at the edges of the cold.

The sun disappears completely beyond the horizon, and the remaining luminosity shifts from dusk to twilight. The people around you are growing restless from waiting, a sea of shuffling feet, murmuring about abandoning the endeavor in search of someplace warmer to pass the evening. You yourself are debating departing when it happens.

First, there is a popping sound. It is barely audible over the wind and conversation. A soft noise like a kettle about to boil for tea. Then comes the light.

All over the tents, small lights begin to flicker, as though the entirety of the circus is covered in particularly bright fireflies. The waiting crowd quiets as it watches this display of illumination. Someone near you gasps. A small child claps his hands with glee at the sight.

When the tents are all aglow, sparkling against the night sky, the sign appears.

Stretched across the top of the gates, hidden in curls of iron, more firefly-like lights flicker to life. They pop as they brighten, some accompanied by a shower of glowing white sparks and a bit of smoke. The people nearest to the gates take a few steps back.

At first, it is only a random pattern of lights. But as more of them ignite, it becomes clear that they are aligned in scripted letters. First a C is distinguishable, followed by more letters. A q, oddly, and several e’s. When the final bulb pops alight, and the smoke and sparks dissipate, it is finally legible, this elaborate incandescent sign. Leaning to your left to gain a better view, you can see that it reads:

Le Cirque des Rêves

Some in the crowd smile knowingly, while others frown and look questioningly at their neighbors. A child near you tugs on her mother’s sleeve, begging to know what it says.

“The Circus of Dreams,” comes the reply. The girl smiles delightedly.

Then the iron gates shudder and unlock, seemingly by their own volition. They swing outward, inviting the crowd inside.

Now the circus is open.

Now you may enter.

PART I:
Primordium

"The Whole of Le Cirque des Rêves is formed by a series of circles. Perhaps it is a tribute to the origin of the word 'circus,' deriving from the Greek kirkos meaning circle, or ring. There are many such nods to the phenomenon of the circus in a historical sense, though it is hardly a traditional circus. Rather than a single tent with rings enclosed within, this circus contains clusters of tents like pyramids, some large and others quite small. They are set within circular paths, contained within a circular fence. Looping and continuous."

--Friedrick Thiessen, 1892

"A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moon-light, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world."

--Oscar Wilde, 1888

UNEXPECTED POST
New York, February 1873

The man billed as Prospero the Enchanter receives a fair amount of correspondence via the theater office, but this is the first envelope addressed to him that contains a suicide note, and it is also the first to arrive carefully pinned to the coat of a five-year-old girl.

The lawyer who escorts her to the theater refuses to explain despite the manager’s protestations, abandoning her as quickly as he can with no more than a shrug and the tip of a hat.

The theater manager does not need to read the envelope to know who the girl is for. The bright eyes peering out from under a cloud of unruly brown curls are smaller, wider versions of the magician’s own.

He takes her by the hand, her small fingers hanging limp within his. She refuses to remove her coat despite the warmth of the theater, giving only an adamant shake of her head when he asks her why.

The manager takes the girl to his office, not knowing what else to do with her. She sits quietly on an uncomfortable chair beneath a line of framed posters advertising past productions, surrounded by boxes of tickets and receipts. The manager brings her a cup of tea with an extra lump of sugar, but it remains on the desk, untouched, and grows cold.

The girl does not move, does not fidget in her seat. She stays perfectly still with her hands folded in her lap. Her gaze is fixed downward, focused on her boots that do not quite touch the floor. There is a small scuff on one toe, but the laces are knotted in perfect bows.

The sealed envelope hangs from the second topmost button of her coat, until Prospero arrives.

She hears him before the door opens, his footsteps heavy and echoing in the hall, unlike the measured pace of the manager who has come and gone several times, quiet as a cat.

“There is also a . . . package for you, sir,” the manager says as he opens the door, ushering the magician into the cramped office before slipping off to attend to other theater matters, having no desire to witness what might become of this encounter.

The magician scans the office, a stack of letters in one hand, a black velvet cape lined with shockingly white silk cascading behind him, expecting a paper-wrapped box or crate. Only when the girl looks up at him with his own eyes does he realize what the theater manager was referring to.

Prospero the Enchanter’s immediate reaction upon meeting his daughter is a simple declaration of: “Well, fuck.”

The girl returns her attention to her boots.

The magician closes the door behind him, dropping the stack of letters on the desk next to the teacup as he looks at the girl.

He rips the envelope from her coat, leaving the pin clinging steadfastly to its button.

While the writing on the front bears his stage name and the theater address, the letter inside greets him with his given name, Hector Bowen.

He skims over the contents, any emotional impact desired by the author failing miserably and finally. He pauses at the only fact he deems relevant: that this girl now left in his custody is, obviously, his own daughter and that her name is Celia.

“She should have named you Miranda,” the man called Prospero the Enchanter says to the girl with a chuckle. “I suppose she was not clever enough to think of it.”

The girl looks up at him again. Dark eyes narrow beneath her curls.

The teacup on the desk begins to shake. Ripples disrupt the calm surface as cracks tremble across the glaze, and then it collapses in shards of flowered porcelain. Cold tea pools in the saucer and drips onto the floor, leaving sticky trails along the polished wood.

The magician’s smile vanishes. He glances back at the desk with a frown, and the spilled tea begins seeping back up from the floor. The cracked and broken pieces stand and re-form themselves around the liquid until the cup sits complete once more, soft swirls of steam rising into the air.

The girl stares at the teacup, her eyes wide.

Hector Bowen takes his daughter’s face in his gloved hand, scrutinizing her expression for a moment before releasing her, his fingers leaving long red marks across her cheeks.

“You might be interesting,” he says.

The girl does not reply.

He makes several attempts to rename her in the following weeks, but she refuses to respond to anything but Celia.

*

Several months later, once he decides she is ready, the magician writes a letter of his own. He includes no address, but it reaches its destination across the ocean nonetheless.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Doubleday (September 13, 2011)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 400 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0385534639
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0385534635
Lexile measure ‏ : ‎ 950L
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.62 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.39 x 1.4 x 9.51 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #20,685 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #324 in Historical Fantasy (Books)
- #1,025 in Romantic Fantasy (Books)
- #1,871 in Literary Fiction (Books)

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ERIN MORGENSTERN is the author of The Night Circus, a number-one national best seller that has been sold around the world and translated into thirty-seven languages. She has a degree in theater from Smith College and lives in Massachusetts.

twitter & instagram: @erinmorgenstern

http://erinmorgenstern.com

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Kelly O

Beautiful writing and imagery, but something was missing....

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 20, 2021

Verified Purchase

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern is about the series of events that take place within the confines of a circus that travels across the world and runs strictly at nighttime. While the setting is constantly changing as the circus travels, a bulk of the book takes place in London where one of the main characters, Marco, lives as well takes place mainly in the darkness of night in scenes surrounded by fantastical illusions and bizarre magic. The story follows most commonly the perspective of Marco and Celia, two competitor's fighting against one another to win a magic bound competition; however, in the events following their outrageous acts to outdo one another and the psychological torment the competition puts them through, the two end up falling deeply in love with one another. Celia's character can be very closed off from others and closedminded at times because of this; however, her bold curiosity and strength help demonstrate her character's growth throughout the book. Marco, on the other hand, continually struggles to find a place that he truly belongs and is accepted into throughout most of the book; however, the passion and care he holds for others, particularly Celia, portrays the depths of his character and what he values as most important in his life. The main conflict of this book is that the competition Marco and Celia battle through against each other ever since their childhoods can only have one winner, or rather one survivor, and so the two must decide what they are willing to sacrifice for one another as well as if they are willing to jeopardize the fate of the circus, in which so many depend on, in the process. Overall, I would say that the conflict is for the most part wrapped up at the end with little left for the audience to still wonder; however, the ending is not necessarily a happy ending as some characters are left with a lot having been sacrificed by the end of the book.

Diving deeper into the central conflict of the book, early on in the novel both Marco and Celia are established as promising, young students of magic and illusion and are set against one another in a competition neither of them really know much about. Both of the two young students come from a rough past as Marco was an orphan and Celia had lost her mom to suicide. Finding purpose in training in magic for the competition seemed to help them cope with everything until the toll of the competition on one another started to destroy them. The conflict, I would argue, is not identified until later on in the book in which the two meet one another and start to fall for each other despite the inevitable odds of the competition. After fighting so long for themselves and pinning themselves away from others, Marco and Celia begin to open up to one another and find peace with their past in the face of a potential future with each other. Upon realization that there can only be one survivor, the two have to decide what they are willing to sacrifice for love and for each other. While this is occurring, simultaneously the circus is beginning to fall apart due to the deaths of two of the main founders and the conflict occurring between Marco and Celia. Ultimately, the fate of the circus is in Celia’s hands as she must decide how to hold it together for the sake of everyone involved in the circus and all that has been sacrificed because of it.

These conflicts reveal patterns such as the bonfire of the circus. Once the light of the fire gives out, the circus is stopped and must be rekindled in order to thrive as it once did again. This theme of light in connection to magic demonstrates the darkness that exists in the world and the glimmer of hope the circus offers for so many of the characters throughout this book. A place in which people can turn to for fun and adventure during trying and dark times in their lives. The hope and opportunity of the circus portrays in this symbol of light to demonstrate the connection it serves to others who don’t fit in with the confines of the world around them. Furthermore, based on sociological perspective, this book can be portrayed as a representation of a world away from reality as the circus offers hope to those who otherwise deemed themselves to be hopeless or lost. Building off of this idea on an authorial level, it seems Morgenstern’s story seems to portray the human desire for love and acceptance. Although maybe not in the form magic in our present day world, the symbol of hope and having faith in something is often essential to our lives and the ways we choose to prioritize what we do and who we allow into our lives. As demonstrated throughout Marco and Celia’s conflict between love and competition, humans desire to be loved and to belong. Similar to Marco and Celia, we have to decide as humans what we are willing to sacrifice in order to honor and protect the love we carry for others and our beliefs.

Although this book was beautifully written and filled with several deep metaphors and symbols, what was most difficult for me to overlook was the amount of holes in the plot that made it difficult to follow along with the characters and feel connected to them. There are a lot of third person perspectives throughout this story, which made it challenging for me to get a detailed grasp on a character as well as see them progressively grow. I would argue that a majority of the characters developed as the story went on, but not in a significant way that made to feel tied or drawn to the characters.

I think the book mainly felt very rushed as there was a lot happening all at once, and it seemed like complex relationships such as Celia and her father as well as Bailey and Poppet were overlooked sometimes through the book due to the wide array of perspectives and characters thrown into the plot. I also would have liked to have had more chapters about Celia and Marco’s relationship as I felt there was still a lot I was left wondering by the end of the book such as what their lives are liked following the ending as well as what the ending really means for them and their future.

Erin Morgenstern’s writing, however, is beautiful. The way in which she structured this story and created imagery was fantastic and consistently caught my eye while reading. While I think this book was good, I think there were a few things that also drew me away from it as well. On the other hand, I will most certainly be reading other books written by Morgenstern in the future as her writing style is truly amazing.

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KarToon12

Excellent world building, but flat characters and a confusing plot drag it down

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 25, 2015

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At the urging of a friend, I decided to give this book a read through, especially considering it's now become a best seller, with a movie deal in the works. I read a few reviews of this ahead of time, and it seems a lot of people tend to be torn on certain aspects of the book, and after having read it myself, I can agree to some of these points (but more on that in a moment).

Around the turn of the century, a mysterious circus begins making appearances around the world. It only opens at night, and many of the acts straddle the line between fantasy and reality; making it hard to tell if the acts are complex illusions or actual magic. In the center of all this are our two main characters. Ceila is the daughter of a magician named Prospero...a man who can perform REAL magic, and Marco was once an orphan who was taken in by a mysterious man (sometimes called "Alexander", but is mostly referred to as "the man in the grey suit"), and also taught the ways of real magic. Prospero and the Man in the Grey Suit decide to hold a contest, with Ceila and Marco acting as their champions, and the "Circus of Dreams" being used as the playing field. What the two magicians don't count on is their two students falling in love, and both Ceila and Marco must find a way to escape the contest they've been forced into, while also protecting the circus folk that've become unknowingly tangled up in their predicament--the most notable being Bailey, an enthusiastic fan of the circus, and a pair of clairvoyant twins named Poppet and Widget.

***POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD***

Let's start off with the bad. This is something that many reviewers have pointed out, and it's something I strongly agree with. The two main characters, Ceila and Marco, are so incredibly flat, I found it really hard to sympathize with them at all. It's a shame, because the beginning chapters with them as children started off really promising, but once they come into adulthood, they become really boring. They've become so wrapped up in their contest (and later romance) that they don't really seem to have any sort of lives or hopes and dreams beyond just what they've been bred/trained to do. We learn next to nothing about what their likes/dislikes are, and their reactions to things are so wooden, it's like they're robots. Both of them have been abused by their parents/teachers, but neither exhibit any sort of trauma or repercussions of it. At one point, Ceila talks about her father slicing her fingers with a knife, and she talks about it as if this is perfectly normal. Later, she stabs her own hand, to which Marco just raises an eyebrow. Whether said person can magically heal themselves afterward or not, such an act should STILL elicit SOME kind of grossed out and/or horrified response. I get that these people aren't exactly normal (being magic and all), but a little more emotion would be nice. Their "romance" is even more forced. Supposedly, the two hang out with each other for a number of years (the book does ALOT of time skips), but we barely get to see those interactions. Any small talk that would've developed them and their relationship more is glossed over in favor of them just building new circus tents as gifts to each other and saying "I love you" a lot (without really knowing WHY they do).

Bailey and the twins, on the other hand, were MUCH more developed and likeable. Bailey is torn between his responsibilities to his family farm, and wanting to go on an adventure, and his eventual budding friendship with Poppet and Widget is adorable. And the twins' clairvoyance (one can see a person's past, the other can see the future), proves to be a mixed blessing, as sometimes, their abilities help them avoid trouble, while other times, they can see danger coming, yet have no power to stop it, and struggle to keep their home at the circus alive, even when they realize there's much more powerful forces at work around them. It really makes me wish that these three were the main characters instead, or we would've had a much more interesting story on our hands.

Which brings me to the plot. If you're careful to read the dates at the beginning of each chapter, you'll quickly figure out that the story jumps around in time a lot. We see certain events out of order, so as not to spoil other plot points later on, and many of the events take place from various viewpoints. While that style didn't bother me at all, the plot itself is more than confusing. From what I could figure out (or assume), Prospero and the Man in the Grey Suit are, in reality, two ancient wizards who are constantly trying to one-up each other, but rather than duke it out themselves, they hire/convince/trick other people into representing them, and apparently, these "contests" have been going on for centuries. But none the less, everything is left extremely vague. The two people who have all the answers tell the audience next to nothing, but rather than make the book more mysterious, it just makes it that much harder to understand (at least for me). The rules of the contest, or even WHY they're even doing all this is never fully or properly explained. We never find out just who they are exactly, and the magic system is never given much detail to how it works. Even in a fantasy, you have to establish certain ground rules, with how the magic works and what the limitations are, and no definite information is presented here. The characters discuss hypnotism, illusions, levitation, mind reading, and other magic stuff as if the audience knows what they're talking about, and we don't. (Or at least, I don't.) Their "training montages" as children details how they grew up under the iron fist of their teachers, when this could've been used as a way to explain the base rules of the magic system and how these people do what they do. (The closest we get to a solid explanation is a fairy tale that Widget tells at one point.) Keeping all the most important details a mystery doesn't make the plot suspenseful, it just makes it confusing. (Or maybe I'm just some uncultured heathen who can't see the bigger picture here. If you guys can figure out/explain this plot better, feel free to comment and clue me in.)

**END OF SPOILERS**

However, the one really great bright spot in all this is the setting itself. The circus is so well described and developed, I wish that it existed in real life. From ice gardens, to cloud mazes, to stargazing trolley rides, each tent and act is part illusion, part magical, with a grand atmosphere that makes use of all the senses, including smell (a sense that's very underutilized, as one of the characters points out). Much like Bailey, it's a place I'd love to run away to if I could.

And that's what makes me very torn on the overall rating of this book. I'd actually rank this at 2 1/2 stars, but since Amazon can't do half stars, I rounded it to three. I think the author got so wrapped up in the world building that the main characters and the story were left to suffer. I love the circus setting itself, as well as the idea of two magicians duking it out and disguising their real magic powers as average illusions....but the idea could've been executed better. As it stands, it's a confusing plot with either wooden characters that get too much focus, or enjoyable characters that receive too little focus. If you're into steampunk and/or magic/fantasy, feel free to give this one a shot, but this is one book I probably won't pick up again. If nothing else, the magical circus is the best part.

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Kindle Customer

The best book I have ever read. And I read a shit ton.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on October 12, 2018

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This is her first book and she nailed it. I've owned so many copies, lend them out and people don't give it back and I cannot blame them. I'm not sure I could either.

This is not a fantasy novel. This creates its own genre. I'm 40 and have been devouring books for as long as I can remember. I get the sense that Erin Morgenstern had a similar reading experience. She writes scenes you can smell, scenes you feel the temperature of. The desperation, the hope, the wonderment and the confusion.

What a marvellous web you weave Erin Morgenstern. I will buy everything you ever write based on this stunning book and the utterly marvellous Flax Golden Tales. My favourite being the obsolete 'No Swimming' sign. I very often say that there is a flax golden tale for every emotion.

You wordsmith, you! Thank you for finding the words for things I have felt since 1984.

Long live the dreamers xxx

133 people found this helpful

carrie-anne

Meh!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on February 23, 2020

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While I can appreciate that a great many people love and recommend this book as a good read, I honestly can't and dont.
I tried 3 times to read it.
3rd times a charm as they say.
I feel almost angry after reading it though because I genuinely wanted to love it.
I wanted to be fully immersed in it.
I wanted to be utterly drunk on it.
I wanted to fall completely in love with the characters.
Truth was, I couldnt care less for any of them and while there were bits of it that showed promise, mostly I was just bored and in the end I just wanted it all to end but it felt like the last few pages just stretched out forever... hell, I think I'd throw my self in the fire if it took any longer to conclude.
It was definitely hard work to read.
It really didnt need to be so long.
It was an absolute chore to read and I really, really struggled with the writing style.
However, I did love the core premise of it. It just failed to deliver.
And personally. I feel that the end was unsatisfying... to put it politely.
2 stars for the idea that is at the heart of the story alone.

47 people found this helpful

nitasha nayak

A magical story of two people bonded to each other since childhood

Reviewed in India 🇮🇳 on March 11, 2019

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🌼Book Review 🌼
.
🌼The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. .
🌼Genre : Fantasy. .
🌼Storyline :
Q. Did the story have a good beginning?
A. Yes indeed. It was all dark and mysterious.
Q. Was there a lot of action?
A. Yes a lot of it. Magic all over the story.
Q. What was the most exciting moment in the book?
A. When Marco took Celia on a tour of chandresh's house.
Q. What did you think was the most important point or climax of the book?
A. Celia and Marco unhooking the bond.
Q. Did you read the book to the end? Why?
A. Yes. You just can't put it down.
Q. Were you happy with the ending?
A. No. Not at all. I felt as if most of the ending was left upto the reader's imagination abd wanted so much more to happen. All through the book I was expecting a duel but was kinda a talent show. 😞
.
🌼Setting :
Q. When and where is your novel set?
A. If there was a main setting that wasn't the circus, it would be London, where the book starts, and where much happens, like Chandresh's Midnight Dinners.
Q. Were the descriptions good?
A. Oh. They were mesmerizing. Totally magical. .
🌼Characters :
Q. Pick up the main character in the novel you studied.
A. Celia, Marco, Alexander, Hector Bowen, Bailey, Poppet, Widget.
Q. Did you like them? Why and why not?
A. Celia was my most favorite and Marco was my least favorite after what he did to Isobel. But I wanted to so much of the relationship between each of characters and their development.
.
🌼Theme:
Q. If you had to say what the novel was about in one sentence how would you describe it?
A. A magical story of two people bonded to each other since childhood.
.
🌼Language :
Q. Did you find this book easy to read?
A. Parts of it wasn't easy to comprehend as it's a fantasy.
Q. Pick out your favorite description.
A. Life takes us to unexpected places sometimes. The future is never set in stone, remember that.
.
🌼Conclusion :
Q. Who would you recommend this book to?
A. Recommending this to all Harry Potter fans (not that it's equivalent to it but still) and to those who want to start reading fantasy.

89 people found this helpful

NLO

Nicely written but boring! Flat and no depth.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on September 27, 2020

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I had high expectations for this book after reading the reviews, but must say that it was such a disappointing read. It was so boring not one heart stopping moment, not one moment which made me not want to put the book down..., the characters were flat and I didn't feel attached to them at all.
The book jumped from character to character... it jumped from time to time...and place to place... for example each chapter went from...., Sept 1889, then Nov 1890 to May 1991 to sept 1891, then 1891-1982, to sept-dec 1893 to Jan 1894 to March 1894 to October 1902 to Nov 1984...with all this jumping about between time, and switching between characters, how can it build any depth of story!
I also think the author had tried to use the largest, most difficult words just to show off her extensive vocabulary!
It wasn't needed.
The concept of the circus was good, it could have been an amazing book... if you want a 'nice' read, with no heart pounding moment, safe polite language, a nice tea in the park read, then choose this!

20 people found this helpful

cambridge reader

then I wasn't going to waste my life hoping the next 250 pages would

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on February 1, 2018

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When you have finished your Harry Potter novels, completed the Game of Thrones box set and are looking for something in the same vein but a bit more grown-up (but not much) try this. Otherwise steer clear. I got just beyond the mid-way point of this 500 page book and couldn't stand it any more. If it hasn't done it for me after 250+ pages, then I wasn't going to waste my life hoping the next 250 pages would. Characters are sketchy, storyline of little interest and I can't think of a single redeeming feature of this book.

60 people found this helpful

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