The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

Author: Erin Morgenstern
Published: 2011
Genre: Fantasy, Historical Fantasy

​Synopsis From Goodreads:

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.

My Take:

The Night Circus is a clever and wonder-filled cerebral fantasy set in the late 1800s to early 1900s that will leave you turning the pages late into the night. I thoroughly enjoyed this story, although it isn’t one you can just pick up and relax with. The book (especially the first half) is filled with seemingly disjointed stories that left me wondering where the author was heading and jumps back and forth in time, pulling me out of the story.

Each chapter is dated but before starting the next, I found myself traipsing back to the heading of the previous chapter to figure out which way time jumped. For most of the first half, I had to remind myself who the characters were because I couldn’t quite remember since they hadn’t been involved for a while. None of this is a negative. It wove together in a delightful way and towards the end I couldn’t put it down (I apologize to those who tried talking to me as I nodded my agreement without really hearing a word you said). It is also a relatively clean book, with one sex scene and infrequent swearing which is a plus for me! I absolutely loved when the author inserted short scenes between sections that were written in 3rd person (“You walk through the curtain”, “You smell caramel”, etc) that added a delicious eeriness to the narrative!

One negative was that I didn’t really care a lot or identify with any of the characters. Interested for sure, but I didn’t experience a lot of emotion as I read. It was much more plot and world-based than character-driven. The monochromatic color scheme was very intriguing, clever and unique choice, but it lost some of the splendor of a rich and colorful world. There was also a fair amount of “head-hopping”, but wasn’t done confusingly. Overall a very nice, but cerebral read. I highly recommend it, but grab a notebook and pay attention!