The Night Circus
by Erin Morgenstern
512 pages
Anchor Books, 2011
fiction
Read in 4 days
My Rating: ★★★★★
"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."
Review: Join me as I step inside Le Cirque des Rêves, or the Circus of Dreams, one of the best books I've read this year. I only wish I had read it sooner. To say it's a story about a circus that only opens once the sun goes down is true but an understatement. Yes, this circus only opens once the sun goes down, and appears in the dead of night without any notice from anyone who might reside near it, but this story is much more than the circus. It was created solely to give Marco and Celia a venue to conduct and carry out a battle started by their respective care-takers. The circus grows and changes as the game continues to be played by Marco and Celia.
Neither of them begin to realize the consequences their game has until they begin to have strong feelings for each other beyond just trying to beat each other. There are, of course, other circus acts that we are introduced to and grow to enjoy as their performances are explained in such poetic and descriptive details. I felt as if I was there, walking amongst the many visitors of this night circus.
What I liked most was how each chapter could almost stand on its own and how the little "vignettes" as I started calling them, give the point of view of the reader as we first encounter the circus then walk through the various tents and performances until we ultimately have to leave circus when the sun is about to rise again and we feel a sudden emptiness coupled with exhaustion.
There are many people involved with the upkeep and maintenance of the circus but what matters most, towards the end, is how, once and if this game should ever end between Marco and Celia, will the circus ever hope to continue and survive? A solution is found but can it ultimately be carried out to magical perfection? Some might find the ending a bit on the sappy side, but for me it was actually pretty tame considering this story is just as much a love story about Marco and Celia as it is a love story about a circus and I think Erin did a great job giving both stories of love and equal playing field. I even appreciated her inference that no matter how strong and deep love is for another person, place or thing, it is fragile, it can be broken, but it can always be cherished, sustained, and remembered, through the stories we tell.
This book is definitely a page turner that if exhaustion hadn't overcome me so often I could easily have foreseen myself losing sleep to finish it. And it wasn't until I finished it that I realized I have never been to a circus. Then it hit me as I read the last line of the book, how sad a life I must have had to never have visited such a magical and wondrous place in my childhood.
Neither of them begin to realize the consequences their game has until they begin to have strong feelings for each other beyond just trying to beat each other. There are, of course, other circus acts that we are introduced to and grow to enjoy as their performances are explained in such poetic and descriptive details. I felt as if I was there, walking amongst the many visitors of this night circus.
What I liked most was how each chapter could almost stand on its own and how the little "vignettes" as I started calling them, give the point of view of the reader as we first encounter the circus then walk through the various tents and performances until we ultimately have to leave circus when the sun is about to rise again and we feel a sudden emptiness coupled with exhaustion.
There are many people involved with the upkeep and maintenance of the circus but what matters most, towards the end, is how, once and if this game should ever end between Marco and Celia, will the circus ever hope to continue and survive? A solution is found but can it ultimately be carried out to magical perfection? Some might find the ending a bit on the sappy side, but for me it was actually pretty tame considering this story is just as much a love story about Marco and Celia as it is a love story about a circus and I think Erin did a great job giving both stories of love and equal playing field. I even appreciated her inference that no matter how strong and deep love is for another person, place or thing, it is fragile, it can be broken, but it can always be cherished, sustained, and remembered, through the stories we tell.
This book is definitely a page turner that if exhaustion hadn't overcome me so often I could easily have foreseen myself losing sleep to finish it. And it wasn't until I finished it that I realized I have never been to a circus. Then it hit me as I read the last line of the book, how sad a life I must have had to never have visited such a magical and wondrous place in my childhood.
Summary: Waging a fierce competition for which they have trained since childhood, circus magicians Celia and Marco unexpectedly fall in love with each other and share a fantastical romance that manifests in fateful ways.
To learn more about Erin Morgenstern, visit her site here.
I loved this book, too. I thought the storyline had some issues, but I LOVED the parts about the circus. I kind of wish she would write an entire book about the circus, with each chapter being about a different tent. I would devour that book.
ReplyDeleteI agree, my only issue with the book was the timeline. It seemed to jump and change POV as well but the jumping was so short, by a few years or months or even days that I kept having to go back one or two chapters to see where I was versus where I am in the reading...
DeleteI forgot to mention that in my review lol.