The Night Circus: An enchanting read to escape with
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THE TIKTOK SENSATION
Rediscover the million-copy bestselling fantasy read with a different kind of magic, now in a stunning anniversary edition to mark 10 years since it’s paperback debut.
The circus arrives without warning. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Against the grey sky the towering tents are striped black and white. A sign hanging upon an iron gates reads:
Opens at Nightfall
Closes at Dawn
Full of breath-taking amazements and open only at night, Le Cirque des Rêves seems to cast a spell over all who wander its circular paths. But behind the glittering acrobats, fortune-tellers and contortionists a fierce competition is underway.
Celia and Marco are two young magicians who have been trained since childhood for a deadly duel. With the lives of everyone at the Circus of Dreams at stake, they must test the very limits of the imagination, and of their love.
Complete the gorgeous anniversary collection with The Starless Sea, the second novel from the author of the The Night Circus, out now.
‘The only response to this novel is simply: wow. It is a breathtaking feat of imagination, a flight of fancy that pulls you in and wraps you up in its spell’ The Times
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Additional information
| Publisher | Vintage, 1st edition (24 May 2012) |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Paperback | 512 pages |
| ISBN-10 | 0099554798 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0099554790 |
| Dimensions | 12.8 x 3.8 x 19.6 cm |
by Celia Stevenson Judge
Loved this story.
by C. Manning
The circus arrives without warning. No announcements preced it…it is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Le Cirque des Rêves is only open at night, is construced only in black and white and has been chosen as the setting for a contest between Celia, the enchanter’s daughter and Marco, the sorcerer’s apprentice. The circus delights all who wander it’s circular paths stumbling into tents filled with ice or clouds or silent pools. But this is no ordinary circus and it casts a spell upon all who enter.
As soon as I finished reading I realised this would be a hard review to write. I was expecting a book set in a circus about two duelling magic workers and instead I found a book about a circus that happens to have duelling magic workers. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, just unexpected. The narrative is much like a visit to the Night Circus itself – evocative, dreamlike and slightly confusing. There are multiple storylines told interchangably, all taking place in different places at different times yet interlinking meaning there is no linear timeline here.
I loved the sections that gave views into the circus, as though the reader themself was visiting. It meant certain tents and attractions like the snake charmers or hall of mirrors are able to be explored outside of the main story. The circus itself is beautifully created and feels incredibly realistic. The author has managed to create visceral descriptions of sights and smells that plunge the reader into the heart of the circus.
Celia and Marco’s stories are told from when they are small children. The challenge is created in their childhood so their individual development as workers of magic is shown. I’ve seen this marketed as a romance which isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when reading. There are romantic aspects but this is not a romance novel. It is the challenge that echoes throughout Celia and Marco’s lives, even when they don’t fully understand what the challenge is or what their roles will be.
My favourite story threads were those of the rêveurs and that of a young boy called Bailey who is obsessed with the circus. Excerpts from the writings of the lead rêveur Friedrick Thiessen are scattered throughout the book, along with a storyline from his perspective, and show the circus from an outsider’s perspective which creates a delightful contrast from Celia’s insider view. Bailey is probably my favourite character of the whole book. He becomes enchanted with the circus at a young age and finds himself drawn into it’s story.
All in all this is an enchanting read that I recommend to anyone looking for a touch of magic.
Plot: 8/10
Characters: 9/10
Ending: 9/10
Enjoyment: 8/10
Cover: 10/10
Overall: 44/50
by Sarah
Initially I read the first few chapters and thought WOW! This is so unique, so imaginative! I LOVED it! But by the end of 1/4 of the book I was getting frustrated. Nothing was happening.
I kept putting it down, leaving it for days and then coming back to it and I was only reading it if I had nothing better to do. It’s not a bad read by any account, Erin Morgenstern’s style of writing is very gripping and it was one of the only reasons I actually didn’t give up entirely on this and the two main characters were intriguing on the surface. But the pacing is SLOW! Annoyingly slow with certain scenes repeated in various, unnecessary POVs, and the method of each chapter jumping from one month/POV to another, was a little too jarring for me. It’s an overall interesting concept but I found the book too boring so I DNF it in the end. Personally the lack of plot was a huge let down.
by tonythereader
I think this just became one of my favourite books. It’s very unique, and I can totally imagine this being made into a Tim Burton movie.
The circus arrives without warning, and is only open at night. Within the the black-and-white striped tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amusements. Behind this façade, a fierce competition is underway between two young magicians, Celia and Marco. They do not know that only one of them can survive, and that the circus is nothing but a stage for this remarkable battle of imagination and will. Things only get worse for them when they fall headfirst into love; the game must still play out and the fates of everyone involved in the circus hang in the balance.
The setting of this book was very interesting, well thought out and extremely unique. The circus was described so well that I found it really easy to imagine myself walking round it and exploring each of the tents. I loved that it was set during Victorian times, and I found it very easy to visualise it like this. One thing I did find confusing was that the book jumps back and forward in time and it was often quite difficult to remember that things were not happening chronologically. Underneath each chapter title is a descriptor showing where and when the events are taking place and I often had to look back to see where in the timeline certain things were happening.
I will say that this book doesn’t really have a plot, and we basically just see the day-to-day (or should I say night-to-night!) running of the circus. This is not really bad thing in this case, as it is quite satisfying to see the circus developing and the relationships building between the characters. I enjoyed reading every page about the circus. I was a bit annoyed that the two main characters seemed to fall in love almost immediately, and they do not really meet properly until halfway through the book. However, because the book takes place over a number of years, the relationship probably developed behind the scenes. I normally hate reading about relationships, but I loved these two characters and wanted to read more about how this relationship developed. It was almost as if a lot of scenes had been cut out of the finished book. The book also doesn’t really have a proper climax, and I was very underwhelmed with the last fifty pages or so. There isn’t really a duel like the blurb describes. These were very minor drawbacks for me as I loved the book as a whole, but will still stop me from giving it 5 stars.
I loved each character individually; they were all well written and different from each other. They were almost too perfect – none of them seemed to have any flaws. Celia and Marco were lovable leads and I rooted for them being together. I think Bailey was my favourite character overall – I loved reading about his discovery of the circus, his relationship with his family and his little adventures with Poppet and Widget, who I also loved. The man in the grey suit was very mysterious, and I got the impression that he was supposed to be written as the main villain, but he didn’t seem that threatening to me. I felt really sorry for Isobel, and how her love for another character was never requited, and I really thought she would react in a really negative way when she finally discovers that he loves someone else. Celia’s father really annoyed me throughout the whole book, but thought he was written very well – it was really easy to see how much Celia really didn’t like him.
If you haven’t read this book yet – you should! I loved escaping into its world even though it wasn’t really a story with a lot of excitement in it.
4.5/5 stars.