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A short review of Erin Morgenstern's The Night Circus

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Published on Sunday, 13 November 2011 11:02 am

Written by Seregil of Rhiminee

Erin Morgenstern's The Night Circus was published by Doubleday (and by Vintage Books in the UK) in September 2011.

Here's information about the author:

Erin Morgenstern is a writer and artist. Most of her writings and paintings are fairy tales, in one way or another. She lives in Massachusetts.

Click here to visit the author's official website.

Here's a description of The Night Circus:

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.

And here's the review:

A SHORT REVIEW OF ERIN MORGENSTERN'S THE NIGHT CIRCUS

The Night Circus is Erin Morgenstern's debut novel. It's a fantasy/magical realism book, but some readers will probably call it a fantasy book. In my opinion there's more fantasy in this book than actual magical realism (sometimes the line between fantasy and magical realism can be a bit blurry).

The Night Circus is a story about a circus (Le Cirque des Rêves), which is only open at night and where all kinds of wonders can be seen and witnessed. It's basically a story about two rivaling and mysterious magicians (Hector aka "Prospero the Magician" and Alexander) whose apprentices (Celia and Marco) begin to fall in love with each other.

Erin Morgenstern's prose is elegant, beautiful and descriptive. She writes beautifully about the circus and its wonders. It's amazing how fluently Erin Morgenstern writes rich and nuanced prose (her prose is at times almost lyrical and poetic). I liked her writing style very much and I'm sure that other readers will also find it charming.

There are lots of chacters in The Night Circus (Isobel, Bailey, Poppet, Widget etc), but there's hardly any character development, which is a shame. When I read about the characters I didn't feel anything towards them, because they were lifeless and bland. The clockmaker Herr Friedrick Thiessen is probably the most interesting character in this book, because he creates a special clock for the circus and he has devoted himself to making quality clocks.

The story is fascinating, because things develop gradually. In my opinion the story moves nicely from the beginning to the end, but there are a couple of moments when nothing seems to happen for a while. These slow moments didn't bother me, because I think it's good that authors spend enough time to develop things.

The Night Circus is an interesting book, but it suffers from the lack of character development. The lack of character development bothered me quite a lot, because it would've been nice to read more about the characters and their feelings.

I think that the author's purpose has been to write a magical fairy tale for adults, because fairy tales don't usually have much character development. As a fairy tale this book is very charming, because the author creates a magical and mysterious atmosphere.

Although The Night Circus isn't a perfect book, it's worth reading because the story is intriguing and Le Cirque des Rêves is quite a wonderful and magical circus with plenty of wonders (the Ice Garden, the Cloud Maze etc) in store for the readers. I think that this book can especially be recommended to fans of magical realism and to readers who like magical love stories, because it's a refreshingly different kind of a love story.

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