The Night Circus in FINDING AUDREY READ-ALONG

Nov 07, 2016 Emma Holtrust rated it really liked it

Shelves: read-2016

I'm out of my reading slump! After a solid two months of barely any reading, I finished three books in one week! There's no better feeling than finally returning to so many books and stories and to be able to really enjoy reading them. The first book that I read is The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. Now I know the hype train for this book is long gone (if you read the book, you'll catch the joke!), but I couldn't resist finally reading it too.

The Night Circus is the story of a circus that tr I'm out of my reading slump! After a solid two months of barely any reading, I finished three books in one week! There's no better feeling than finally returning to so many books and stories and to be able to really enjoy reading them. The first book that I read is The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. Now I know the hype train for this book is long gone (if you read the book, you'll catch the joke!), but I couldn't resist finally reading it too.

The Night Circus is the story of a circus that travels around the world and is only open at night. However, this is not a normal circus. It always shows up unexpected, is completely black and white and contains many tents with wonders so magical that you can't be sure if they aren't true magic.

What I loved about this story is the originality. Everyone has some memory of childhood that includes circus and how magical they are. I remember that I always felt like they just showed up, as in the story, and were completely unannounced. While that certainly wasn't true, I like that the book played with that element. As a child, everything in a circus seems magical and I love the idea of a place like that for adults.

Even though the book is about the circus, the key plot line is a romance story. Both Celia and Marco are magicians, trained from childhood to compete with each other in a battle that can only have one of them win. Their playground? The circus. The complication? They love each other.

Both Marco and Celia are well-rounded characters and very enjoyable to read. Throughout the story, we work towards one big climax and in the beginning this was a little confusing. There were many characters that seemed vague and unnecessary, but it all tied in in the end. The only real complaint I can have about this book is that the real plot twist could be spotted from a mile away and thus made some of the emotions of Marco and Celia fall a little flat. When they found out and were all shocked, all I could think was 'but they MUST have known this, right?'. They didn't.

But if I nitpick about something like that in my review, it can only mean one thing: I really enjoyed this story. The setting and descriptions were amazing and though I'm not as entranced as some other readers by the love story, I did genuinely enjoy reading about Celia and Marco and their relationship. It's not always straightforward and its complexity is a thing of beauty.

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Jun 15, 2014 Benni rated it really liked it

I liked the circus more than the book. I liked the book just fine, but the circus...I want to be there.

If anyone is curious as to interpretations of the tarot cards, I've written an article at http://bennitheblog.com/bookbiters/th.... ...more

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Oct 03, 2014 Amy Hayes rated it liked it · review of another edition

An interesting and beautifully descriptive book. I'm glad I decided to listen to it on audio book because it never would have held my attention if I was reading it. Too many characters to keep straight and a lot of flip flopping between times. ...more

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Jan 01, 2015 Lynn rated it did not like it

Shelves: so-awful, magic-and-witchery, meh

Yikes. This started out imaginative and interesting, but by roughly 70% of the way through, I was skimming chapters just to get it over with. Could have been so much more than what it was.

The circus scenes and imagery were lovely, as were most of the side characters, but the main "love story" felt so shallow, false, and cheap (and boring!!) that I was bitter about it being involved with the rest of the story.

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