The Night Circus in The Insecure Writer's Support Group Book Club

Aug 26, 2021 Stefan Emunds rated it really liked it

Shelves: magical-realism

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern - A Book Review from an Author for Authors

I'm an author and sometimes read fiction to learn from my brothers and sisters in lyric arms. I read Night Circus because I heard it’s a complex story. I like complex.

The Night Circus is a fantasy novel. Fantasy means world building galore, a large cast of characters, and multiple POVs.

The story world and cast of the Night Circus are epic, but turns out, the plot is simple. Two magicians pitch their pupils against ea

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern - A Book Review from an Author for Authors

I'm an author and sometimes read fiction to learn from my brothers and sisters in lyric arms. I read Night Circus because I heard it’s a complex story. I like complex.

The Night Circus is a fantasy novel. Fantasy means world building galore, a large cast of characters, and multiple POVs.

The story world and cast of the Night Circus are epic, but turns out, the plot is simple. Two magicians pitch their pupils against each other, using the Night Circus as a stage. The two contestants don’t compete and the contest is conflict-free. May the most enduring win.

In order to understand how stories engage readers, it helps to distinguish the eight writing crafts and their respective engagers. Oversimplified, the story’s Big Idea engages through inspiration; genre and prose engage through emotions and feelings; narrative, story outline, and scene structure engage through tension and curiosity; characterization engages through empathy; and world building engages through a sense of wonder.

Because of the lightweight plot, the Night Circus captures readers neither through curiosity nor tension. The only question that keeps the reader reading is the question of who will win. The story even lacks a classical climax. Instead of a climactic battle between the two contestants, we get - wait, spoiler alert.

The beginning of the story (25%) introduces the reader to the characters and the Night Circus. The middle of the story (25%-75%) is all about the magical feats of the contestants. These feats enhance or build the circus, meaning the reader experiences literally a world building as the story proceeds.

Most characters of the Night Circus are decorative or background characters that don’t contribute to the plot. They are part of world building and - like the story world (the circus) - engage the reader through a sense of wonder.

Most writers bank on tension and curiosity to captivate their readers - blood and tears, twists and turns, and writers neglect them at their own peril. Erin Morgenstern chose to neglect those and wrote a successful story that engages readers almost exclusively with a sense of wonder. She accomplished a true feat that many writers deem not possible. ...more

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Dec 29, 2023 Kiki_The Bibliophile rated it it was amazing

You might assume that since this is one of my absolute favorite books of 2023, I could easily describe its storyline. And, well, you would be mistaken. Indeed, “The Night Circus” is widely agreed to be a challenging book to describe. It defies proper description, no matter if the reader loves it or hates it. So instead of attempting to explain it poorly to you, I will tell you why it defies explanation. “The Night Circus” is the type of book that can only be understood by the reader and that can You might assume that since this is one of my absolute favorite books of 2023, I could easily describe its storyline. And, well, you would be mistaken. Indeed, “The Night Circus” is widely agreed to be a challenging book to describe. It defies proper description, no matter if the reader loves it or hates it. So instead of attempting to explain it poorly to you, I will tell you why it defies explanation. “The Night Circus” is the type of book that can only be understood by the reader and that cannot be truly explained afterward without stripping it of all its meaning, without stripping it of all its magic. Magic. I believe that to be the keyword here. My theory is that Erin Morgenstern wrote this book in the pursuit of creating magic with words. Sure, all writers wish to create magic with words, all great books are magic, and all writers are magicians in their own rights, but I think Morgenstern was attempting to create actual magic and illusion with her story. She sought to engage and enchant the readers, drawing them into a narrative that feels like a dream, only to jolt them back to reality with a surge of emotions and memories that cannot be properly recollected. Erin Morgenstern is the ultimate magician, the actual illusionist, and this book is her magical Night Circus. We, the readers, become her “Rêveurs” (a word you will understand if you will choose to read this wonderful book). I will forevermore remember the way I could hear her magical voice guiding me through the circus’s white and black striped canvas tents, just as I will remember the warmth of flames and lanterns, the scent of smoke and caramel apple, and the story of all those who lived within it. It is said magic only exists if you believe in it. Likewise, the “Night Circus” solely lives within the reader’s mind, and the memory of it is theirs to keep and always will be. And now my friends, yes, you are right to think that the true essence of “The Night Circus” still eludes you, and it is entirely up to you whether you should delve into it and uncover its secrets, or just let it fade from your mind forever, but whatever you decide just remember this…

“The Circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it, no mentions or advertisements in local newspapers. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not.”

This was a 5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ read 📚 ...more

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Jul 21, 2025 Ronel Janse van Vuuren rated it did not like it

Shelves: did-not-finish, disappointing-read, tbr-2025-challenge, a-z-n

There was something in the opening that drew me, but the yada-yada backstory of the girl and boy made me put the book aside one too many times. The date and place stamps at the start of each chapter felt like I needed to look around to see if we’ve jumped ahead, back, etc. And there was nothing to anchor me to the story or the characters.
DNF 8%

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