From the Bookshelf of Nothing But Reading Challenges…

The Night Circus

Erin Morgenstern

Start date: October 2, 2015

Finish date: October 31, 2015

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What Members Thought

Jul 17, 2019 Carrie rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fantasy, historical-fiction, magicians, favorite-authors, multiple-points-of-view, mgr, magical-realism

Enchanting
Magical
Wonderful

Welcome to the Night Circus where nothing is what it seems and it all that you that can ever imagine wanting.

A test
A challenge
A love story.

Two people pitied against the other in a game, a challenge endure.
Lives forever changed.
Within and outside of black and white tents of the Le Cirque de Rêves

12 likes · Like · see review

Dec 09, 2012 Amanda rated it it was amazing

Shelves: i-will-read-anything-by, 5-stars, favorites, recs-from-friends, recs-geeky, locus-award-previous

Nov 2015:

Re-read/re-listen in the car again, and I love it just as amazingly, even though I was watching it play out in a wholly new way this time. Knowing the story from the beginning, was the story from the end. What happened to everyone. Recognizing the earliest, tiny cracks, and the smallest of small hints that give so much away. I love it so much, and I really can not wait for Erin's new book to be released.

Dec 4th 2014:
This book is AMAZING. I do not even know how to properly write up thi ...more

7 likes · Like · see review

Sep 09, 2014 Krissy rated it it was ok

Shelves: audiobook, read-before-2015, cover-color-black, pgs-300-399

First of all the narrator they chose for the audiobook version was all wrong. Most of the characters were young but yet the narrator sounded like a 60 year old man. He didn't do female voices very well and listening to him try and talk like a 6 year old girl was almost laughable. Plus all his female characters sounded the same. I just did not like him at all.

Now for the story itself. It took a very long time to actually get interesting. First you had all these characters thrown at you all at on ...more

6 likes · Like · see review

Jan 05, 2015 Kirsten rated it really liked it

Simply put, a delightful and enchanting book! The characters, the situations, the plotting just make this a wonderful read. It kept me engaged. At times it was light as a feather, at other times things closed in around you with menace. But it came all together like a perfectly crafted souffle.

What a delight!

6 likes · Like · see review

Nov 14, 2012 Yzabel Ginsberg rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: romance, magic, magical-realism, circus

This is one of those curious cases where I find lots of faults with the book, yet still end up liking it.

The world of the circus depicted here fascinated me. I'm usually not up for lots of long descriptions, but the author's writing flows so smoothly that I couldn't help but being entranced, and find everything delightfully enchanting. Strong visual imagery of the circus, its tents, the characters, their clothes... kept on invading my mind, especially as the dominant colour scheme was all in bla This is one of those curious cases where I find lots of faults with the book, yet still end up liking it.

The world of the circus depicted here fascinated me. I'm usually not up for lots of long descriptions, but the author's writing flows so smoothly that I couldn't help but being entranced, and find everything delightfully enchanting. Strong visual imagery of the circus, its tents, the characters, their clothes... kept on invading my mind, especially as the dominant colour scheme was all in black, white and grey, with a touch of purple, which are colours that speak to me like no others can (perhaps because of the whole 'polar colours' symbolism). Erin Morgenstern created a place full of eerie yet pleasant visions, and I couldn't help but coming back to her book and read more about those.

The second reason why I liked it is something that a lot of people find fault with, but that I personally appreciate: shifting timelines. I'm quite good at navigating such narratives, and I'm fond of the foreshadowing (or the 'aha, so THAT was it!') aspects made possible through it.

On the other hand, the plot itself and the characters were the novel's weak points for me. Mostly the characters are interesting because of their quirks, but I'm convinced the author could have done more with them, make her readers closer to them. And the plot wasn't what the cover blurb advertised: intriguing, with a certain amount of suspense, yet not the daring, somewhat dangerous and active 'competition' I had been led to expect. It's a shame, for I guess it wouldn't have been a bother if from the start I had known that I was going to read something that was slower-paced, and different in many ways. Also, the love story may have been stronger, with more impact, if the two characters had been aware earlier on of who they were to each other, and if they had been able to compete really face to face, and have more time 'together'. I understand that they got to know each other through their creations; still, it wasn't exactly as palatable this way.

I liked how everything tied up in the end, though, and I may read the novel again later on, to see if this changes my perception of the whole story. ...more

3 likes · Like · see review

Apr 10, 2017 Avigail rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2017, audiobook, audible, physical-book, own

This book an interesting one, even though when I read a couple of years ago I didn't pass the 20-page mark. This time I was interested to read before reading "Caraval", that I got on an "Owlcrate" subscription book box. Because I was afraid I wouldn't pass again the 20-page mark, I decided to listen to the audiobook and following it with my paperback copy. Jim Dale was the narrator and I absolutely loved his voice and the voices and accents he did for all the characters.
While reading and listeni ...more

2 likes · Like · see review

Sep 30, 2013 Shanyn rated it really liked it

This one took a while to really grab me. The first half of the book is pretty disjointed, but you just have to be willing to strap in and go along for the ride because the second half of the book makes it all worth it. It's an extraordinary celebration of the magic inherent in all things, whether it's recognized or not. Lovely, lovely, lovely... ...more

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Nov 23, 2014 Joyce rated it liked it

Imaginative tale about a competition that turns into a love story. The author weaves a vision of the kind of circus I would love to visit - a place of dreams, beauty and imagination and not a stinky animal being mistreated to be found. However, this circus is not without its tragedies and complications. I'd love to see if someone could turn this into a movie. It would be a visual feast. ...more

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