The Night Circus in Crazy Challenge Connection

Dec 23, 2016 Jen • Just One More Page rated it it was amazing

Shelves: adult, female-non-male-authors, fantasy, favorites, historical-fiction, owned, stand-alones, romance, magic, stunning-covers

This review is also posted on my blog.

(view spoiler) ...more

8 likes · Like · see review

Oct 23, 2020 Veronika rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: hetero-romance, 1800s, female-author, drama, fantasy, 1900s

Wunderschöner, atmosphärischer Schreibstil, interessante Prämisse - und dabei vergisst man ein bisschen, dass es leider keinen wirklichen Plot hat.
Ich denke, wenn man sich in der Atmosphäre suhlt und den Schreibstil genießt, hat man viel Freude an dem Buch und so ging es mir auch. Aber nach Plot sucht man hier vergeblich.

5 likes · Like · see review

Jun 19, 2018 Megan rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: ammp-fairytale, towers-teams-2018, favorites, 5-star-reads

Lovely. Absolutely lovely.

3 likes · Like · see review

Jan 05, 2013 Nikki the Sapphired Book Dragon AKA NixieNut rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I wasn't sure quite what I was expecting when I started this book and when I saw it started with second person present tense, I got a little worried as that would have to be my least favourite tense to read books in as it is very rarely done well. However after the short prologue, it changed to third person present tense so I breathed a sigh of relief and read on.

I am so glad that I did. I found this novel as magical, mysterious and captivating as the circus the story is about. With a 9 month ol ...more

2 likes · Like · see review

Oct 02, 2018 Avisek Bandyopadhyay rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, magical

I will quote a reviewer on The Guardian before I jot down my thoughts, 'To a degree, literary taste is a subjective matter. One can admire a work of fiction without particularly enjoying it.' Night Circus is a highly acclaimed debut (as it seems from the plethora of reviews listed in the book) of Erin Morgenstern that deals with magic and love.
The author tries to conjure up magic, so much so, that impossible seems nothing. From gowns changing colours, to jackets being turned into waistcoats to I will quote a reviewer on The Guardian before I jot down my thoughts, 'To a degree, literary taste is a subjective matter. One can admire a work of fiction without particularly enjoying it.' Night Circus is a highly acclaimed debut (as it seems from the plethora of reviews listed in the book) of Erin Morgenstern that deals with magic and love.
The author tries to conjure up magic, so much so, that impossible seems nothing. From gowns changing colours, to jackets being turned into waistcoats to fractured hands and broken things reconstructing themselves without so much as a scar, the book treats these fantastical things as just the ambience. Much time is spent on introducing and making magic a part of the reader's journey where it seems as natural as someone breathing. So, the vaunted circus has eerie elements that seem to be at par - ice garden where everything is made of ice from blooming flowers to sprouting fountains, burning trees where dreams hang on from, a tent full of bottles that captures the scent and images of childhood, carousel with breathing animals made of wood, a well with black stones that relieves one of all the bad and painful memories and most importantly, transportation, self-sufficient tents which opens and closes by its own volition at the snap of a finger. Magic is truly boundless and the author tries hard to draw the reader into a circus where everything is transcendental, that pushes every boundary of senses until the reader might seem to infer that there truly is no circus than this one. But, all the hard work and the fantastic imagination is limited to creating this ambience of other worldly pleasures and a labyrinth where the reader might feel the same as rêveurs or become one. Rêveurs are the staunchest, die-hard fans of the circus who travel the world to be with the circus, meet with one another revelling in their own stories and form a cult of sorts with a fashion trend - dark dresses with a splash of red/ scarlet. Amidst this setting, the story unfolds - Marco and Celia are chosen to compete against each other until one of them wins. They were chosen by their mentors who have a history of competition between themselves to decide if magic can be taught or self-discovered. It is the centre-piece of the story that the author faltered. The competition never gathered steam, never seemed to perilous and the genesis of it was never explained. While the entire book was weaved to be the perfect setting for the competition, the decor and the elements became too large to overwhelm the keystone of the book and the book never really recovers from that. The love story between the protagonists lacked to evoke empathy from the reader. Again, a commoner who plays a pivotal part in the scheme of things in the end - Bailey stood out. Left out by his elder sister, without friends, unaccepting of the apple fields he was set to inherit, unenthusiastic about the Harvard education he was set to receive, Bailey's only joy (his splash of red in the darkness around him) were the circus and an oak tree. There are other characters in the book who serve to define the viciousness of the competition or amplify the magic or just act as a decor element.
It's not a book that I didn't enjoy. It's not a book that I would skip. The story, as I said, is in the setting and not in the centrepiece. But, after wafting through the story, believing that magic is real and is something that exists around the world, adoring that might be I will have the chance to visit a circus so charming when the story ends there is a hint of incompleteness. That, maybe the balance was not right or maybe the illusion nit so binding after all.

Like the quote I started with, I adored it, I might have enjoyed it too but I am not particularly fond of it. ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Jan 25, 2014 Jasmiina F rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy

Magical book and I think that Morgenstern is now one of my favorite authors. When I was reading about the circus I really felr everything and I miss it already. A lovely book.

Like · see review