The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern - start. Feb 15 2014

[Tessa]

Description: "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 both, this is a game in which only one can be left standing. Despite the high stakes, Celia and Marco soon tumble headfirst into love, setting off a domino effect of dangerous consequences, and leaving the lives of everyone, from the performers to the patrons, hanging in the balance."

I'm reading this with Once Upon a Time, but anyone is welcomed to join us :) .

[Tessa]

Hey, I might start reading this only tomorrow, but I'll probably read a few chapters from it today as well.
I'll let you set the pace. :)

[Tessa]

I started this one, I'm actually 1/4 done with it. So far I like the magical realism this book is all about. I also like the 2 magicians that are competing, but I wish I knew more about the nature of their competition. I'm sad to see they are keept in the dark just as much as we are. At times I'm a little confused by all the names, but I'm slowly starting to put a face to each name XD.

[Tessa]

OMG, this is so freaking boring. Once Upon a Time you better come here and discuss this with me before I go crazy!

I'm at part 3 in the story and (view spoiler)[beside the fact the the 2 magicians fall in love with each other (and the feeling is build for 13 years... Jesus) nothing happens. (hide spoiler)]
Really, this book is full of descriptions and shit and all sorts of questions and no answers. In the end, what is the point of this story? I'm more than halfway throught the book and I still don't know what this duel is all about. All I know is that it can last up to 37 years. Not sure my patience can wait that long.

[Tessa]

Ok, I finished this one. I'm sorry you couldn't join me Once Upon a Time, but I must admit you didn't lost a lot.

As an author Erin Morgenstern did do her research. The writing itself is full of magic and beautiful visual descriptions, but that's all this book is ever going to be. A very pretty empty box. It's very sad, because this author really does have potential. If only she would spend more time in developing an actual story then being cryptic throughout the entire book then give some fade out explanation to everything. Really, after waiting for 250 pages to finally find what the challenge it's all about (view spoiler)[ it turned out to be a challenge of patience. Surprise, surprise! We have been competing together with the 2 magicians all along. (hide spoiler)] Did this realization made me feel any less bored about the book itself? Of course not!

Marco and Celia were actually less complex characters than they were made to look. If you take a closer inspection you'll see that besides that fact that they are mysterious and they fell in love because they are bound to each other they have no depths to them. No actual personality so to speak of. Truthfully, most of the time the 2 voices of the main characters seemed to be the same voice.

I recommend this book only to authors/people who want to start writing. Those who have a good story in mind but are not so good at actually writing it. Like I said, the writing is sublime, the descriptive parts deceive the reader into actually thinking he's reading a good book. That's something rare to achieve when you don't have a story to bring along. Most authors have the other problem: a story full of plot holes and bad descriptions.