The Night Circus question

I usually hate books with tons of descriptions, a reason I don't care for Steinback, but I absolutely felt entranced by this book. One word to describe this book is: luxurious. Not that this book is about luxury, but it just makes me feel like I enjoyed plenty of decadent chocolate. The imagery takes me right there to this magical place, and the stories colliding together kept me enticed. I love the way the author used the story lines. And the romance. Oh the romance! IT WAS EVERYTHING. Everything I wanted in a fantasy novel.

I thought it was just okay. Like others who feel this way I loved the circus itself - such an incredible place, and quite easy to visualize - but the characters and plot fell short for me. It dragged quite a bit in the middle, and I found myself struggling to stay with it. In my read books notebook, I wrote it was "unnecessarily vague in parts", which was another issue I took with it, as if the author wasn't sure themselves and so didn't want to be clearer.

It was so hyped around me, even by people whose book recommendations I trust, that I found myself scratching my head after I finished.

Cindy wrote: "I'm currently reading "The Night Circus "and I'm really not into it. I'm in page 196 and I'm a salt grain away from dropping the book an moving on to something else. The circus description is amazi..."
I listened to the audio version of this book and perhaps that was part of the enjoyment for me. Jim Dale brings life to the characters, reading each one with a different accent. I especially love Poppet and Widget. His own accent adds magic and melody to the descriptions of the circus. So much so, that I've listened to it twice and have since bought the hardcover version. I even take notes on the descriptive words the author uses. Words like "mercurial, flourish, topiary and besotted". Try the audio version and you may have a change of heart.

The environments and descriptions are of course very nice, but I can't remember a single thing about the characters, or much about the story line. I would probably get more enjoyment out of dipping into a random chapter than reading the entire thing again.

It was actually so good! It was a bit slow sometimes, but i still enjoyed it so much!

I just finished this book a few weeks ago and it was by far one of the slowest books I've ever read. I alternated btw audio and a physical copy. It took me over a week to read it. I honestly don't understand all the hype. I didn't get the metaphoric undertones. In the beginning I thought that it was very complex bc of all the details and backstory, but after a few chapters I became frustrated and annoyed by the changing perspectives. While I loved the atmospere and historical aspects, the plot itself was very bland. This book is marketed as a romance, however the charaters don't even meet until over half-way through the book and only have a few interactions. I really thought it was going to be very cut-throat. That there was going to be this magical circus, a beautiful and complicated romance and a major conflict. But it was really none of those thing. All in all, this was just a historical fiction with a bit of magical realism tied in. I did like it, I just don't understand all the hype.

Four stars from me. I never even knew about this book until a recommendation a week ago, and I barely glanced at the blurb, since blurbs are often misleading. Also, I never read reviews, of movies, books or tv series. I like to make up my own mind.

That said, I read this book through in one sitting, from afternoon to early morning, and I loved it. The descriptions and prose is wonderful, mysteries remain (as Tolkien said, never explain everything), and I am glad for the sort-of happy ending (I was convinced near the end that it will have a tragic ending or something like it).

Yes, the plot is vague and the characters are not well developed, both feel like a moonlit dream that evaporates in the morning sun.

And that is what I loved about this book too, its dreamlike quality.

I cannot understand how other commentators continue to harp on the magical competition and how the two magician never have a proper Voldemort/Harry Potter like duel with magic firebolts shooting out of their arses.

At the end it was made clear, by Tsukiko and the understanding of the two magicians, that the competition is not really a duel, its a showcase of skills and a test of endurance. The two magicians both mention more than once how tired they are, keeping all the magical balls afloat for so long.

It not only took years, but also tremendous magical effort. Its not just "oooh pretty tent" as another comment said. It sometimes took years to perfect a new showcased tent. Celia constantly keeps the circus going, and travelling. Marco constantly keeps a delicate magical non-ageing for the performers. And so forth.

Well, to each their own of course.

At first, I was a little bit confused and it took me a little bit to realize that I needed to pay attention to the dates and locations. Once I got into it, though I couldn't put it down. The use of magic in this world mesmerized me and I couldn't get enough of it. Marco and Celia's relationship was adorable, to say the least. Oh my gosh, I loved this.

I've dropped the audiobook in it on CD 9. The voiceactor is good at acting, but he has more variances for women's and children's voices, which is...as interesting as it is disappointing. Marco sounds like an old man, but Celia is somehow believeable as a young woman. I do wish they had alternative narrators, as I grow tired of his voice.

The descriptions are nice enough, though they don't reach, say, The Last Unicorn levels to me. Mostly I agree with what the others have said here, the characters are undeveloped or normal enough to be uninteresting (despite magic powers!). (I like realistic characters, but not ones realistic enough that they avoid (view spoiler)[stabbing who actually hurts them. Chandresh aside. (hide spoiler)]

Actually, I'm super disappointed with the amount of (view spoiler)[brainwashing (hide spoiler)]Marco does to Chandresh. It means that Chandresh can face no consequences except further Alzeihmer's, and that's boring.

I'm also super-bored by the fact that neither Celia nor Marcohas made apparent a desire to kill either of their "fathers". That's, quite frabkly, unrealist; especially for Celia who was not only physically harmed, but also regularly stalked and verbally abused by him. That's...annoying that she's only frustrated and annoyed. If I were her (and I should know) I would be contemplating how to use my magic to (view spoiler)[make him diminish entirely! (hide spoiler)]

I kinda got mixed feelings for Bailey's side. At first I was annoyed with another plotline, then I liked the twins and the feminist notion of a boy being swept off his feet. But Poppet seems like just another Manic Pixie Dream Girl, and I was uninterested again. Totally disappointed that she's not a big eater like her brother. Seems like her only personality is "chipper and stars" so far.


As others have said, the second-person sections are the best. As reviewer mentioned that this book was setting-based rather then plot or character-based. And I agree with that notion. I feel like she's trying to worm a setting-based story into having a plot with characters. Honestly, I would truly be happy with a mini-book that just describes me visiting the circus, no plot to be had. It would be simple and done well. Any plots could come later.

But ultimately, that's not the story we got. We got a behind-the-scenes style Setting based book where the author doesn't even allow us to have an idea as to how things work. In a Sci-fi, I could understand. Future technology can't be explained. But with her...she's just being pretentious. Trying to keep the "mystery" in a book which demands explanations, at least every now and then. She post-pones all explanations- character reasons, setting questions, etc. Until either the last moment or really late into the book.

And it's frustrating as hell. I can't believe I listened to several hours of CDs (including rewinds because I misheard a word) over this book.

I did like this book, but not as much as I expected. I went into it with very high expectations and it just wasn't that great. I really did enjoy it though and I think if I would have went into it blind it I would've liked it a lot more.

I fell in love with this books 3 and a half years ago! I still remember my favorite parts and yelled at the damned thing a couple times.... I cried at the end, but all in all it's a wonderfully written novel! One of my faves! Now I'm reading Caraval which is quite intense as well... I bring that up because it too is a "Night Circus" only never repeats a trip. The premise is entirely different. The point is "The Night Circus" is literally the reason I'm reading this book now, and opened my eyes to a different way of reading/writing.

I loved this book and have read it many times. The interweaving stories are fascinating. I also loved how descriptive it was. I will say that it can be slow going, but I think it's worth finishing.

This is my absolute favorite book. It took me to a whole new world of perception. I could not put the book down and it brought me to tears just from how beautiful it was. I love the mystery and unsolved questions. I highly recommend this book for ALL readers. PLEASE make more books like this!!
~Katie J.

Read this book years ago and loved it.

Gorgeous descriptions, characters I cared about and beautifully original.

The whole thing about the circus at the end was pointless and stupid IMO. I gave it two stars.

Cindy wrote: "I'm currently reading "The Night Circus "and I'm really not into it. I'm in page 196 and I'm a salt grain away from dropping the book an moving on to something else. The circus description is amaze..."


Hello Cindy, I agree with you...I thought this book had so much hype when it was published but this was so boring... SPOILER ALERT! (Do not continue reading if you haven't finish the book). Please tell me something, at the end of the book the bonfire couldn't be extinct so the two lovers can live forever, and for the circus to continue. However, what happened to the bonfire when the circus was traveling from one city to another?

I really liked this book and I finished it because it was like a whole other world where this high level of magic was so insane but also could almost, ALMOST, be realistic. Like perhaps I'm one of the customers to the Night Circus, amazed by the bright lights and the illusions and then when I go home and lie in my bed, I return back to my life. When I wake up in the morning to go to school, to an institution designed as a pillar of society and "daily life", the Night Circus along with the magic is gone.

I understand that it may be hard to relate to the characters and as the characters- the actual POV that you're allowing yourself to embrace just by reading- if they're lacking then the book has already lost an integral part of a perhaps otherwise good review and enjoyable experience. However, I kind of liked the feeling of not able to relate to the characters. True, the two lovers didn't give two shits about the "game" between them, really between their mentors who are old rivals, but unexplainably I liked the feeling of there being a disconnect between me and the story. It plays on to how I felt like the book was a different world entirely.

Though, like all books, everyone has their own preferences and so if you don't' want to finish the book then don't feel obligated to. Take what you enjoyed and leave it at that.

I couldn't finish it...not even half way. A bit too bizarre for my taste.

I read this book lying in a hammock while on a family camping trip, and my fiance couldn't get me to move away from its pages. I think so much of a book is not about what the book is talking about, but how it is described. The language used in The Night Circus is what got to me. And you're right, its not the fastest paced book out there, but the nuance and the web of characters, and how they are all intertwined and connected is what made me not be able to put this book down. Why is it that the two main characters are so unaware of the seriousness that is the competition? Its because it is all they have ever known, and they don't even know what is truly at stake when the competition begins? The stage that they set is so masterfully done, and the repercussions of their actions is developing with each character involved in the circus. To be honest, I have thought about dressing in all black and white and a red scarf for months, but I wasn't sure if anyone would realize to what I was referring. I hope you give the book another chance, but don't feel too bad if it really doesn't catch your fancy, maybe try again when you are in a different mood. Maybe it will speak to you then.

I loved it! The book is not an action novel so if that's what you were looking for this may not be your cup of tea.

I didn't get swept up by the descriptive bits like everyone else, it seemed fairly workman to me in terms of language/metaphor although a lot of the circus features were pretty imaginative. Doesn't compare to a descriptive writer like Mark Helprin, etc.

There's an unbelievable absence of conflict in this novel, that was the sore point that made it not work for me. Even the deaths are more circumstantial than confrontational.

I love it. My profile proves it,