Book Title: The Night Circus
Author: Erin Morgenstern
Date Started: January 15th 2014
Date Completed: January 19th 2014
Genres: Fantasy, Mystery, Romance
Rating: Five stars
Review:
I knew I was going to love The Night Circus when I picked it up, but at first it simply seemed intriguing to me. It ended up becoming one of the most complex and beautiful books I've ever read, with characters that developed an incredible distance from the first page to the last chapter.
Celia has been training since she was very young. But training for what, she doesn't know. But when she auditions for a circus after her father and instructor dies, she knows that it is more than a circus: it is the battlefield on which she must complete this game. But the people that inhabit the circus are far from ordinary, and as she finds herself falling more and more in love with the magical place and its people, she realises the harder it's going to be complete her challenge.
Morgenstern has a beautiful writing style, mainly made of description - so of course I was going to like it. The story was mainly written in 3rd person, however there were little snippets throughout the book where the circus was described through 2nd person. I loved this because it gave you a look at the circus without having to think about what was happening to the characters in a particular scene.
There were also time jumps that, at the beginning of the book, was very confusing, but after I found my feet, it was really interesting thinking about the changes that were apparent in the later times, yet still hadn't happened in the earlier sections.
There isn't really one flowing story in this novel; there's several that all tie in and finally draw together in a very touching conclusion. When a story is split into several parts, I usually find myself skimming through certain chapters to get to another character's story - but I loved every part of this story.
The development of both the characters and the story is amazing throughout the book. Since the time jumps mean that even from the beginning we are aware of what sort of thing is going to happen later in the story, it means that there is a noticeable contrast even from the start of the two parts of the story. This could potentially be risky, since you then actually have to develop the story and characters really well, but Morgenstern was able to do this perfectly.
I'm still not entirely sure I understand the logic and loopholes of the end, but I really loved it and it concluded the story nicely.
The characters in The Night Circus are wonderful, and jumped to life right off the page for me. There was a diversity between their personalities that I haven't really seen in a book before. I didn't became connected with them as I do with most books, but I ended up loving them anyway.
I think Celia was intended to be the main character, however so many characters does lead to less time in the limelight. But if I'm honest, I preferred it like this. I usually like some of the smaller characters more than the larger ones, but Celia was a lovely character and I'm glad she was happy in the end.
I went through a stage of liking Marco, then hating him, and then being content with where he ended up. This, in the end, was a good thing I suppose, since it proved how much the character had changed throughout the duration of the book.
Bailey was another lovely character and I had a feeling he was going to be essential to the plot right from the beginning.
I loved the smaller characters in the circus as well. The way they all had a huge impact on the story, and were still involved in little sections impressed me a lot. Poppet and Widget were especially lovely and Tsukiko grew on me enormously. I have to admit, Isobel was my favourite character. I know she wasn't particularly special, but I loved her the most.
The pace of this book did worry me a little bit at first as it doesn't jump out straight away as amazing. There's a lot of hype around this book as well, which didn't help too much. But my Mum told me that I just had to carry on until they reached the circus. And she was right: I couldn't put it down from then on. The story seemed to happen in real time, and then when I look back, it all happened so fast. I almost wish it hadn't ended.
I recommend The Night Circus to fans of fantasy, mystery and romance. It's also beautifully written, so perfect for anyone who wants to really be moved by words. Even I was unsure at the start, but after the beginning, it really was unforgettable.
Image Source: http://tulipsandtea.com/wp-content/uploads/
2012/11/The-Night-Circus1.jpg
I knew I was going to love The Night Circus when I picked it up, but at first it simply seemed intriguing to me. It ended up becoming one of the most complex and beautiful books I've ever read, with characters that developed an incredible distance from the first page to the last chapter.
Celia has been training since she was very young. But training for what, she doesn't know. But when she auditions for a circus after her father and instructor dies, she knows that it is more than a circus: it is the battlefield on which she must complete this game. But the people that inhabit the circus are far from ordinary, and as she finds herself falling more and more in love with the magical place and its people, she realises the harder it's going to be complete her challenge.
Morgenstern has a beautiful writing style, mainly made of description - so of course I was going to like it. The story was mainly written in 3rd person, however there were little snippets throughout the book where the circus was described through 2nd person. I loved this because it gave you a look at the circus without having to think about what was happening to the characters in a particular scene.
There were also time jumps that, at the beginning of the book, was very confusing, but after I found my feet, it was really interesting thinking about the changes that were apparent in the later times, yet still hadn't happened in the earlier sections.
There isn't really one flowing story in this novel; there's several that all tie in and finally draw together in a very touching conclusion. When a story is split into several parts, I usually find myself skimming through certain chapters to get to another character's story - but I loved every part of this story.
The development of both the characters and the story is amazing throughout the book. Since the time jumps mean that even from the beginning we are aware of what sort of thing is going to happen later in the story, it means that there is a noticeable contrast even from the start of the two parts of the story. This could potentially be risky, since you then actually have to develop the story and characters really well, but Morgenstern was able to do this perfectly.
I'm still not entirely sure I understand the logic and loopholes of the end, but I really loved it and it concluded the story nicely.
The characters in The Night Circus are wonderful, and jumped to life right off the page for me. There was a diversity between their personalities that I haven't really seen in a book before. I didn't became connected with them as I do with most books, but I ended up loving them anyway.
I think Celia was intended to be the main character, however so many characters does lead to less time in the limelight. But if I'm honest, I preferred it like this. I usually like some of the smaller characters more than the larger ones, but Celia was a lovely character and I'm glad she was happy in the end.
I went through a stage of liking Marco, then hating him, and then being content with where he ended up. This, in the end, was a good thing I suppose, since it proved how much the character had changed throughout the duration of the book.
Bailey was another lovely character and I had a feeling he was going to be essential to the plot right from the beginning.
I loved the smaller characters in the circus as well. The way they all had a huge impact on the story, and were still involved in little sections impressed me a lot. Poppet and Widget were especially lovely and Tsukiko grew on me enormously. I have to admit, Isobel was my favourite character. I know she wasn't particularly special, but I loved her the most.
The pace of this book did worry me a little bit at first as it doesn't jump out straight away as amazing. There's a lot of hype around this book as well, which didn't help too much. But my Mum told me that I just had to carry on until they reached the circus. And she was right: I couldn't put it down from then on. The story seemed to happen in real time, and then when I look back, it all happened so fast. I almost wish it hadn't ended.
I recommend The Night Circus to fans of fantasy, mystery and romance. It's also beautifully written, so perfect for anyone who wants to really be moved by words. Even I was unsure at the start, but after the beginning, it really was unforgettable.
Image Source: http://tulipsandtea.com/wp-content/uploads/
2012/11/The-Night-Circus1.jpg
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