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itsheyfay's review
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Death, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Death, Murder, Alcohol, Blood, Gaslighting, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Infidelity, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Suicide attempt
maeverose's review against another edition
dark
inspiring
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? No
3.25
This is a bit of an essay…
This review is for my first re read of this book, which I originally gave 4 or 5 stars (can’t remember)
!!!This will have spoilers so skip if you haven’t read the book!!!
This review is for my first re read of this book, which I originally gave 4 or 5 stars (can’t remember)
!!!This will have spoilers so skip if you haven’t read the book!!!
TL;DR: It didn’t hold up. I feel very similarly as I did for the starless sea. I love the setting with my whole heart, the writing and the atmosphere. Bailey’s chapters remain my favorite. But I was incredibly disappointed with the romance and the way the plot played out.
The things I loved:
The things I loved:
My favorite thing about this book is the circus itself. I wanna visit it so bad. Just the descriptions of the circus, the different foods, performances and tents. I need it to exist.
I also loved the atmospheric writing, the way she describes scents, sounds, etc makes it so immersive.
Bailey’s storyline is my favorite. I love his friendship with Poppet and Widget and his journey to joining the circus himself.
The things I didn’t like:
The things I didn’t like:
The main romance was so disappointing. For a book that’s marketed as a fantasy romance, I would’ve expected more of a focus on the romance. It’s not even a focus until the last third. They barely interact until then. For an opponents-to-lovers, I wanted tension between them before getting to the romance. What little tension there was came in too late and felt forced. It doesn’t have to be full-on enemies to lovers but it just doesn’t make sense to me that by the time they do finally get together, they get together with no hesitation, knowing they’re opponents. They shouldn’t have been that trusting of each other. I didn’t buy their love for each other. It was very instalove on Marco’s part, and instalove doesn’t work for me for multiple reasons. One being that it’s hard for me to buy his attraction to her when he doesn’t even know her. He fell for her years before they ever really spoke to each other, let alone got to know each other. I can’t buy that, personally. And from Celia’s perspective, she didn’t pay him any attention hardly until the end. It literally says in the book that to her he blended into the background before she found out he was her opponent. She didn’t care about him. It was also somewhat instalove for her after that point. Given that this book takes place over so many years, that would’ve suited a slow burn romance perfectly. Even though it takes years for them to get together, it’s not slow burn. The point of slow burn (imo) is the mutual tension and build up before they finally confess their feelings and get together. They need to interact.
Marco’s relationship with Isobel. He was kinda terrible to her. He fell for Celia the moment he saw her, but didn’t break up with Isobel until 15 years later… like yes Isobel could’ve taken the hint that he didn’t like her anymore but it was really sh*tty of him to not just tell her that it was over. He knew Isobel still loved him, or he wouldn’t have broken up with her at all. He just let that go on for 15 years…… another thing about their relationship that bothered me, is if you pay attention, towards the end Isobel says she was younger than Bailey when she met Marco. Bailey was 15 when Isobel met him, Marco was 19 when he met Isobel. So Isobel had to have been 14 at the oldest…. That makes me uncomfortable.
The competition. I liked that it wasn’t action heavy, but I felt like there was so little focus on the competition that it just felt a bit low stakes. Not even just that but it hardly felt like there was a competition at all.
Marco’s relationship with Isobel. He was kinda terrible to her. He fell for Celia the moment he saw her, but didn’t break up with Isobel until 15 years later… like yes Isobel could’ve taken the hint that he didn’t like her anymore but it was really sh*tty of him to not just tell her that it was over. He knew Isobel still loved him, or he wouldn’t have broken up with her at all. He just let that go on for 15 years…… another thing about their relationship that bothered me, is if you pay attention, towards the end Isobel says she was younger than Bailey when she met Marco. Bailey was 15 when Isobel met him, Marco was 19 when he met Isobel. So Isobel had to have been 14 at the oldest…. That makes me uncomfortable.
The competition. I liked that it wasn’t action heavy, but I felt like there was so little focus on the competition that it just felt a bit low stakes. Not even just that but it hardly felt like there was a competition at all.
———————————
I think I’ll still read future books by Erin Morgenstern, because I love her ideas so much, but so far both her books have been disappointing for me. I wish she would work on creating more fleshed out characters and plots, then she could easily be a favorite author.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Self harm, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Physical abuse, Alcohol, Murder, Animal death, and Child abuse
Moderate: Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Ableism, Confinement, Cursing, Pedophilia, Sexual content, Death of parent, Misogyny, and Eating disorder
A sort of magical equivalent of terminal illness, stabbing, depression, an unhealthy romantic relationship (side romance), pedophilic relationship (14 & 19 when they get together, side romance)etherealaide's review against another edition
adventurous
lighthearted
mysterious
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Murder, and Suicidal thoughts
Minor: Sexual content
zoeelora's review against another edition
dark
inspiring
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Child abuse, Death, Confinement, Death of parent, Gore, Infidelity, Murder, Infertility, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual content, and Suicide
talonsontypewriters's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Animal death, Murder, Violence, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Gaslighting, Physical abuse, and Self harm
Minor: Sexism, Suicide, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Misogyny, and Suicidal thoughts
ylienna's review against another edition
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death
Minor: Sexual content
samchase112's review against another edition
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
A magical, immersive reading experience — I can 100% understand why everyone was hyping this book up for so long! The main characters, and by extension the romance, were definitely the least interesting and least fleshed out part of the book, but the dazzling world and secondary cast more than made up for the dimmer leads. I truly enjoyed my time with The Night Circus, and am so glad I finally stepped into its gorgeous pages.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Child abuse, Self harm, and Alcohol
Moderate: Death of parent, Abandonment, Death, Murder, Sexual content, and Grief
Minor: Stalking and Suicide
dancing_on_ur_muml0l's review against another edition
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
relaxing
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
I kinda don't like Marco ecause he basically isolated Isobelle and we very rude and ignorant towards her
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death
Minor: Sexual content
classicpseudonym's review against another edition
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
this book can't be described as anything other than magical. and i'm saying that as a person who isn't big on fantasy. the concept of the circus was fascinating to read, and morgenstern's use of descriptive detail is top tier. while reading, i could picture the tents of the circus, chandresh's mansion, marco's study, etc., and i'm not the most imaginative person. additionally, the book featured many characters that all played a role and added to the plot, which i appreciated. i was especially fond of herr thiessen's character and found his work as a clockmaker interesting to read about. i also liked one of the themes of this book, which was that none of us truly know what's possible. lastly, i wasn't the biggest fan of the romance between marco and celia, but i'm not big on romance in books in general. i felt that their relationship dragged on for too long. additionally, i feel that their characters lacked character development compared to character's like bailey, isabel, etc. overall, i'd still recommend this book to anyone looking for a mysterious, almost prose-like book.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Alcohol, and Sexual content
Minor: Death of parent
writewithapendragon's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Intensely atmospheric, enchanting language and setting. I didn’t buy into the main romance but I don’t know that it took away from my enjoyment of the book overall.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Suicide, Fire/Fire injury, Blood, Alcoholism, Death of parent, Death, Suicidal thoughts, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Alcohol, Blood, Confinement, Sexual content, Bullying, Death, Death of parent, and Emotional abuse
Romance/sexual content is all G rated/alluded to, no sexual content on the page though there is kissing.