Reviews with content warning for Fire/Fire injury - The Night Circus

This was a beautifully written story. My biggest critique is that it relies more on characters than plot, but there wasn’t a lot of character development.

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jeanniea's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

A truly magical book. I lived in this world, fully wrapped up in it. The bonds formed between the characters was indescribable. I only wish that the ending had been more fleshed out. The ending felt rushed and almost incomplete with how the main characters' presence fade from the storyline.

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leilorenzo's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

I have mixed feelings about this one.

We picked it up after much talk about reading it together with my best friend (we ended up reading it at different paces, but it was still a shared experience) and it sucks you in as soon as you open it:

The circus arrives without warning.
No announcements precede it, no paper notices on downtown posts and billboards, no mentions or advertisements in local newspapers. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not.

The writing was absolutely beautiful, the way Erin Morgenstern managed to construct the world of the Circus and its different sections was marvellous. However, the story was unable to enchant me quite the same way.
Don't get me wrong, it is a unique and interesting story, once two characters knowingly cross paths I was sad to have to pause my reading to do things just as work, eat or sleep. In the end, when you leave the lovely words behind, you find that there are some things that don't add up as well as you thought while in the midst of it all.

Mainly, I found the romance between two characters (

Celia and Marco

) to be a little bit out of the blue. I understand him being mesmerized by her persona and abilities, but her side? I didn't quite catch it.
The way the challenge is introduced at the very beginning makes you hate the teachers from the get-go, which I found to be a good tactic to get us to side with the competitors. Now... the challenge itself was left too vague for far too long to my liking. Had the author made them find each other sooner and used those encounters to continue building up the scenery (circus, people, tents magical methods, etc) I would have probably bought certain aspects (

the romance surrounding them, the way the twins take on Celia, Tsukiko and Bailey's involvement(!?)...

) a bit more.

Having mentioned the magic, I like that there were different approaches or schools of thought, I believe it is what made it more relatable. The characters were very well rounded as well, so it was good to see their interactions in different scenes. Of course, I have a soft spot for Herr Thiessen and the reveurs, I feel they were the characters meant to represent the reader within the magical ambience of the circus because I would have absolutely wanted to be them in that world.

'I find I think of myself not as a writer so much as someone who provides a gateway a tangential route for readers to reach the circus. To visit the circus again if only in their minds when they are unable to attend it physically. I relay it through printed words on crumpled newsprint words that they can read again and again returning to the circus whenever they wish regardless of the time of day or physical location. Transporting them at will.
When put that way it sounds rather like magic doesn't it? Friedrick Thiessen 1898'

“Ah,” remarked one guest when the topic arose. “You prefer not to see the gears of the clock, as to better tell the time.”

“Because I do not wish to know,” he says. “I prefer to remain unenlightened, to better appreciate the dark.”

"I am tired of trying to hold things together that cannot be held. Trying to control what cannot be controlled. I am tired of denying myself what I want for fear of breaking things I cannot fix. They will break no matter what we do."

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starlit_pathways's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? N/A
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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laurareads87's review against another edition

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dark inspiring mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

After having The Night Circus sitting on my e-reader for an embarassingly long time, I'm so glad I finally got to reading it. It is a bit of a hard book to discuss without giving plot spoilers, so I won't discuss the plot at all except to say -- as other reviewers have mentioned -- the blurb for this book doesn't really capture what the book is actually about: the description of duelling magicians brings something like The Prestige to mind, but this is really not that kind of book. I would argue that the main character in this book is actually the setting, Le Cirque des Rêves. Some readers won't be into this, but I love it -- as a lover of circuses, divination, and magic, I was totally swept away by how Morgenstern has brought Le Cirque to life, conjuring up its sights, sounds, and smells in great detail. This is very much a setting-focused book. I also appreciated the effective inclusion of multiple POVs and the slow revealing of layers of the mystery at the heart of the circus. What I didn't love was the inclusion of an 'insta-love' kind of a romance that frankly, I thought the book would've been better without. Overall, though, I enjoyed The Night Circus and will look forward to reading more of Morgenstern's work on this basis.

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