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abookwormspov's review against another edition
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Dementia, Suicide, Grief, Gaslighting, Suicidal thoughts, Physical abuse, Murder, Mental illness, Confinement, Violence, Toxic relationship, Fire/Fire injury, Emotional abuse, Death, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, and Child abuse
mxbluet18's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Trigger warnings for The Night Circus include: child abuse, suicide, blood depiction, death of a parent and animal death.
☆
☆
This story jumps around between perspectives a lot, which I find a little difficult to follow.
~
I was interested in it, but I didn't have an easy time keeping the characters and the timeline straight, which meant I couldn't really work out what was happening a lot of the time, and kept confusing characters and who was who.
~
I think I enjoyed The Starless Sea more than I did this one because I cared more about the characters and events in that one. I'm sure it's a great book for someone, but I wasn't thrilled by it.
☆
☆
This story jumps around between perspectives a lot, which I find a little difficult to follow.
~
I was interested in it, but I didn't have an easy time keeping the characters and the timeline straight, which meant I couldn't really work out what was happening a lot of the time, and kept confusing characters and who was who.
~
I think I enjoyed The Starless Sea more than I did this one because I cared more about the characters and events in that one. I'm sure it's a great book for someone, but I wasn't thrilled by it.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death, Blood, Death of parent, Child abuse, and Suicide
purplepenning's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.5
"A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world. His punishment? And his reward." —Oscar Wilde, The Critical as Artist
Undeniably beautiful writing in a turn of the century fairytale that is groundedly gritty and soaringly ethereal. I don't care for circuses, but it was the exact right venue for this story. This one didn't knock me off my feet quite as much as The Starless Sea, which I read first and with no expectations. Partly, I think, because I wasn't as enamored with Marco as I maybe was supposed to be and I wasn't as satisfied with the ending here, but mostly because:
"The finest of pleasure are always the unexpected ones."
Definitely recommend for fans of The Starless Sea and Alix Harrow's Ten Thousand Doors of January.
Undeniably beautiful writing in a turn of the century fairytale that is groundedly gritty and soaringly ethereal. I don't care for circuses, but it was the exact right venue for this story. This one didn't knock me off my feet quite as much as The Starless Sea, which I read first and with no expectations. Partly, I think, because I wasn't as enamored with Marco as I maybe was supposed to be and I wasn't as satisfied with the ending here, but mostly because:
"The finest of pleasure are always the unexpected ones."
Definitely recommend for fans of The Starless Sea and Alix Harrow's Ten Thousand Doors of January.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse
Moderate: Death, Emotional abuse, Animal death, Grief, Body horror, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Gaslighting, Violence, Animal cruelty, Death of parent, Physical abuse, and Suicide
Minor: Alcohol and Abandonment
Abuse of magic/violation of personal agency: stealing memories, advancing by magically enhanced charm and looksgattolinos_nerdy_nook's review against another edition
challenging
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
I don't know how to talk about this book. This book was so misleading when I spoke to people about it. Tt was advertised as an epic magic battle, or a slow burn romance. Whilst both these statements are not wrong I feel they don't tell you what the book is really about.
Whilst there is a "battle" it is more of a showcase against one another, rather than like a performance where they are trying to out do one another. There is also some romance but I couldn't call it a romantic book. Instead this book does a wonderful job of life in the Night Circus and the characters there. There are so many more characters than the two mages we hear about and their stories are all intriguing and wonderfully written.
I think if you are going to read this book, remember that it is really about the circus and the life that everyone lives in it.
Whilst there is a "battle" it is more of a showcase against one another, rather than like a performance where they are trying to out do one another. There is also some romance but I couldn't call it a romantic book. Instead this book does a wonderful job of life in the Night Circus and the characters there. There are so many more characters than the two mages we hear about and their stories are all intriguing and wonderfully written.
I think if you are going to read this book, remember that it is really about the circus and the life that everyone lives in it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Suicide, Murder, Blood, and Emotional abuse
Moderate: Animal death and Death of parent
bennoyb's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, and Self harm
readandfindout's review against another edition
mysterious
slow-paced
- Diverse cast of characters? No
3.5
Style/writing: 3.5 stars
Themes: 3.5 stars
Characters: 2.5 stars
Plot: 4 stars
Worldbuilding: 3.5 stars
Themes: 3.5 stars
Characters: 2.5 stars
Plot: 4 stars
Worldbuilding: 3.5 stars
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse
Moderate: Death, Blood, Self harm, Animal death, and Emotional abuse
Minor: Suicide and Death of parent
katvou's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Emotional abuse, Animal death, Child abuse, Death of parent, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexual content, and Violence
laneys_library's review against another edition
challenging
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
So so beautiful! I can’t even describe how this book makes me feel. I have the extreme desire to experience the circus for myself. Usually I don’t prefer slow paced books but I loved every second of this! The authors writing is so gorgeous I feel as if I’m there, at the magical night circus. This book is so mysterious, mystical, and surreal. I beg you to read it if you haven’t already!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment and Alcohol
Moderate: Body horror, Confinement, Murder, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Animal death, Blood, and Grief
Minor: Pregnancy
maeverose's review
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)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