The Night Circus

by Erin Morgenstern

[inlibrisveritas]

When you first see The Night Circus you can immediately see the beauty of it, how it’s entirely unique when sitting on a shelf. It’s easy to see the cover appeal which moves into the book with gorgeous stripped pages and pages with nothing but starry skies, but what is truly beautiful and unique is the story itself. It centers around the mysterious and charming Night Circus as well as two young magicians who have put their life into it though it is not truly ‘theirs’.

Morgenstern takes a story and weaves it together slowly and deliberately until we see the full and final picture, with her unconventional style and beautiful details. The story switches between two timelines in a sort of ‘then’ and ‘now’ set up until the two finally converge near the end, it’s not at all confusing since the dates are printed at the top of each chapter. There are also little sections where it is written as if you were there, watching the shows and smelling the caramel tinged air. I think this combined with the detailed style in the normal narrative really works wonders in terms of immersion and when I closed the book for good I found myself missing it. I felt like I had seen the black and white striped tents filled with sights normally on found in dreams.

Celia and Marco are two magicians who are bound together in a competition set before them by their teachers, and despite the lack of information find themselves with a rather unusual venue, The Night Circus. Celia is a incredibly smart and charming young woman who struggles with control and a painful past. I truly loved Celia. She’s incredibly friendly and she put so much of herself into everything she helps with, and given that her teacher is an incredible jerk I loved her all the more for it. Marco is also a charming individual who prefers to write and plan meticulously until his fingers are ink stained. I really loved their stories and how they slowly overtime come together as they work to win a competition they care nothing about. Then there are the wonderful side characters who are actually main characters in their own right. They are surrounded in their own appeal and their own stories, some of which Morgenstern tells us while others she leaves to mystery.

This is one book I wish I had purchased instead of borrowing from the library. It’s gorgeous to look at and amazing to read. I can definitely see this as a book I’d enjoy revisiting in the future.