The Night Circus
Ratings1,037
Average rating3.9
DNF ~ 20%
I am not a clown, I am the entire circus because I accidentally deleted my review for this (which I'm kinda mad about but whatever). It was just me going off about how much I hated this book and my dreadful experience while attempting to read it. That's all. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
One of those books where the mystery is more interesting when you know less about it, but still quite good. If the ending had been as strong as the beginning, I would have given it 5 stars.
http://etcetcetcetc.tumblr.com/post/16697489202/the-night-circus-erin-morgenstern
I enjoyed this book, I really did. The prose was eloquent and wonderful, and the overall storyline was something to be sought after. But at the same time, I felt like there was MORE prose than story. More fluff than not. I love words and how they can be strung together to make beautiful sentences, but those sentences have to mean something. So...why 2 stars? Well, I thought it was an enjoyable book, but it lacked substance. If there had been a bit more substance, I would've given it a 3. If the substance had been overflowing while also including the prose, I would've given it a 4 or 5. Sadly, the prose was there - strong as ever - but the story easily lost me and I felt like I could've been way stronger. So it all leveled out to a 2. I think some could enjoy it, but I wanted something a little deeper.
Seeing as I recently sold my copy of this novel to Half Price Books, I figured I ought to add it to my collection, and give it a rating. In short, I did not finish this book and only got around halfway through it. I really, really wanted to like this book, but I just couldn't.
While I normally enjoy stories that shift perspectives back and forth between it's characters, I did not find any of their stories or perspectives to be particularly interesting. I felt like this was a failing of the writing style, as there were a few astounding scenes that I did enjoy, but they came to infrequently. I frankly went too long in the story with little happening of any interest. I finally set it aside with the intention of trying to finish it up at a later time, but I found that once I'd stopped I just didn't have the drive to start again.
I'm rating it at two stars, more in sadness for what this book could have been, rather then what it is. The story line itself is wonderful and I really wish the writing had reflected it better, as it had the potential to be breathtaking. Would recommend checking out of the library, or perhaps looking into the audio version- with the right reader, this might be better.
Other reviews say this book gets going at the half-way point. I knit while listening to an audio version to keep from impatiently drumming my fingers on my iPad. I got to Part II and gave up. I know it's magical realism but to me it was more curse than magic.
A magical, haunting, darkly beautiful novel! Erin Morgenstern has created a world out of a harrowing fairytale, full of love, desperation, greed, hope and illusions, all these elements that life is consisted of. Celia and Marco are characters that stay with you long after the book is over.
I trully believe that in a few years from now, The Night Circus will have achieved a ‘‘classic'' status. It will become a book that our children will read, dreaming along with the characters, imagining a world where illusions serve to make the pain and the ache more bearable...
review quotes
“Magicians, Victorian circus, cloud maze, sea of fluff? Eye roll?”
“star-cross'd romance? With achingly, dippily sincere lovers?”
“this book has a very good story”
“insipid and laboriously tedious novel”
Een circus dat alleen ‘s nachts open is, en vol zit met magische acts. Op de achtergrond voeren de twee hoofdrolspelers een strijd over wie de mooiste acts kan maken? verzinnen?
De strijd is in gang gezet door twee magicians op de achtergrond, om eens en voor altijd te bepalen wie van hun twee de beste pedagoog is. Al snel blijkt dat de strijd alleen beslecht kan worden als een van de twee niet verder kan. Voordat het zover is komen er diverse scheuren in de facade die het circus naar de buitenwereld toont.
“When the battles are fought and won and lost, when the pirates find their treasures and the dragons eat their foes for breakfast with a nice cup of Lapsang souchong, someone needs to tell their bits of overlapping narrative. There's magic in that.”
Een fijn donker sprookje :-)
Interesting premise to begin with, the story encompasses a myriad of characters around this circus. Some are better fleshed out than others. Some you don't even care about. The story goes lull in the middle but hanging onto it is worth it. Took me days to get to the first half as the pacing was pretty slow, but the second half especially the last third picked up the necessary pace and ended up being the saving grace of this book. Best enjoyed while speed reading, skipping over some lines won't hinder your comprehension that much. All in all, I liked the circus, would love to see it adapted to screen
you either love or hate this book i think. i couldn't stand the writing or the characters. also someone needs to talk to the various book-influencers marketing this book on social media because its ridiculous. the main couple like BARELY counts as enemies to lovers. like its a stretch. they dont even know each other up until where i got in the book. and theres so much setup for random ass bullshit we dont even really GET much magic competition. i was not a fan.
This book is beautifully written and there were enough twists and turns to keep me on the edge of my seat at times. I’m not the biggest fan of fantasy, but this was an excellent read.
I really debated on what rating to give this book. How do you rate a book where the world building is enchanting, but the plot is flat as can be?! It just doesn't make sense.
The actual circus has to be one of the most enticing places ever described. Honestly, felt like I was there and wanted to visit in reality (that's how well it was described). But that was all I liked about this book.
Everything else just fell flat. The characters - didn't have any love for the main characters at all, couldn't care less what happened to them in the end. The plot - in trying to create this magical world, it just ended overcomplicating a plot, that in the end I still didn't understand (maybe I'm stupid, but what was the whole point of the magical competition?). Also, trying to follow this story with all the time jumping made my head hurt.
All in all, I geuss I'm lucky I fell in love with the actual circus, because there wasn't much else going on of interest.
This book is just not to my taste...I am so bored by the mid section that I just finished it by skipping pages after pages...the description of the book says avout a duel...what is the duel? Where is the duel? Nothing is explained and they just fell in love!!!!! What the fuck they were training for 14years then!!! And the magic system, how and why is there such a magic system in a normal world??? Everything is magic in the circus that nobody cares to explain how the magic existed in the first place.... seriously I fed up with it and giving it hardly 1star.
I have to be careful not to fall for the majority audience opinions from now...
I really enjoyed this story. Characters that draw you in early, storylines that move along, changes in perspective and/or storyline is called out with a chapter heading, the author doesn't spend words taking you on tangents, and a bit of mystery that lasts thru the majority of the story are the hallmarks of my favorite stories.
The fact that the mysteries didn't involve gruesome murders was a pleasant surprise. It's nice to know these do exist! And I also enjoy the haziness that comes with stories based in 'the real world' with some magic thrown in and the storyline moves back and forth to create a blurry, dream quality. I believe it's this latter quality that I found in another of the author's books which put this book on my TBR list.
Perfecto, mágico, envolvente, soñado, hermoso, me encanta. Este estilo de literatura es de mis favoritas, la historia es intrincada y atrapante. Quiero vivir en este circo y en este libro, es super envolvente.
Ik begrijp nog steeds niet helemaal wat ik heb gelezen. Het boek laat veel tot de verbeelding over. Het is wel heel mooi geschreven vond ik en het voelde ook wel magisch. Maar na 490 pagina's had ik wel wat meer verwacht/gehoopt. Misschien just not for me.
Idk why but this book was so hard for me to get into but the ending made it kinda worth it. Author killed their gays though :( I want the book about doomed yuri.
Honestly, I really should have DNFed this book, but I was stubborn since I own it. I listened to the audiobook which might be part of the reason I didn't enjoy this one so much, but I've also seen reviews saying that they only way they enjoyed the book was with the audiobook, so who knows. I just really struggled to pay attention since there was so much description but very little actual plot, so all of the flowery language kept letting me get distracted. Also, I think one reason the audiobook probably wasn't the way to go was that the book jumps around in time which I didn't realize until about 3/4 of the way through. If I'd had the physical copy, maybe I would have paid more attention to the dates listed in the chapter titles. I can definitely see how some people would enjoy this book, but if you need something with a bit more substance, I don't think this book is for you.
I was unsure if I would like this book because I'm generally drawn to contemporary fiction but the circus is so separate to the rest of society, you don't really notice that they're writing with quills. To my surprise I liked the second person insert chapters as they didn't feel too distracting. The way in which we are introduced to the characters separately before they are brought together is just brilliant. This book does contain romance though it doesn't feel romantic. In the second half of the book the main characters choices are influenced by their complicated feelings for each other but apart from a few kisses there really is no chemistry between the characters.
The writing is good but I found the story a bit jumpy and the ending was kind of eh
