#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Two starcrossed magicians engage in a deadly game of cunning in the spellbinding New York Times bestseller that captured the world’s imagination.The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It … experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night.
But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway: a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them both, this is a game in which only one can be left standing. Despite the high stakes, Celia and Marco soon tumble headfirst into love, setting off a domino effect of dangerous consequences, and leaving the lives of everyone, from the performers to the patrons, hanging in the balance.
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I picked this up based on the urging of @Debinga Kirsten McKenzie, and @brianna — and I’m so glad I did. This book is unlike any I’ve ever read. The main attraction is the setting… and the characters and plots feel, ironically, like the backdrops.
The writing is lush and atmospheric, and Morgenstern’s descriptions evoke a whirlwind of rich visions and smells and feelings. Throughout the experience, I was torn between feeling like I was right there — immersed in everything — and so disappointed that I could never truly go to such a weird and wondrous place.
You know those books where when you read it, you’re IN the book? A book so authentically real and rich in details that the line between fiction and reality becomes blurred? This is one of those books.
The Night Circus tells the story of Celia and Marco, chosen as young people to compete in a magical competition, for which they know no parameters besides that the game will stop when one of them wins. A mysterious circus is the venue for this competition, a circus only open at night that travels to unsuspecting towns without warning or on any schedule. The fame of the circus grows as it travels around the world, but those who visit don’t know that the magic acts aren’t pretend. As the two competitors discover who the other is – and learn more about themselves, each other, and the competition – the tension mounts and the stakes raise higher and higher.
The story is told through multiple viewpoints, from people inside and outside of the circus. It is a beautiful patchwork of multiple characters in a complex, non-linear plot. This format will cause the reader to pay extra attention to details and timing, but sets up the overall narrative beautifully.
The book muses about the circus, “You think, as you walk away from Le Cirque des Rêves and into the creeping dawn, that you felt more awake within the confines of the circus. You are no longer quite certain which side of the fence is the dream.” Yet this is precisely the feeling one experiences while reading this amazing book.
Divine, impossible, believable, magical, adorable, heart-breaking, heart-warming. So many words and none of them entirely suitable. Suffice to say that I loved this book. Oh to be Bailey, and he’s not even a main character. Or to be the watchmaker. Or to be able to visit the Night Circus and wander its magical alleyways with a bag of caramel popcorn. I could smell the sweet caramel whilst I was reading, and feel the heat of the flames, and I could almost reach out and touch the icicle petals of the crystalline roses in the ice garden. Please let this be a real circus somewhere in the perfect universe!
Can I recommend this book? Yes, yes I can.
The circus appears as if my magic. You simply wake up and it is there. Huge black and white tents with extraordinary performances. But it is no ordinary circus, it is Les Cirque des Reves and it is open only at night.
Behind the scenes it is also a competition between two young magicians, Celia and Marco. Each of whom have been training for this competition since they were very young. Celia was entered into the competition and trained by her father and Marco was found in an orphanage and trained by an adoptive father. Neither know the full details of the competition, they only know they can’t get out of the arrangement.
When they fall in love, it is a magical love that heats up rooms and makes lights flicker. Despite their attraction the game goes on and the lives of everyone involved with the circus become entangled.
The writing is superb! The characters are interesting and well developed! The plot is interesting and unpredictable! I highly recommend this book!
I was surprised with this book. It was not a genre that I would typically pick up to read but was recommended by a friend for our book club. I was captured right away by the descriptive flow of writing. I could picture the puddles and smell the circus air. With great imagination, I was taken on the journies of the characters. I didn’t want it to end. Great book club book.
Beautifully written book with a wonderful story. I couldn’t put it down. I’m hoping this author writes more in the future.
I love this novel of love, desire, and magic and have read it several times. Morgenstern lays out a story of a most usual competition between two great magicians who use two young talents to do the competing. The Night Circus arrives unannounced in the town, and people are drawn to it, mysteriously. Soon, the reader learns the connection between the competition and the circus. This debut novel thrills me every time I read it.
Each month on my blog, This Is My Truth Now, followers choose a novel from my Book Bucket List that I have to read. For July, The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern was selected as the winner, and although it was in a genre I don’t often read (fantasy), I really enjoyed it. There were many parts I would give all five stars to, but there were also several where I thought it was just ‘good’ and received three stars; in the end, it’s earned a combined 4 stars from this bookworm… and now I’ll explain why!
One of the reasons I struggle with fantasy is the lack of understanding all the rules in a fictional setting that seemingly has no bounds. In a realistic book, I know that someone who truly dies won’t come back to life, people can’t just suddenly appear through magic, and spells can’t confuse me as to what is real and what isn’t. I’ve come to love those things in more lighthearted stories, but when I am entrapped n a very somber / serious / beautiful piece of fiction, not knowing the rules can sometimes induce a difficulty to fully connect with the story or characters… and in The Night Circus, there were moments where I found myself asking the questions “Why couldn’t you just cast this spell?” or “Why didn’t you change the game?” or “Wait, how exactly can you do X but you can’t do Y?” When I do this, I’m pulled from the story and suddenly less interested or focused on the outcome. So… for fantasy to truly pull me in, there need to be ground rules established from the beginning so I have structure. I can’t help it, I’m a boundaries-type kinda guy for the most part. Since this happened a bit too often in The Night Circus, I found myself thinking the book was just average. The book also jumps time frames in no particular order, which I am usually fine with, but when I have to keep track of time lines and what magic is happening in which person’s life, I am either not smart enough or just not well read enough in this genre! HOWEVER… on the flip side, these not-so-amazing parts for me were more than counter-balanced with tons of POSITIVE and THRILLING aspects.
Wow, was this an ethereal and beautiful story. I lost track of all the similes, metaphors and analogies between the words on the page. It was lyrical and enchanting… from the circus itself to the competition to the love/romance and the death. I tore through the pages in certain sections because I just kept digesting its absolute brilliance and didn’t want to stop and think about it – just wanted to breathe it all in at once. I might be in love with Celia Bowen, the main character for most of the novel. What she goes through and how she turns everything into gold is just stunning. I’d forgotten what she even looked like as it was more just this concept of magic I attributed to her… she was a weaver, a spellbinding enchantress… and when she was pushed back down again, or lost Marco from time to time, I was devastated.
Morgenstern’s creation of a fantastic world is utterly gorgeous beyond words. From how the circus looks and appears to the creation of the clock that holds it all together. I found myself unable to put the book down several times — only if I truly had to stop for something important. I would read another Morgenstern again, and I can’t wait to see what else she has to offer. So thrilled with this choice, thank you everyone!
This book makes my top 10 favorites list. The circus is alive. I taste it, and smell it, and dare I say it is my favorite character. I wish it to be real.
I enjoy a variety of book genres, but this one was hard to describe. It doesn’t really fit into just one genre-fantasy would be the closest fit. It is beautifully constructed and strangely enjoyable. The author gets you invested in the characters and marveling at their secret world. Some if the magical elements are so well described that you wish they could be real, and then you even hope for a minute that they might be. I enjoyed this strange tale. If you are looking for a truly original story sprinkled with love, intrigue, and magic, give this book a try!
My boyfriend raved about this book and insisted I read it. It’s not one I’d necessarily pick up based on either the cover or blurb, but I’m so glad I took his advice. It’s a breathtaking book, completely unique. I’ve never read anything like it before, and doubt I will again.
I found myself falling into it and living in the world that the author has so beautifully created, becoming invested in the characters, and really caring what happened to them all.
Absolutely wonderful and unique!
This is one of my favorite books of all time. It is beautifully written and tells a story with an ending that I think is perfect. The characters are realistic and well-rounded, easy to relate to on different levels. I read it once a year.
Fantastic book! Unlike anything else you will read! A Victorian timeline and in a place real magic can be taught or born! It’s the most unique world building I’ve ever read! I was in-love with the Black&white circus!
This book is everything and nothing, smoke and mirrors. It involves an enchanted circus (the very thought of which was my catnip).
It’s a very absorbing, atmospheric fantasy to the point of almost feeling like you’re under a spell as you read it. It was mesmerizing and felt rich, yet a few years after reading it, can’t tell you one concrete thing about it.
Recommended. However, if you’re into the idea of competition, fantastical world building and like your plots a little less vapor, try Caraval. I”m not sure why I associate these two or if anyone else does/will, but I do and I preferred the world of Caravel even though it doesn’t have a circus. Life is full of tough choices, innit?
Celia and Marco are young magicians, both battling to inherit control of the Night Circus, a circus that appears and disappears without warning. Both of these characters have lived their entire lives with the circus, and both love it fiercely, but only one can claim it as his or her inheritance. To make matters worse, Celia and Marco care for each other, and the clause that makes it so only one of them can lead the circus is tearing them, and the circus, apart.
Enchanting and mysterious, The Night Circus is a story about love that endures in spite of the obstacles and about finding the right answer to a problem when no answer at all seems to exist. The ending is both satisfying and surprising and will leave you searching for more works written by this author.
I’m not a scifi or magic fan, but I absolutely adored this book! I couldn’t put it down! It tells the tale of two apprentices paired against each other in a game they don’t understand. What unfolds is pure magic and absolutely amazing! It’s very well written, extremely interesting, and I loved the three main characters (Celia, Marco, and Bailey)!!
This is a well-received highly talked about book. I picked it up and read it based on reviews from my Goodreads friends and was not disappointed. This wasn’t a Wow, but I enjoyed it just the same. I love the historical aspect of the story along with the two main characters caught up in romance, magic and competition. There is magic, and a circus and romance, what else could a reader asked for? The author has great writing craft and kept me engaged. I would definitely recommend this book and will be reading others by this author.
David Putnam author of the Bruno series.
Wow, so good. Just like the characters are drawn into a circus that appears and disappears with no logical explanation, I fell into the story and was pulled along, tent to tent, completely in love and absorbed with what was going on even though I don’t normally like “this kind of book.” I can’t believe I didn’t even know about this story until recently (the best thing about fiction is that it is timeless!!!!) and because I don’t read a lot of stories with heavy fantasy elements I had no idea if I was going to end up liking this book. But every single word rang true, true as the table my laptop is on, as the laptop itself, as my fingers… The story of love and loss and finding your way in a historic/old world that felt completely new was just fantastic. Go with it and you’ll love it. Everyone could stand to suspend a little disbelief these days!
I’d heard about “The Night Circus” for a while before I finally got around to reading it. And when I first started it, I wasn’t sure if I actually liked it or not. But by the end, not only had I warmed to it, I was enthralled by it.
It’s a strange, initially slow-moving piece of magic realism, vaguely reminiscent of something by Peter Hoeg, maybe “The History of Danish Dreams,” which also features a circus. However, “The Night Circus” is less overtly bizarre than that. Its underlying story is one of magic and romance, and it sticks close enough to those genres that adventurous readers of fantasy and romance will probably enjoy it, while also keeping enough of a foot in literary fiction that fans of that genre will most likely get a lot out of it as well.
The story, which is told in semi-chronological order, but with lots of jumping back and forth between characters, settings, and years, is of a magical competition between two unwilling opponents. Celia, a magician’s daughter, and Marco, a magician’s apprentice, were bound by their respective caretakers to the competition as small children, and now, as adults, must carry it out or suffer the consequences–magical binding tends to be rather more forceful than mere paper contracts. The venue is a circus, created specially for the purpose, where all the magic is real.
Although there are multiple viewpoint characters, all of them interesting in their own right, the true star of the show is the circus itself, which is described in lush, vivid detail. The tents and attractions come to life on the page, taking the reader there until you can practically smell the tantalizing aroma of caramel and woodsmoke that infuses the circus’s air. Traveling circuses can often seem like tawdry, disappointing things; this circus, though, provides the promise of the circus as it should be. So, next time the circus comes to town, maybe don’t go and see a bunch of sad elephants being tormented. Read “The Night Circus” instead.
This book is not for everyone. I heard from a couple of friends that they “just couldn’t get into it”. If you enjoy books that take you to another world similar to ours but more magical based on very imaginative characters going through very creatively written journeys this is the book for you.
It’s a story of a boy who finds the Night Circus has come to his small town. He encounters an enchanting world full of magical entertainers and he finds himself wanting to become a part of their world. However, when he goes back the next night there is no sign of the Circus.
While the boy is an important part of the story, the real story is the Night Circus itself and it’s inner workings. I don’t want to spoil the story so I’ll stop here.
The Night Circus is the only book (that I can find) written by Erin Morgenstern which is a real shame because she has a true ability to take you beyond yourself. I never reread books but in this case I did and I’m glad I did. It takes more than one reading to grasp everything Ms. Morgenstern created.