The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Overall, I thought this book was fantastic. That being said, I do have a few issues...
1. Who is Isobel, what's her real name, and how did she have so much power over the circus? Her story was never fully exposed, and that's something I would have liked to have learned more about.
2. I feel pretty bad for Bailey, who just wanted to go to the circus and be with Poppet, and ended up taking control of the circus from Celia and Marco. Kind of a sad future if you ask me.
3. I think it would be cool to learn more about the magic Celia and Marco were using to manipulate the circus, particularly toward the end. I got a little confused and lost at some parts.
4. Was Tsukiko good or bad or, like she said, completely indifferent? I don't get it. Was she jealous of Celia and Marco because of her lost love?
5. I'm not really sure I understand Tara's death, because she was more of a minor character until that chapter.. And the clockmaker was one of my favorite characters. Can books STOP killing off my favorite characters already?!
6. While this WAS an advanced copy I read, and not the final product, there were discrepancies with the verb tenses that I hope were smoothed out in the final edit. Almost completely present tense, with a few past tenses thrown in there.

I did like most of the story though, minus these few things. I really wish a circus like this existed.. The clock, the pool of tears, the illusionist.. this circus sounds incredible and amazing. Parts of it were a little cliched and romantic for my taste (re: Celia and Marco at the end of the book), but I think it was a very well put-together novel. I also was really happy that Celia had a better grasp of the magic that her father had failed in performing (kind of karma for him putting his own daughter in such a competition).

This book was extremely detailed and descriptive, and so much fun to envision. I had a lot of fun reading The Night Circus, and highly recommend this for anyone who enjoyed 'Water for Elephants', or just likes circus or magic stories in general.



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