The Night Circus Book Cover

Rating: 4 stars

Two star-crossed magicians engage in a deadly game of cunning in The Night Circus, the spellbinding bestseller that has 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 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.

Before I begin with my review, I’d like to quickly thank Shalzmojo for her review of The Night Circus, which can be found here. If she hadn’t written about this book, I don’t believe I would’ve been inspired to read this book recently.

Her review made me interested in checking out this book to see what it was all about. And I’m glad I did because I enjoyed each minute I spent inside Le Cirque des Rêves. I found this book to be such an enchanting read for me. I know it was due to the author’s vivid details about the circus, which allowed me to feel like I was actually there. I felt like I was in a circus of my own imagination, like I was seeing all of the tents mentioned and experiencing those same feelings and emotions. It felt really real to me and I couldn’t get enough of it. I also loved that this circus was only open at night. I feel like that truly added to the enchanting magic I felt when it came to the circus.

Besides the circus itself, I loved how magic was implemented into the story. It was fascinating to see magic coinciding with circus performances. I feel like it opens up you as the reader to the possibility that a magician’s tricks are actually real, not at all something fabricated. It isn’t at all an illusion, but something real that can be done. I also loved seeing the competition between Celia and Marco while learning more about their character background. I loved seeing both of them creating masterpieces in the circus for others to explore and enjoy and how they both collaborated together on tents.

As the reader, you also saw how Celia and Marco’s magic affected the other characters. I really enjoyed seeing that in The Night Circus too because it shows that magic has an effect on us all. While in some ways it was unfortunate how it impacted their lives, I was glad to see how important their part in the circus played into the events that transpired. I also loved meeting these other characters too from the different points of view the narrative took. I feel like multiple POV’s added a lot more to this story than it does to most of the other books I’ve read. You learned more about the circus from these characters and I enjoyed seeing how it changed their lives.

I both loved and hated Celia and Marco’s relationship. What I loved about it is that you could tell there was a connection between the two of them so much that it caused physical sparks to fly. I also loved it because I love both of their characters. They both have different backgrounds, which I found interesting because they both turned into powerful magicians. But I also hated it too because I felt like it was obvious that they were going to fall in love with each other. To me, it also felt like it was an instant love connection even though they didn’t really start being with each other until after the competition went underway. It wasn’t something I was particularly keen on happening in the story, but at the same time I had moments where I enjoyed seeing their love grow.

However, I do have some criticisms for The Night Circus which contributed to my four star rating. While I enjoyed all of the details Erin Morgenstern put into making this circus come to life, I still feel like I needed more from the story than was given. For instance, you as the reader don’t really learn all that much about the competition between Celia and Marco. You get all the information the main characters know about it, but you don’t truly learn all that much about the competition. Like knowing how long these competitions have been going on, who started them and why. I also didn’t as a reader feel like it was all that much of a competition. It was more of an endurance test to see which one of them could last to perform the most powerful magic.

I also feel like I just needed more of the circus as a whole. I feel like I need to know more about the minor characters who played a major role in creating Le Cirque des Rêves. I was curious about them and their role in the circus, but I feel like you as the reader don’t really get to know them as well. I also wanted to learn more about the other circus tents that weren’t heavily talked about in the book. I wanted to see the whole circus, not just the tents that played a crucial role in the storyline.

But at the same time, there were some characters whose stories I didn’t really care all that much about and would’ve been perfectly fine without. Bailey was a character with an interesting storyline, but I didn’t really care to hear that much from him in the story. I know his role in the circus is important and completely understand why he’s in the book. But I was more interested in hearing from the other characters in the story about the circus and why they love it so much.

I also wasn’t particularly fond of the way The Night Circus ended either. I completely get why Celia and Marco make their decision, but at the same time I don’t think it was the way the story felt like it needed to end. I understand it but it just didn’t feel right to me for some reason or another.

Overall however, The Night Circus is an enchanting and delightful read. One of my favorite books I’ve read this year so far because the circus felt so real to me that I felt like I was physically there. While I wanted more from the storyline, from the story itself to the characters and the competition, I still enjoyed reading this book all the same and was sad when I finally turned the last page.