The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
pages: 387
released: September 2011
publisher: Doubleday
cover love: ♥♥♥♥♥
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, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will. Despite themselves, however, Celia and Marco tumble headfirst into love—a deep, magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands. True love or not, the game must play out, and the fates of everyone involved, from the cast of extraordinary circus performers to the patrons, hang in the balance, suspended as precariously as the daring acrobats overhead. (from Goodreads)
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON 2/27/2012 ON BOOKSLIKESTARS.NET
Review:
There was a lot of hype surrounding Erin Morgenstern’s 2011 debut novel but I honestly hadn’t heard much of it when I bought the book (yes, yes I know, I must live in a cave). I’m glad I didn’t though, because an over-hyped book can most times have a negative effect on my reading experience. Oddly enough, I knew I’d enjoy The Night Circus the moment I added it to my pile last August. I wasn’t, however, prepared to fall head over heels in love with it.
If you’re looking for a fast paced, action-packed fantasy about two magicians dueling it out at the circus Harry-Potter style, then this book is not for you. The Night Circus spans 30 years in the lives of two illusionists, Celia Bowen and Marco Alisdair. They are only children when the story begins; their rivaling guardians making an irrevocable pact to pit them against one another, each using their preferred method of magic and a circus as their choice of venue. Though the competition, nor the circus will come into play until many years later.
Celia and Marco essentially control the circus, like a chessboard, using the tents to move their pieces across it. Within each tent, they both employ their enchantments to create remarkable, awe-filled exhibits, yet both use different approaches to create their illusions. Marco’s education being more intellectually infused, hours spent reading and deciphering texts, his magical intents are developed using books, charms, symbols and bindings very similar to that of witchcraft. Celia’s strengths lie mainly with telekinesis and glamors. She excels as an illusionist working at the circus as well as in the competition, using manipulations solely with her mind without physical tokens or handbooks. Though they are taught how to hone their skills differently, they both grow up in severely lonely atmospheres. Both are adopted orphans who receive little or no empathy or physical affection from their instructors, only preparing them day-in and day-out for the time when they shall meet. At times, I was repulsed by Celia’s father, Hector Bowen’s measure of teaching, which involved cutting her and crushing her wrist as a way of teaching her to heal herself with her mind. Marco’s foster father is not as cruel but more a cold, mysterious man who always wears a gray suit and never reveals anything whatsoever about himself to his son, not even his real name, preferring to be called Alexander. And preferring not to interact with Marco at all.
The circus is one of my favorite settings of any book I’ve ever read. Erin Morgenstern is a literary magician, creating divine masterpieces within the triangular tents striped in onyx and pearl. A circus that blooms at night rather than day; where everything and everyone is consumed in shades of black or white or grey properly; where it disappears and reappears erratically all over the world. I love the author’s use of magical realism and the way she builds the world of the circus and the performances and attractions she forges for us to enjoy. It’s like getting lost in a dreamworld that has no color but is still incredibly vibrant. There are some aspects of Le Cirque des Reves that are similar to a real circus; there are acrobats, aerialists, contortionists, a hall of mirrors, etc. but it mostly encloses extravagant dream-like features such as The Ice Garden (one of my faves and Celia’s), made entirely of ice, snow and quiet calm; a cloud-maze; a never-ending bonfire that blazes white fire; a labyrinth-like construction that leads to room upon room of capricious, scenic domains and many more. The descriptions of the circus are written in beautiful, enriching prose that bring an instantaneous allure to her readers. It took me a long time to finish this book because I kept re-reading the passages, really wanting to be a character in this haven of wonderment.
There are no characters introduced in this story whose lives aren’t affected by the circus. For Herr Thiessen, designer of the clock that sits inside the gates of the entrance, who became an aficionado of Le Cirque des Reves and unknowingly began the trend of the Reveurs, serious fans of the circus who followed it where ever its destination and wore the circus’s signature colors with a splash of red to identify each other. For Poppet and Widget, two twins born on opening day and raised inside the circus, who will become important pieces in Marco and Celia’s drawn out game that begins to cast negative circumstances on the people involved.
The time period is set between the late 1800s and the very early 1900s. The characters are all very eloquent and proper, dressed in suits, bowler hats and luxurious gowns and costumes. The way Marco courts Celia is old fashioned yet in a very flirtatious and suggestive manner, I was so smitten with the both of them. The storyline itself has a mysterious air to it; the timeline isn’t organized, it jumps from past to future and back again. It doesn’t necessarily take away from the story, you just have to pay attention to the dates at the beginning of each chapter. There are things about the characters that are not explained or elaborate explanations on the history behind the challenge that was destined for the main characters but as this book is almost 400 pages, I do not feel like those issues take away from the story at all.
The Night Circus is truly spellbinding. It was a favorite of mine before I was even finished reading it. As it is a book I will revisit many times, consider me a reveur.
5