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. Written in rich, seductive prose, this spell-casting novel is a feast for the senses and the heart.
All books format are mobile-friendly. Read and download online as many books as you like for personal use. Short-link Link Embed. Share from cover. Share from page:. January 11, chemistrybd. The Night Circus Summary The Night Circus is a phantasmagorical fairy tale set near an ahistorical Victorian London in a wandering magical circus that is open only from sunset to sunrise.
You May Also Like. Frank Baum January 8, chemistrybd. It is currently available in paperback from Vintage Anchor in the US and Vintage in the UK and a great many other lovely publishers around the world. Random House. 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.
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.
Eric I enjoyed the book but somehow also agree with everything you said. Like, I enjoyed the experience of reading it, but by the time I got to the end I w I enjoyed the book but somehow also agree with everything you said. Like, I enjoyed the experience of reading it, but by the time I got to the end I was like, "How did I just read over pages and come away with so little of an idea of what this was actually about?
Aug 30, Joel rated it it was ok Shelves: , a-wizard-did-it. Wedding cakes are typically the prettiest cakes, but they are almost never the tastiest cakes. I am not a cake expert can I be one though? Is that a thing I can be? Don't misunderstand me, I have no issue with cake. The right decorations, the right frosting buttercrea Wedding cakes are typically the prettiest cakes, but they are almost never the tastiest cakes.
The right decorations, the right frosting buttercream, preferably chocolate , the right consistency moist, but not crumbly , the right layering chocolate mousse -- it is a perfect example of a food that does one thing, but does it very well. And that's fine.
But a gorgeous wedding cake, covered in fondant and appliques, is only gorgeous until you cut into it, take a bit, and realize, hmmm. It's pretty and all, but you could do with a bit less artifice and a bit more of the good stuff.
The cake part. The Night Circus is a wedding cake with fondant that goes nearly all the way down. It is an exceptionally pretty cake -- captivating, intensely visual, ornate and delicately constructed, with unruly swirls of back and white and surprising splashes of vivid red.
But what is underneath? Oh, there it is It's pretty good, too. Light, airy, a hint of chocolate and smoke. But all that sculpted icing has lodged in your throat, and it's kind of hard to swallow. Erin Morgenstern writes beautifully. This is a book about dueling magicians and bewitching enchantments, set in the Victorian age circus, so you can probably imagine what you're going to read, but she decorates her world remarkably well, creating magical attractions that are lightly sketched, allowing them to grow in your imagination I want to play in the vertical cloud maze, and climb to the top and jump into a sea of wispy fluff.
But good lord, just re-read that paragraph. Magicians, Victorian circus, cloud maze, sea of fluff? Eye roll? I've read a few circus books, and I should probably get it into my head that they are almost never for me, because too much of this stuff can get to be a bit much. Did I mention is is also a star-cross'd romance? With achingly, dippily sincere lovers? I mean, whatever, that's fine. I can handle romance, I can handle reading long, elegant passages about the sets of various Tim Burton films.
Just give me a good story. But I don't think this book has a very good story. It is all setting, tone, establishing a mood. The story just kind of sits there, down at the bottom, under all that decoration.
It isn't that interesting, and certainly not an entirely stable foundation. But maybe if it was jazzed up a bit? Put some filler in there -- a framing device, a needlessly fractured timeline. Does that make it taste better? Not really. The additional flavors are nice enough. They keep you eating reading, anyway I can't remember if I am still talking about cake. Now for a paragraph that I won't be able to shoehorn into the strained theme of this review, but it needs to be said nonetheless: I don't like it when books about magic put zero parameters on what magic can do, or how it is.
The magic in this book is unrestrained and excessive and after a while, very boring to read about. It powers the attractions at the Circus of Dreams, but with no restraints, the attractions can be, literally, anything.
So why was I yawning halfway through the act? This book has received intense advance hype, and it will probably be a huge seller. But I'm not sure. If I wanted to further stretch my metaphor I would point out that you buy cakes at Jewel all the time but you only buy a wedding cake once. Do you really want to be the blurb-whore who speaks of a book that is explicitly about magic with phrases like "so magical, there is no escaping its spell"?
Also, "enchanting"? Also, "If you read just one novel this year, this is it"? As long as it isn't your book, I guess. Christelle You nailed this book. Definitely NOT a page turner but a complete snooze fest for sure. Dec 05, Maggie Stiefvater rated it it was amazing Shelves: adult , recommended. This novel is not what it says it is.
And a weirder thing because it is essentially a glamour shot of the novel. It is not a lie. The resemblance is always a bit sketchy. This novel is about a thing. It has people in it, too, but it is mostly about a thing, the eponymous circus. This is not a romance. There is a love story in it, which is good, because love makes the world go round, but it is not a romance.
If you go in imagining to be swept off your feet from page one, you can keep on imagining. The circus is not really a circus. No, the Night Circus is a circus in the respect that there are tents, and there are performers, and some of them are acrobats.
This is not a thriller. This is a not an action-packed adventure. It is a novel about a thing, with love in it, and it spans over a decade. You have just found your next read. I did. Jun 07, Tatiana rated it it was ok Shelves: , why-the-hype. The Night Circus will be a 5-star book for a certain reader. This reader likes a lot of descriptions, doesn't mind a very slow story and has a soft spot for circuses. I am not that reader.
I prefer imagery to complement a plot rather than substitute it. The plot summary of The Night Circus promised many enticing things, but delivered, in my opinion, only on one - lush imagery of a mysterious circus that was a collaborative creation of two rivaling magicians. I did enjoy it for the first 40 pages or so, but it got old very, very quickly.
It got tiresome, it felt indulgent. My resulting disappointment with the novel had also a lot to do with the writing style - Morgenstern chose to write in present tense, 3rd person. It worked well for describing imagery, but made the narrative distant, detached and the characters - unrelatable and flat. To be honest, I am not sure if The Night Circus can even make a decent movie the rights were bought by Summit. There was not much drama there or action, the story was anti-climactic, the love was dull and the magic was only vaguely defined and seemed to have no rules and limitations.
I am thoroughly puzzled by the book's comparisons to Harry Potter. Nov 08, Rick Riordan rated it it was amazing. The prose sparkles, and the story itself is a feat of magical acrobatics. It's a hard book to summarize, but basically two ancient magicians set their two best pupils against one another in a magical contest. Its venue? A mysterious circus that only appears at night. The only problem: the contestants don't really know the rules, or how victory is determined.
And when the contestants start falling in love which each other, things get complicated. View all 6 comments. Aug 02, Hannah rated it it was amazing Shelves: favorites , owned.
I have quite honestly never had the pleasure of reading a more beautiful book. I want to go back to the beginning and read it all over again. I just I have no words. View all 22 comments. Jul 25, Cait rated it really liked it. Aw hell, I'm going to rate this 4. I can't resist this book was so freaking good. I don't normally change my ratings, so don't expect this TOO often. My feelings are so conflicted about this book.
I don't know whether to immortalize it for all eternity in a frame on my wall, or throw it into the fire. So, how the hell am I supposed to rate this book? A million stars, one star, stars, what? In the end I did some crazy, overly complicated math that really makes so sense in my head, an Aw hell, I'm going to rate this 4. In the end I did some crazy, overly complicated math that really makes so sense in my head, and came out with four which I raised to 4.
For the longest time during the book, over two hundred and fifty pages, I thought that I disliked this book for some very specific reasons, but this is where the confusing part comes in so hang with me for a second: once you get to the end, you realize that you only thought you hated those parts, and it was really all part of Morgenstern's brilliant plan!
I know a few of you are probably giving me this look right now: Don't worry, though, I'll explain! Let me start by saying that this is a book you definitely have to read twice. The first time, you really aren't going to understand all of the nuances and parts of this story until, well, until it's way too late.
That's something pretty special-and rare-about this book; it reminds me a lot of Great Expectations in that way. Let me try to elaborate with, since I know you guys love this sooooo much, In The Night Circus , you really don't. The plot strings start out so loosely that you can see little to no connection to them besides the two obvious ones with Marco and Celia. You've seen loose strings before in many a sloppy novel, so you just dismiss out all of ones you deemed "unimportant" in your eyes and focus on Marco and Celia.
Wrong move. You get more and more confused as the book goes on; what's with all the other POVs and time jumps? Really, just a general what the hell is going on? But that's not the truth; while you're so eagerly and attentively looking at your two little strings, Morgenstern brings all of those other little strings closer As I said, you're still in the dark about most of it, but you do notice that the book is getting better, but don't realize until there's only about forty pages left that, holy fucking shit, your two little strings that you started out with is now a huge, complicated, rope, but the book won't let you stop and analyze it.
It carries you forward in a wave of sheer awesomeness as you devour every page. Then, you get to the end of the book, and your brain blows up. It literally blows into a million billion little pieces all over wherever you're sitting as your cat crawls all over you and nips your ankles which is why I suggest you don't finish this book in a public place, because you will be incapacitated for several minutes and look like an invalid.
When you finally get your brain back together, it almost blows up again when you realize that she planned for you to feel like this all along. She's been playing you and has had you wrapped around her little pinky finger from the start. Like Great Expectations, you're never really going to understand the plot and all of the strings fully until you read it through twice, when you can really fully comprehend every little detail that Morgenstern wrote into this story.
Now that I told you about how my brain exploded about twice, let me get on with this review and tell you what I thought was annoying: What I'm about to tell you right now is not a joke. Marco 2. Celia 3. Tara Burgess 4. Poppet 5. Thessien 6. Pospero 7. Barris 8. Isobel 9. Bailey Chandresh Widget Murray Lainine Tante Padva Tsukiko There are also chapters where she does it in POVs of other people from the circus, and sometimes she writes as though you're the one walking through it.
Like I said, the first time you read through it, this can be very confusing and overwhelming, but once you read it through again, knowing the ending and you can bet that I re-read this amazing book the second I was done with it you truly understand these characters and why Morgenstern did it. And, no, I'm not going to tell you what at the end of the book made me change my mind so suddenly, you'll just have to read it yourself and be as astounded as I was.
It's definitely worth waiting for. Awwww don't pout, I know you guys will love it! The other thing that hurt my head about this book was the seemingly obsessive amount of date jumping. We go from the early 's, to , to , back to , up to , back to , etc. It was very struggling to read; she be in for a chapter, jump around through years for 5 or more chapters, then go back to like I was expected to remember everything that happened before, and most of the time it would be with different people than the ones I'd read however many chapters ago.
It was hard, let me tell you, but what pushed me through, the amazing life preserver that Morgenstern threw me, was the writing. And for those of you that know me and have seen some of my other reviews, you guys know that that doesn't happen much at all. It flows so perfectly, sounds so beautiful, and uses just some of the most gorgeous wordplay I've ever read. It truly is stunning.
Here's some examples that just knocked the breath right out of my lungs: The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it, no paper notices on downtown posts and billboards, no mentions or advertisements in local newspapers. The towering tents are striped in white and black, no golds and crimsons to be seen. No color at all, save for the neighboring trees and the grass of the surrounding fields. Black-and-white stripes on grey sky; countless tents of varying shapes and sizes, with an elaborate wrought-iron fence encasing them in a colorless world.
Even what little ground is visible from outside is black or white, painted or powdered, or treated with some other circus trick. The ticket booth clearly visible behind the gates is closed and barred. The tents are still, save for when they ripple ever so slightly in the wind.
The only movement within the circus is the clock that ticks by the passing minutes, if such a wonder of sculpture can even be called a clock. The circus looks abandoned and empty. But you think perhaps you can smell caramel wafting through the evening breeze, beneath the crisp scent of the autumn leaves.
A subtle sweetness at the edges of the cold. The sun disappears completely beyond the horizon, and the remaining luminosity shifts from dusk to twilight. The people around you are growing restless from waiting, a sea of shuffling feet, murmuring about abandoning the endeavor in search of someplace warmer to pass the evening. You yourself are debating departing when it happens. First, there is a popping sound. It is barely audible over the wind and conversation. A soft noise like a kettle about to boil for tea.
Then comes the light. All over the tents, small lights begin to flicker, as though the entirety of the circus is covered in particularly bright fireflies. The waiting crowd quiets as it watches this display of illumination. Someone near you gasps. A small child claps his hands with glee at the sight. When the tents are all aglow, sparkling against the night sky, the sign appears.
Her legs are encased in striped stockings, her feet in tall black button-up boots. Her dark hair is piled in waves upon her head, adorned with sprays of white feathers.
Her companion is a handsome man, somewhat taller than she, in an impeccably tailored black pinstriped suit. His shirt is a crisp white, his tie black and pristinely knotted. A black bowler hat sits upon his head. They stand entwined but not touching, their heads tilted toward each other. Lips frozen in the moment before or after the kiss.
Though you watch them for some time they do not move. No stirring of fingertips or eyelashes. No indication that they are even breathing. Many patrons only glance at them before moving on, but the longer you watch, the more you can detect the subtlest of motions. The change in the curve of a hand as it hovers near an arm. The shifting angle of a perfectly balanced leg.
Each of them always gravitating toward the other. Yet still they do not touch. Before it begins to tick, the pendulum swinging steadily and evenly. Then, then it becomes something else. The changes are slow. First, the color changes in the face, shifts from white to grey, and then there are clouds that float across it, disappearing when they reach the opposite side. Meanwhile, bits of the body of the clock expand and contract, like pieces of a puzzle. As though the clock is falling apart, slowly and gracefully.
All of this takes hours. The face of the clock becomes a darker grey, and then black, with twinkling stars where the numbers had been previously.
The body of the clock, which has been methodically turning itself inside out and expanding, is now entirely subtle shades of white and grey. And it is not just pieces, it is figures and objects, perfectly carved flowers and planets and tiny books with actual paper pages that turn.
There is a silver dragon that curls around part of the now visible clockwork, a tiny princess in a carved tower who paces in distress, awaiting an absent prince. Teapots that pour into teacups and minuscule curls of steam that rise from them as the seconds tick. Wrapped presents open. Small cats chase small dogs. An entire game of chess is played. At the center, where a cuckoo bird would live in a more traditional timepiece, is the juggler.
Dressed in harlequin style with a grey mask, he juggles shiny silver balls that correspond to each hour. As the clock chimes, another ball joins the rest until at midnight he juggles twelve balls in a complex pattern. After midnight the clock begins once more to fold in upon itself. The face lightens and the clouds return. The number of juggled balls decreases until the juggler himself vanishes. By noon it is a clock again, and no longer a dream. If you guys aren't sold on the snippets I just gave you, then you're all nuts.
Certifiably nuts. In the end, I would recommend this book to almost anyone and everyone, as long as they actually know what an amazing book really is. If you're huge fans of these books: Hush, Hush, Twilight, Halo, Angel Star, etc, read nothing else but those, think that classics are stupid, out of date, books, and don't have enough patience to be able to truly enjoy a challenging book instead of just being half filled on pathetic YA tropes, then this book is totally might be out of your pathetic league.
If you think I'm kidding I'm not. Just kidding! Or am I? View all 82 comments. Jan 17, Richard Derus rated it it was amazing Recommends it for: anyone who needs magic in their world.
I'm reluctant to do that kind of review here and now because the experience of reading The Night Circus was like smelling a magnolia blossom I'm not ready for real life yet. I want the magic to linger just a little longer. The physical book itself was a Christmas gift to me from a GoodReads friend, and to him I offer humble thanks on bended knee. This was in the top five reading experiences of my life, and will most likely remain there for the rest of it.
I am changed and exalted. And it is thanks to you, and your gift to me. View all 88 comments. A sea of ink would not be enough. And heaven knows there are plenty of them. Because places like that are special. They rarely or barely exist in the dull light of our daily world, the knowledge we soon will have to leave this venue only igniting our wish to stay.
Friedrick considers the question thoroughly before he responds. For a moment, while they look at each other, he cannot remember what he is meant to be doing, or why she is handing him a piece of paper with the number twenty-three written on it in his own handwriting.
Each night we try to explore another one, sometimes we end up returning to those we already know. We want to indulge ourselves in the familiar, yet at the same time we want to surrender to the new.
The only thing that never bends is time itself though. It runs out before you even know it, the intricate dancing clock merciless as it continues to tick.
0コメント