Book Review: ‘The Night Circus’ by Erin Morgenstern

The Night Circus is a stand alone novel by Erin Morgenstern that blurs the line between low fantasy and magical realism in a period setting. I remember there being a lot of buzz around The Night Circus when it came out and it’s a book that I have wanted to read for a long time.

The story follows Celia and Marco from childhood to their thirties. They are selected and raised to battle against each other in a magical competition with deliberately vague rules. Whilst they are growing up we follow the inception of the circus – from an idea around a dining room table to full magnificent reality. The Night Circus forms the arena for the challenge with Ceila and Marco designing tents and attractions, each more magical than the last, in an attempt to outperform each other. The competition goes awry when the pair fall in love. Only there must be a victor and the fate of the circus and the lives of everyone in it are now tied to the challenge.

I don’t always enjoy slower-paced novels but I think this choice worked really well for The Night Circus. Firstly the novel has a fairly large cast of characters but, because we are introduced to them gradually, it never feels overwhelming and everyone feels like a fully realised character. Secondly, by taking time to build up and introduce us to the circus, I felt as though I had grown to love and care about it as much as the characters do because we have followed its journey across such a long time period.

The rules of the competition are unclear for much of the story but this places the reader in the same position as Celia and Marco. Instead of a traditional battle we see the pair create beautiful attractions like the ice garden or fun obstacles like the impossible labyrinth to entice and entertain each other with their magical abilities. I liked the use of magic in the story; with its focus on illusions and imbuing magic within objects rather than traditional spellcasting and incantations.

Time was used in an interesting way within the novel. All of the chapters are dated and the majority are in chronological order however some chapters jump forward in time only for the next chapter to fall back to the normal order. It was fascinating being provided with so much information only to go back in time to see the events from a different perspective.

I’m so glad I was finally able to read The Night Circus as it was definitely worth the wait. Although I wasn’t expecting the period setting it really fit with the tone of the novel and it was wonderful to see all of the characters (both main and supporting) be given a moment to shine within the story.

---

Related Post:

If you enjoyed this review you may also enjoy these reviews: