The Night Circus

That was actually quite cute. I was pretty sure I would not like it, based on the first 50 pages, which were incredibly twee: second-person present tense; ancient enchanters and arcane duels and a steampunk circus? But I fell into the evocative writing and the enchantment of a mystical place, and I found it just as atmospheric as intended. Yes, there was no plot and no characters to speak of, but those things weren't strictly necessary to the goal, which seemed to be purely setting description. In a lot of ways, I found it most similar to Palimpest, in that the focus was exploring the depth of a physical place, its rules, its sights and sounds and scents, rather than a traditional narrative.

“The circus arrives without warning.”

the reviews i heard of this book were really divisive, and i remember dropping this about 2 chapters in when i tried it a few months ago, so i went into this expecting to have a hard time finishing it. boy, was i pleasantly surprised to have enjoyed myself as much as i did.

The Night Circus, at its heart, is about a circus in which we see our main characters, Celia and Marco, play out a magical competition that they were both forced into participating since they were children. i can't really say much more than that without spoiling, but the writing was beautiful, the romance was (surprisingly!) good, and the story was satisfying.

i've heard at least two different reviews of this book call the writing “atmospheric”, and at the time i had no idea what it meant. i think i understand a little better now. for at least the first half of the book, you are just kinda swept up by this whimsical, enimatic, ethereal prose that perfectly illustrates not just the titular Night Circus in particular, but also the whole setting of turn-of-the-century England and America. i think when the plot actually picked up speed around the halfway mark of the book, it actually caught me by surprise.

the ending of the story of the book was a little meh to me, but i particularly enjoyed the post-ending aftermath, especially when Widget begins to tell the entire story of the Night Circus to the man in the gray suit, and begins with the book's opening sentence, "The circus arrives without warning."

i have a lot of things to say about the romance in this book, which i shall put under spoiler tags soon, but a quick and dirty spoiler-free summary is: i can absolutely get behind the main couple's beginning, but kinda wish that the romance was kept a little more toned down for the second half of the book. more elaboration with spoilers:

ok, so i loved it when Celia and Marco had their first ever conversation after that party at Lefevre's house. on paper, their backstory was really cliche, the whole thing about opponents becoming lovers, but in the story i thought it was executed really well. it made a lot of sense, that these two people who were forced to be fixated on a nameless, faceless rival for most of their lives in a competition that neither wanted any part of, would find themselves falling head over heels in love with the object of such fixation when they finally meet, and when they also realise that the other person has the same disinterest in winning whatever competition they were forced into participating. i loved it! i didn't find it insta-love at all, because they were "interacting" with each other all along through their magical feats, and i can absolutely see why it would be so easy for them to fall for each other.what i didn't like as much was kinda after that when the story just became a bit too romancey for me. like i don't mind if they were the most romantic couple but i just didn't want to see it so much, it was a rather jarring distraction from that soothing, ethereal illusion that was the rest of the story. so i kinda felt like the second half of the book wasn't as wispy and beautiful as the second half was, because we actually have like this romance drama going on.

all in all though, i really enjoyed this book a lot more than i thought i would've, but i can definitely see why this had so many mixed reviews. i think the book is best enjoyed if you treat the author as an illusionist painting pictures and building whole environments in your head in which a story can play out, rather than just giving you a story plain and dry.