The Night Circus

What a tremendous, intriguing experience. When the book first began, I'll admit, I was bit bogged down with the ~aura description. In first reading the descriptions, I was loving it, and it was highly immersive, but after some time, I found that I wanted to know more about what was being said, thought, and acted upon by the characters. For me, this didn't pick up until about halfway through part two ( a personal opinion, of course ) — and when it did? It made the entire novel worth it.

The ending was rather satisfying, all things considering, especially with how tragic the circus is, in and of itself. The interjectory chapters of “you” as a circus-goer added to the atmosphere, rather than taking away from it.

I found myself wishing for certain things to be “more.” Perhaps more of an explanation about the “game,” perhaps more of an exploration of certain side characters so that we could better empathise with their reasons for assisting. Rather than just being like, “we're all here.” But that's another personal preference: concrete reasons for being there. Sometimes, the concrete reason is just that, you're all there, so, it works. And also I do understand that if there'd been “more,” it could've detracted from it as a story.

All in all, an enjoyable experience. A one-time read for me, but a magical and worth-it one all the same. I'll be revisiting it in the distant future, to see what I missed, like a jigsaw puzzle.