It’s been quite some time since I read a book. With this book I hope I get back to my reading & am able to go through my now very long reading list quickly.
The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it, no paper notices plastered on lampposts and billboards. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not.
– Goodreads
This was a difficult book to get my hands on. After reading about it on a blog I had searched for it at my local book store who gives me books on a library basis. When I did not find it there I was left with no choice but to buy it from Amazon. That is how much I had loved the review for this book. Was it worth the money? Yes. And no.
The Night Circus is very easy to read. Erin Morgenstern writes beautifully & for that alone I would say it was well worth the money. She has a rich imagination & is able to put it on paper in the simplest of words. Her writing is so beautiful that at times when the book started getting boring I read just for reading her words. I usually hate lengthy descriptions in my books but it was a pleasure to read them here.
Unfortunately the book has no plot. The plot is what it says on the back cover of the book. A circus which runs only at night. And a magical competition between two individuals. That’s it. And even this limited plot is treated carelessly. There is not much character development for the two leads, Celia Bowen & Marco Alisdair. A book which was supposed to have a magic competition as the central theme should definitely focus on that event, even if it has been going on for years. The demonstrations of the magical abilities of Celia & Marco lack the punch which is needed & hence feels meh to even read about. Their love story too is quite dull & hardly of any surprise. The story also presents & supports a morally ambiguous notion of many supporting to live a manipulated life rather than choose to be free. Also the ending is unsatisfactory in which there is no permanent resolution. Instead the weight of responsibility is shifted to the next naive person.
I think this would make a beautiful movie. A Disney movie on this would be wonderful where we get to see the circus come to life on our screens. The striped tents, the contortionists, the illusionists, the ice gardens, the cauldron would all make for great viewing experience. As a book it was a good read but certainly not among the best out there.
A 3/5 for The Night Circus.