The Night Circus (edition 2011)

The night circus…where shall I start?

Shall I start when Celia is first introduced to the art of magic, or when she watched her father kill the dove she could not heal? Shall I start when Marco first met his lover, or when he first saw Celia perform, and know that she was the opponent he would eventually have to kill?

Shall I start when Celia first comes to know of the Night Circus, to learn of its black-and-white tents, or when she first steps into Marco’s winter wonderland? Shall I start when Marco creates the fire to protect the circus, or when he marvels at the beauty of Celia’s creations, loving her to the very bottom of his heart, yet know he could never love her?

Shall I start when Celia first becomes aware of her opponent, or when she first realizes that the game cannot end whilst both of them still lived? Shall I start when the couple are finally together, or when they face the desolate future?

Shall I start with the unbalancing of the circus, when the fire burns the whole circus nearly to the ground, or when Celia and Marco realize that they cannot be? Shall I start when Marco is about to sacrifice himself to save Celia, or when Celia dashes in front of Marco to save him?

Shall I start when Marco and Celia realize that they are no longer part of the physical world or when they select the heir to the circus? Shall I start with Bailey finally understanding the magic of the circus or with Celia and Marco finally together, forever, in the circus?

Shall I start with the fact that I think this is one of the best romances I’ve ever read, or the fact that it is one of the most eloquently written books I’ve ever stumbled upon? Shall I start with the fact that I wish this book could go on and on so I could spend my whole lifetime reading this book or with the fact that I spouted tears as I read of their happy ending?

Or shall I just not start at all?
( )

This was fun to read for the set up and descriptions of magical things and costumes but stayed on the surface. It didnt have enough meaning. It didnt examine the characters, especially Chandresh. Why describe so many people and things if there's no point in telling us about it. ( )

I loved the story but the writing was technically so wrong that if the plot, characters, and descriptions had been slightly less compelling, I would have given up. Scores of fragments. I saw comma splices everywhere, they grated on my nerves. Erin Morgenstern misused grammar and vocabulary in ways that a good copyeditor could have noted and watched for. I gnashed my teeth and I read on.

To wit, keeping in mind that these only highlight systemic faults and with the numbers representing Kindle locations:

Comma splices:

- There are no stripes visible on the walls, everything is sparkling and white. (2127)
- ���I made an appearance before I escaped, I am not in a party mood this evening.��� (2800)
- ���I find it harder not to influence my surroundings, I was constantly breaking things as a child.��� (3930)

Fragments:

- Celia has never been entirely certain what to make of the fortune-teller. Though she has an innate distrust of anyone whose occupation involves telling people what they wish to hear. And Isobel sometimes has the same look in her eye Celia often catches in Tsukiko���s glances, that she knows more than she lets on. Though perhaps that is not unusual for someone in the business of telling other people what their future holds. (2789)
- ���Though if that were true I think I overdid it.��� (2804)
This fragment beginning with ���though��� might be more tolerable than the previous because in it���s in dialogue except that it is the third in a half dozen lines.
- She taps the card and the blood disappears. The rip left by the blade no longer visible. The card is now the two of hearts. (3948)

Bad word choice and bad grammar:

- ���I had thought, knowing Miss Bowen had an opponent lurking somewhere, that whomever you might be, you were not in need of any assistance��� (2635).
The ���whom��� should be ���whoever.���
- He regards the nearly decimated article. (852)
Did only one tenth of its text remain?
- ��� each in matching grey caps.��� (910)
This should read ���each in a matching grey cap��� unless each is a cap merchant with a stack of more than one cap per head. This idea has been done.
- There doesn���t even appear to be anyone there. (931)
- Round spheres��� (1873).
Rather than square.
- He passes several tents with interesting signs, but none that he feels compelled to enter just yet, still playing the illusionist���s performance over in his mind. (2963)
The participle phrase trails along like a run-on and modifies who knows what.
- There are no performers save the band, as it is difficult to hire entertainment to impress a gathering that is comprised predominantly of circus members.��� (4203)
Here is no reason not to use ���comprise��� correctly, which would then happily also be in the active voice.
- ���For not telling you that I was tempering.��� (6269)
I think this is a copyediting problem. In context, the character means ���tamper,��� not ���temper.���

On the other hand, the book contained two passages I quite liked:

- It bothers him most at times like this, in the bottom of the brandy bottle and the quiet of the night. (4513)
- And now, with his bottle and his fountain pen drained, he simply sits, dragging a hand through his hair distractedly, staring across the room at nothing in particular. (4514)

Two real magicians who pretend to be merely illusionists enter a wager pitting each one's student against the other. The wager plays out over many years. Its venue is the “night circus”, a traveling show that appears and leaves without warning. At first the apprentices don't know the exact nature of the wager or the opponent's identity. The answers slowly unfold through the course of novel.

Fantasy readers are the main audience for the novel, but romance readers may also enjoy the gradual but inevitable romance between the apprentices, Marco and Celia. Since I'm neither a fantasy nor a romance fan, the book was slow going for me. I enjoyed Jim Dale's narration, but there was no point in the book where I felt I just couldn't stop listening when I needed to do something else. I don't think it would hurt the story to trim at least 100 pages from the book. A shorter length would give the story more momentum. My favorite characters were the twins, Poppet and Widget, and their friend Bailey. I think I would have enjoyed the book more if they were the main characters and Celia and Marco's story was a secondary plot. ( )

Set mostly in the 1890s and early 1900s, this work pits the students of two illusionists against one another. Celia is the daughter of Prospero the Great. Marco is the student of Alexander, whom he views almost as a father. The students know it is a game and that it is against a single competitor, but they are not told whom the competitor will be. They only know that the venue is the night circus . . . a circus like no other which is open only at night. The circus colors are black and white. Jim Dale is a fabulous narrator for this work, and his wonderful narration is what really kept me listening. This is a book that is outside my normal choices in reading genres. I found that parts of the book seemed to really drag. As the book began to approach its denouement, I found that I became more interested as the tension began to build. Jim Dale's narration deserves 5 stars, but the book was really overall not that interesting to me. ( )