I knew prior to reading that people rave about this book, but after my nonchalant impression of The Starless Sea by the same author, I was fully expecting to be unimpressed by The Night Circus. Fantasy isn’t the genre I’m typically drawn to, anyways. But I flew through this. I remember muttering to myself near the beginning, “I do wish she’d get on with it,” so perhaps it was a bit slow to start, but when it did pick up, I couldn’t put it down. I’m not sure it’s the type of book that will stick with me, but it was a very enjoyable read.
I didn’t annotate a thing, because this novel is more about the transportive experience rather than boasting writing ability or lyrical one-liners. The setting of a night circus didn’t sound like something I would be head over heels for from the summary, but reading the novel changed my mind. I loved the descriptions of the many circus tents containing magical attractions that Celia and Marco would create for one another. It took a lot of creativity on Morgenstern’s part, and she described them delicately but intricately and atmospherically. The main thing I loved about this novel is the imagination behind it, which is so far off from my typical book criteria (as I mentioned, not a fantasy lover) that it’s so surprising to me that I enjoyed this novel.
I also loved that the competition between Celia and Marco wasn’t antagonistic. Celia and Marco found a way to communicate through creating beautiful things, and they were so captured by each other’s skills that they ended up entirely focusing on creating something enchanting rather than one upping each other. I did really like that. But the romance between the two? Didn’t really buy it, and when I think about it, the protagonists are probably the blandest characters of the entire book. I couldn’t necessarily describe their personalities if you asked me to, particularly Celia’s, and the interactions between Celia and Marco were so few and far between, that I’m convinced they never truly loved each other, but fell in love with each other’s illusions. Which isn’t a bad thing, but it made the sincerity of their professed love a little cloyingly saccharine, and it made the ending a little less dramatic for me. It would have almost been more interesting if Marco was pretending to love Celia as a tactic to distract her from the competition. Or maybe take the romantic element out of the novel completely if not strengthening it, because a platonic relationship between Celia and Marco wouldn’t have made much of a difference.
None of the twists or plot points particularly surprised me, I just had no idea how Celia and Marco were going to pull off a happy ending, which is probably what drove my fast-paced reading of this very slow-paced novel. And you obviously have to read the book to see if they did or not.
Something I don’t understand is how the competition ends if not by suicide? Per Alexander, one of the contestants ended the competition by ending themselves the last few challenges. The competitors can’t interfere with one another, so if one of them doesn’t commit suicide, does the competition go until one dies of old age? Oh, and how do people in the novel not realize that the circus is actual magic? I can’t buy that they just accepted all the circus’ attractions and didn’t think something supernatural was going on… So there may have been some plot holes. But that didn’t impact my enjoyment of the novel.
If you like books where the setting is the main character, this is probably the best book for you (that I’ve read at least). If you prefer character-driven or plot-driven novels, I think you can still enjoy this if you don’t take it too seriously.
