The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

If you happen to be in the mood for a beautifully written, magical story with well-developed characters, then look no further.

This was another book I have picked up as a result of booktube. There are so many people out there who have rated it highly, I was curious to see what it was about.

The story stars with a competition being laid down between two 'magicians' (Yes, I am wanting another word, but there is no other word.). They will pit their apprentices against each other in a tournament. The grounds: The Night Circus. Of course that is an almost criminally inadequate synopsis, as it does not capture the magical experience that is the Night Circus, nor does it mention anything about the the competitors, nor the lives of the other people in the circus.

The writing in this book is absolutely beautiful. I did feel that some parts could have moved a little faster (I was interested in the circus, not so much the people who had initiated it, and their lives), but even their presence added a certain sense of the danger around. Morgenstern brings the magical atmosphere of the circus to life, as we see it from multiple narrators.

This book, as with many I have read recently, does not follow a chronological plot. I think the story is all the stronger for it, as the reader learns what has happened and what will happen and what is currently happening all at the same time. As the book progresses, so the strings of all the timelines start converging until everything is perfectly clear and the plot as a whole makes perfect sense. (It is actually the reason the synopsis took me a while to write, because the novel actually starts with a 2nd person narration. Another aspect that helps draw the reader into the web of the tale.) A side note; take note of the dates at the top of the chapters. It will help with the read.

The characters in this were three-dimensional. Although some aspects were left for the readers to really piece together (the romance for one was understated, but could be read into with the form and content of the 'love letters' they sent each other). I preferred this, as I generally find when an author feels the need to overstate that a romance is amazing, it generally feels anything but. Also, I should state that although the romance is important to the plot, it is not the sole focus of the story. It is the only way that I enjoy romance in books, actually.

I gave this 4 stars on Goodreads. It left me wishing that there was a Night Circus for real that I could go and visit.

This is the 49th book I have read for the 2015 TBR Pile Reading challenge.