Book Review: "The Night Circus"

"The Night Circus" by Erin Morgenstern
First published in 2011
My rating: 3.75 out of 5
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Two magicians, ancient and powerful, have been dueling over their respective styles for ages. Each man selects a student to bring up under his style of magic, and these two pupils are forever bound together in a game of magical skills and endurance.

In the late 1800s, young Celia and Marco become the latest chess pieces in this brutal game. They have only the very slightest notion of their fate: a game is afoot and they will be required to match their opponent -- whose identity is unknown -- in magical feats until one becomes the winner.

The venue is the Night Circus, a fantastical  and mysterious traveling circus of dreams, open only at night with a magical black-and-white color scheme. There are the usual acts -- a contortionist, an illusionist, acrobats, a maze, mirrored rooms, a fortune teller -- but they're all elevated, different, special, unique... magical. Because they all involve the very real magic of Marco and Celia as they play out the game, the stakes of which they have no idea.

But everything changes -- and the future of the Night Circus and all its moving parts and people are in jeopardy -- when the players discover each other's identities and can't help but fall in love.

"The Night Circus" got off to a bit of a slow start for me, and it took a while to make sense of all the different stories, which take place in two separate time periods, and start to unravel the mysteries of the plot. Even after I closed the book for the last time, I still didn't fully understand what had happened. But I enjoyed the book nonetheless -- it contained a plot like no other I'd ever read and it took my imagination on a delightful ride. I'm intrigued to watch the movie (due out next year) and see how other people pictured the amazing scenes in the novel.

Happy reading!