karen's Reviews > The Night Circus

shrug. yeah, i had a good time reading this book. i got really swept away in its atmosphere, and it didn't disappoint me because i didn't go into it thinking it was going to be a masterwork of literature, explaining the human condition and changing the way i saw myself and my relationships in the future. it presented itself as a fantasy novel about a magical victorian circus and that's exactly what it gave me.

i think it is most successful in terms of its mood and its atmosphere. this is not a novel where character development is a priority.it is, and remains,le cirque des rêves. dreams don't need to explain themselves, to me, they just have to be interesting. i think the novel early on absorbed some of the dream-logic from its subject, and as time passed and situations occurred without any sense of explanation, i was just the reader getting carried along with the text; the dreamer following the imagery. it is not that her language is hypnotic, but she has a definite ability to write imagery, and to kindle the reader's imagination.

the plot is simple. against the backdrop of a mysterious circus that appears and disappears around the world without warning, operating in the deepest hours of night, two master magicians release their protégés in a battle of magical one-upsmanship...to the death. yes, it is less dramatic in reality, as years pass and the battles play out more like a contest martha stewart would devise to get her magazine staff motivated...but with magic! it becomes a call-and-response between two magicians who are initially unaware of the other's identity or abilities as they create incomparable attractions in the circus' confines, and struggle to maintain them as time passes and the strain of keeping all their magical balls in the air begins to take its toll.eventually competition gives way to mutual admiration and then... well, magic.

she does love to stress the color scheme of the circus. joel had the best line ever: I can handle reading long, elegant passages about the sets of various Tim Burton films. hee-hee. agreed.

but i loved her descriptions - i could actually envision this circus, and the attractions, and the marvelous flights of fancy - it all just stirred my imagination in a completely rewarding way, and this is a circus i would want to attend. also, dinner parties i would want to attend. yeah, bb, she's talking about me.

god, remember when magic was everywhere? there was that moderately popular children's book series about the boy who was like a wizard or something? and then Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell came out in 2004, and then in one single year, both



based on a story from here:

The Knife Thrower and Other Stories

and



based on this book:

The Prestige

came out and everything was magical all the time? it was almost too much magic.

i'm glad we took that break to let vampires and other things break up the feeling of magician overload.

and i am glad i read this book for the "readers' advisory for all group read #2. and i'm glad i didn't let all the negative reviews change my mind. i agree with some of the points others made, but ultimately, i found this to be a wholly satisfying book whose reading experience mirrored the themes of magic and dreams, and i was glad that there was still some secrecy at the end of it all.

i mean, you know what happens when a magician reveals their secrets, right??



no one wants that.

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