The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern and Why YOU Should Read It
First of all: you just should. Don't even think twice about it. Just start reading.
The Night Circus is basically my favorite contemporary novel of all time. Which is saying a lot, considering my favorite book list is 72 items long.
Reasons why you should pick it up:
"The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it, no paper notices plastered on lampposts and billboards. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not.
Within these nocturnal black-and-white striped tents awaits an utterly unique, a feast for the senses, where one can get lost in a maze of clouds, meander through a lush garden made of ice, stare in wonderment as the tattooed contortionist folds herself into a small glass box, and become deliciously tipsy from the scents of caramel and cinnamon that waft through the air.
Welcome to Le Cirque des Rêves.
Beyond the smoke and mirrors, however, a fierce competition is under way--a contest between two young illusionists, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood to compete in a "game" to which they have been irrevocably bound by their mercurial masters. Unbeknownst to the players, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will.
As the circus travels around the world, the feats of magic gain fantastical new heights with every stop. The game is well under way and the lives of all those involved--the eccentric circus owner, the elusive contortionist, the mystical fortune-teller, and a pair of red-headed twins born backstage among them--are swept up in a wake of spells and charms.
But when Celia discovers that Marco is her adversary, they begin to think of the game not as a competition but as a wonderful collaboration. With no knowledge of how the game must end, they innocently tumble headfirst into love. A deep, passionate, and magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands.
Their masters still pull the strings, however, and this unforeseen occurrence forces them to intervene with dangerous consequences, leaving the lives of everyone from the performers to the patrons hanging in the balance.
Both playful and seductive, The Night Circus, Erin Morgenstern's spell-casting debut, is a mesmerizing love story for the ages" (Goodreads).
"A sea of ink would not be enough...But you built me dreams instead" (Morgenstern 388). Erin Morgenstern built us all dreams when she wrote The Night Circus, dreams which we can relive again and again in the pages of the novel.
Just...read it.
The Night Circus is basically my favorite contemporary novel of all time. Which is saying a lot, considering my favorite book list is 72 items long.
Reasons why you should pick it up:
- It is a standalone, no series commitment required.
- It's got magic.
- It's got both a boy main character and a girl main character, and they share the limelight pretty equally.
- The prose is, like, F. Scott Fitzgerald-level gorgeous. My writing style is the descriptive kind, and so is Erin Morgenstern's.
- It's about the circus of your wildest dreams. It is a fantastic, beautiful, provocative circus. Literally the circus of dreams.
- Nothing is explained in simple terms. There is a level of analysis required if you want to understand how the pieces of the story fit. Every time I read it, I realize something new.
- It is profound.
- There are moments of witty banter, moments of tragedy, and moments of romance.
- I rate it 5 stars, and so did 188,200 other readers on Goodreads.
- The story is set in the late nineteenth century. What a fun time period!
"The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it, no paper notices plastered on lampposts and billboards. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not.
Within these nocturnal black-and-white striped tents awaits an utterly unique, a feast for the senses, where one can get lost in a maze of clouds, meander through a lush garden made of ice, stare in wonderment as the tattooed contortionist folds herself into a small glass box, and become deliciously tipsy from the scents of caramel and cinnamon that waft through the air.
Welcome to Le Cirque des Rêves.
Beyond the smoke and mirrors, however, a fierce competition is under way--a contest between two young illusionists, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood to compete in a "game" to which they have been irrevocably bound by their mercurial masters. Unbeknownst to the players, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will.
As the circus travels around the world, the feats of magic gain fantastical new heights with every stop. The game is well under way and the lives of all those involved--the eccentric circus owner, the elusive contortionist, the mystical fortune-teller, and a pair of red-headed twins born backstage among them--are swept up in a wake of spells and charms.
But when Celia discovers that Marco is her adversary, they begin to think of the game not as a competition but as a wonderful collaboration. With no knowledge of how the game must end, they innocently tumble headfirst into love. A deep, passionate, and magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands.
Their masters still pull the strings, however, and this unforeseen occurrence forces them to intervene with dangerous consequences, leaving the lives of everyone from the performers to the patrons hanging in the balance.
Both playful and seductive, The Night Circus, Erin Morgenstern's spell-casting debut, is a mesmerizing love story for the ages" (Goodreads).
"A sea of ink would not be enough...But you built me dreams instead" (Morgenstern 388). Erin Morgenstern built us all dreams when she wrote The Night Circus, dreams which we can relive again and again in the pages of the novel.
Just...read it.
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