The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern | Book Review

【 THE NIGHT CIRCUS 】

There is nothing more magical than an Erin Morgenstern book.

Genre: Magical Realism, Historical Fiction
Author: Erin Morgenstern
Published: September 2011
Publisher: Vintage
Pages: 490 (paperback)

I should’ve read this a long time ago, but whew I’m glad I have now. I don’t even know if I fully understood everything that happened in the book, but just like The Starless Sea it was a delightful journey to go on, full of tangible characters that you fall in love with.

The way that Morgenstern writes is truly something else. It’s magical, absorbing, frilly and grounded. The descriptions of things suck you right in to the story and you have a hard time getting your head out of the narrative when you put the book down.

Despite being a reasonably long book, pushing the 500 mark in some editions, every time I put this down I found myself unable to do much else other than to simply pick it back up again and keep going. There was nothing terribly urgent about the plot, but the fraught feelings of the characters propelled me through the story.

It’s certainly an interesting tale that seems to comment on the indistinguishability of good and evil (sometimes) and the loveliness of human connection.

Not only that but simply from an imagination perspective this book is a delight to read. The idea of this magical and seemingly endless circus, where there is a tent for everything and they’re all filled with such unusual but fascinating things, is a concept that sets your brain tingling with excitement.

I’m not sure if you’re supposed to be more invested in the character or the circus (perhaps both, perhaps they are one and the same?) but I most connected with Friedrick Thiessen and his awe of the circus was exactly how I felt reading the book. Someone fetch me a red scarf!

This is a book where you have to trust the process, accept that you might not get it all (certainly not in one reading) and enjoy the ethereal vibes it gives off.