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A Novel
by Erin Morgenstern
Book Reviewed by:The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night...
Rated Best Debut Author of 2011 by BookBrowse Members
The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night.
But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway - a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them, 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. Despite themselves, however, Celia and Marco tumble headfirst into love - a deep, magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands.
True love or not, the game must play out, and the fates of everyone involved, from the cast of extraordinary circus performers to the patrons, hang in the balance, suspended as precariously as the daring acrobats overhead.
Written in rich, seductive prose, this spell-casting novel is a feast for the senses and the heart.
ANTICIPATION
The circus arrives without warning.
No announcements precede it, no paper notices on downtown posts and billboards, no mentions or advertisements in local newspapers. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not.
The towering tents are striped in white and black, no golds and crimsons to be seen. No color at all, save for the neighboring trees and the grass of the surrounding fields. Black-and-white stripes on grey sky; countless tents of varying shapes and sizes, with an elaborate wrought-iron fence encasing them in a colorless world. Even what little ground is visible from outside is black or white, painted or powdered, or treated with some other circus trick.
But it is not open for business. Not just yet.
Within hours everyone in town has heard about it. By afternoon the news has spread several towns over. Word of mouth is a more effective method of advertisement than typeset words and exclamation points on paper pamphlets or posters. It is impressive and ...
What are you reading this week? (3/20/2025)
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
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BookBrowse Awards
2011
24 BookBrowse members read The Night Circus, giving it an overall rating of 4.9 out of 5.0 - our highest rating ever for a First Impressions book (out of more than 250 books reviewed to date)! Here's what they have to say:
The prose is beautiful but not too simplistic, the fantasy images are easily understood and vivid - almost real. The descriptive narrative is so clear and concise that your mind slips easily into the circus at night - and with such intensity it's startling (Louise J). I find myself staring into space remembering parts of this wonderful book and not wanting to come back (Arleen L). Thank you to Ms. Morgenstern for reminding me why I am a reader (Debbie V)!..continued
Full Review
(519 words)
(Reviewed by First Impressions Reviewers).
Aimee Bender, author of The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake
Pure pleasure... Erin Morgenstern is a gifted, classic storyteller, a tale-teller, a spinner of the charmed and mesmerizing - I had many other things I was supposed to be doing, but the book kept drawing me back in and I tore through it. You can be certain this riveting debut will create a group of rêveurs all its own. Audrey Niffenegger, author of The Time Traveler's Wife
The Night Circus made me happy. Playful and intensely imaginative, Erin Morgenstern has created the circus I have always longed for and she has populated it with dueling love-struck magicians, precocious kittens, hyper-elegant displays of beauty and complicated clocks. This is a marvelous book. Sheryl, Shelf Awareness
It's imaginative beyond belief. I haven't read a book in years that is this imaginative and completely plausible. Téa Obreht, author of The Tiger's Wife
A riveting debut. The Night Circus pulls you into a world as dark as it is dazzling, fully-realized but still something out of a dream. You will not want to leave it.The use of magical motifs in Erin Morgenstern's debut novel, The Night Circus, helps make it a unique and fascinating read.
But the literary device is by no means new. Magic can be found in some of the oldest, most revered pieces of literature throughout history, as in William Shakespeare's The Tempest. In fact, his play served as an inspiration for Morgenstern's novel.
In The Night Circus, Prospero the Enchanter maintains a magical persona and attempts to control his daughter's life, much like his namesake in The Tempest, who has the ability to call on spirits and charm his daughter Miranda to sleep.
When confronted with these similarities in an interview with TribLive, Morgenstern admitted that her story shares various ...
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