Title: The Night Circus
Author: Erin Morgenstern
Pages: 508
Genre: Fantasy, Historical(?)
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
“The circus arrives without warning.”
This story follows the mystical and wonders that go on behind the scenes at the magical Night Circus. There is more to this festive attraction that meets the eye. A bet that has continued for millennia and the ones who become entangled with it. Prepare to enter a world beyond your imagination.
Oh No’s
There were just wayyyy too many characters. I could not keep track of what was what what time period it was! We just kept jumping back and forth and cross and down I was lost half the time. I really liked Celia’s story and that was about it. Everyone else just felt like part of a random plot and she was the only true mystery.
This story was great but I felt it was quite stagnant. It felt like nothing was ever happening. There was no action or anything just constant character switching going about their mundane days and magic exists in secret but it’s just all normal day to day life. Unfortunately, I was bored out of my mind.
Yay’s
I just loved the writing style. It was absolutely beautiful and I will definitely be reading The Starless Sea but this was her first book and you can definitely tell. It just felt like there was no action and each character took random drastic changes that just didn’t make sense.
This book did a really good job at keeping with the theme of being the setting being a Night Circus but I felt the plot was too overthought that the characters themselves were forgotten. I did enjoy the writing so I will continue reading this author’s books!
Finally,
This was a really long novel that overall did not have much happen. It held many mysteries and fun characters but there was no action of course. If you are looking for anything carnival related, then please look no further as this stayed quite true to theme.
My similar recommendation for this novel would be Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs.
Favorite Quote
“Celia takes the bag from him and folds it up into ever’smaller squares while the twins watch, until it disappears completely. When they clap, Widget’s hands are no longer covered in caramel, though he does not notice.”
Pg. 163
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-PM
Purple Manatees 
Aww a bummer you didn’t love it.
I’m actually afraid of what you’ll think about The Starless Sea because that has a bunch of random stories and it’s not until the end you see how they connect. Also, not much action.
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Oh noooo that sounds just like this book! I really love her writing but not the way she set this story up! Oh well guess I will wait for her next one then 😂Thank you for the warning ❤️
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I mean it is a beautiful book. So poetic. A love story to books and libraries. But you do have to be patient to see how the random stories connect in the end.
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I was not a huge fan of The Night Circus and I ended up DNFing The Starless Sea. I just couldn’t handle it but I’m not a huge fan of her writing style. I hope you love The Starless Sea. I know a lot of people have.
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Actually I most likely won’t read starless sea now cause someone pointed out all the issues I had with NC are the same with starless
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That makes sense. It definitely wasn’t worth the time I spent on it but I do know that anyone who loved Night Circus, loved Starless Sea.
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Yeah they were very mystical and had a lot of wonderfully written characters but I was uninterested like 99% of the time
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I completely understand that!
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Great review and I agree with your rating. There were too many characters and underdeveloped plot. I even found that I could not sympathise with the main characters and was rooting for Marco’s ex-girlfriend – shall I call Isobel this? A narrative mess but great descriptions.
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