The Night Circus

 

The Night Circus 

by Erin Morgenstern 

Narratated by: Jim Dale

Published September 13, 2011

Listening length: 13 hours, 11 minutes

My review 4.5 out of 5 stars

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.

This book is just magical. I love the details and the world building. The Night Circus is something I wish I could see. Morgenstern paints such a vivid picture with her words that at times it really felt like I was walking through the tents of black and white, smelling the delectable concessions, hearing the sounds of this incredible circus around me. 

Characters became so real that I felt invested in what happened to them. You literally see babies become adults through the lifetime of this circus. It really is just an imaginative, beautiful story. And the way she weaves each character's story together, even the side characters who don't seem to be a part of the circus, drawing them ever more closely into it. Just amazing. 

I will keep re-reading this as long as it keeps painting this story so vividly in my mind.