The Night Circus ~ Erin Morgenstern

The Night Circus is a book that I’ve heard so many positive things about and have seen featured on so many ‘TBR Before You Die’ or ‘Books Every Bookworm Has Read’ lists. People talk about The Night Circus like they would about 1984 by George Orwell, so when The Starless Sea came out and was only Erin Morgenstern’s second book I was surprised. I thought The Night Circus had been out for decades to get to the status that it has done. The Starless Sea also seemed to garner the same positive reactions, I moved The Night Circus up my TBR list.

Going into this novel I knew nothing about the story, despite everyone gushing about it. All I had to go on was the blurb which doesn’t give anything away. I went into this blind about almost everything including the genre. It made reading Night Circus all the more enjoyable because I didn’t have any expectations.

Here’s where I start gushing over this book: I enjoyed it so very much that I had to force myself to put it down so I wouldn’t devour it in one sitting. I loved every single thing about the book except for the fact that it ended. I would’ve happily kept reading about the mystical Le Cirque des Rêves. The description of the circus was beautiful and I very much wish it was a real thing because I would blow a lot of money visiting this magical, monochromatic mystery. I don’t think I would get tired of visiting all the attractions.

I honestly think this is the best book I have read this year and it’ll take something incredibly special to beat it. There were so many things that I loved about this book. The characters were so spectacularly written and I felt such a connection with all of them, even the ones that Morgenstern didn’t intend for you to like. I even enjoyed the time skips and back and forth between present and future (present and past?) which usually irritates me a little bit. I am enamoured with this book and the circus as all the rêveurs are. 

I’ve always loved a book with magic in it and have read so many that there are few new ideas left. This is like nothing I have read before. It takes an idea of magic that is very much real and turns it into something so new and indescribably ingenious. I genuinely am at a loss for words to explain how much I adored this book and how much it encapsulated me from the very first sentence.

On this blog, we use a five-star rating system. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern makes me want to take back all my five-star reviews because five stars is not enough for how much I enjoyed this book. I now understand why it is on so many lists and absolutely agree that everyone should experience the magic and mystery embedded in the pages of this book. This book is the closest I have come to real, fantastical magic.

C🌙