The Night Circus

Rating: ★★★★★

Method of Reading: Personally owned paperback novel, 511 pages
Dates of Reading: July 23, 2012-July 24, 2012
Author: Erin Morgenstern
Publication Year: 2011
Recommended to: Anyone. Dreamers and readers and lovers.
Quotes: 
   "a ghost of his former self is more vibrant than most people" (333).
   "'Please, no Shakespeare.'
'I'm haunted by the ghost of my father, I think that should allow me to quote Hamlet as much as I please'" (425).
   "Remember when I said it was difficult to explain? That has not changed" (453).
   "Most maidens are perfectly capable of rescuing themselves in my experience, at least the ones worth something" (499).
   "This is not magic. This is the way the world is, only very few people take the time to stop and note it" (504).
   "Someone needs to tell those tales. When the battles are fought and won and lost, when the pirates find their treasures and the dragons eat their foes for breakfast with a nice cup of Lapsang souchong, someone needs to tell their bits of overlapping narrative. There's magic in that. It's in the listener" (505).
Movie: Coming. I would love to be in this. Except that it's headed to Summit. So maybe not.

Wikipedia Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Night_Circus
Link: http://thenightcircus.com/

My View: This book blew me away. The characters are unerringly lovable, despite the fact that some reviews are bumping down their scores for "lack of character development." Personally, I actually liked knowing characters from the outside only--the way the revéurs know the circus! This is hands-down the most creative book I've read in a very long time. Creative, magnetic. Unavoidably compelling. Truly fantastic fantasy, building a new world. As close as the circus could come to terrifying, I still found myself dying to visit, to meet the red-haired twins, to see the Drawing Room and experience the Bedtime Stories tent. It really is a dream circus. Surreal. In fact, I usually like a book that feels and looks well-read, but this one seems so magical that (on a beach vacation) I was crazy about keeping this one in mint condition. It was like ruining the cover would ruin the magic. A few water drop spots on the inside pages were perfectly okay, but I wanted to keep the outside like the exterior of the circus itself: perfect, even hauntingly so, from the exterior, even if the inside has some less than savory blips. The writing is easy and smooth, perfectly edited. This is the type of book others sweat to write mimicry of. The writing is simple, and it's up to you to bring the imagination.
   I have only to ask the same question our heroine asks our hero: "How do you come up with such images?" (344).


Always,
Your Bibliomaniac

Bibliographic info:
Morgenstern, Erin. The Night Circus: A Novel. New York: Doubleday, 2011. Print.