Book Review of "The Night Circus

The Night Circus Book Review

            The Night Circus is written by Erin Morgenstern. In the book, there are two main characters, Celia and Marco. These two characters are in a completion against each other as a sort of game, and whoever dies first loses while the person that survives the completion is the winner. The book is a narration of what takes place between each member of the game and how each member of the game copes with not really being in control of their future. The members of the game are literally bound to each other, and this bind will not break until the game is finished. Where is there a mysterious man in grey that does not have a shadow? Why is there a man magician named Prospero after the main protagonist in William Shakespeare’s The Tempest? How about magic? Or better yet, the power of in visibility? What about love? These examples as well as many others help to make the story so much more interesting and keeps the reader on the edge of their seat.

The setting is very interesting in this book and really helps to create some suspense in the book with the vivid descriptions of the setting at different times in the novel. A place in the book that really brought setting home is with the vivid description of the circus, known as Les Cirque des Rêves. The description of the circus really helps to make it feel like the reader is actually there in the circus. The description of the circus is as follows, “Black-and-white stripes on grey sky; countless tents of varying shapes and sizes, elaborate wrought-iron fence, …what little ground is visible from outside is black or white, painted or powdered” (Morgenstern 3). The description of the circus is so vivid and real feeling that the reader feels like they are actually experiencing the circus for the first time, right along with the unnamed narrator in the beginning of The Night Circus. Without a good setting, there is no connection between the book and the reader. With a good setting there is a connection, this is why a good setting is so important. With the setting, many very intricate and impeccable visual qualities are seen through the strong use of the setting. Setting is able to successfully add many different visual qualities to the story that really tend to immerse the reader in The Night Circus mostly regarding the physical circus and Chandresh’s house.

            The characters play a very important role in this novel. Without the current cast of characters that are in The Night Circus, the story would not have been so appealing to the reader, and the overall tone of the story would probably have turned out completely different. There are many different types of characters in the story, and without the vast differences between all of them, the story would not have ended up as it did. From a mysterious man in grey, which the reader never learned his entire name, to a magician nicknamed Prospero, to Marco a poor orphan boy before he became an apprentice of the Man in Grey, and finally Celia who is the daughter of Prospero and the opponent of Marco in the game. The characters differ from each other, but there are also some similarities between the four that are listed. For one thing, all four of those characters are connected and affected in some way by the game. What is interesting about this game is that Marco did not know who his opponent was until Celia auditioned for Chandresh’s circus unexpectedly. Since the characters do things that the reader does not expect, this keeps the reader on the edge of their seat. The characters in The Night Circus are unpredictable as seen through Celia’s audition. The description that Morgenstern writes about Celia trying out for the circus, I feel that it really helps to show the vast differences that the characters have when compared to each other. Part of the description follows, “In the blink of an eye …the raven swoops over the [auditorium] …very slowly, her gown begins to change …the creeping black fade into snow-bright white …until all evidence that the gown was ever green are gone” (Morgenstern 96-98). So what is important about this scene? This scene helps to show that the characters in The Night Circus are unpredictable and do not necessarily do what the reader would expect. The scene also shows how it is Morgenstern’s writing style that really helps to have these characters in the novel emerge and it makes the reader feel that they are actually in the novel experiencing everything as well as the characters.  

            The final major theme of this novel is the game itself. While this might not seem to be very important, it is quite vital to bring to light so that the reader can understand how the story ended as it did. Between Marco and Celia’s learning styles, there are many differences that need to be brought to light. Marco learned and prepared for the game in solitude. He was left by himself and told to read book after book after book that the Man in Grey brought for him. There was never much practice when it came to preparing. Marco did pretty much everything by himself. On the other hand, Celia was also self-taught like Marco, but her teaching had a somewhat different trend then Marco’s did. Prospero would hurt Celia so that she would learn how to heal herself. In retrospect this was a good idea; however, when it was happening it was a little messed up. Some of the madness can be seen here, “Prospero the Enchanter uses a pocket knife to slit his daughter’s fingertips open, …her father gives her only a few moments to rest before slicing [them open again]” (Morgenstern 34). Through Morgenstern’s writing, the audience feels a little sick to their stomachs because it is an odd way of training. If Morgenstern was not the author of this book, then the book would probably not have turned out as it had, especially regarding the differences in training because Morgenstern did a great job of manipulating the characters to act and train as they should have. It is through her writing style, that the differences in the way Marco and Celia are trained comes to light.

            I would recommend this book if a person is really into magic or quirky things. If there was one word that I could use to describe this book, it would be quirky. Why? I just feel that the book fits in a very niche genre and would be unable to be there if it was not for the book’s quirkiness. Besides that, the book was very interesting and I enjoyed it pretty well. People that enjoy “traditional” romance novels or fictional stories might not enjoy this book; however, people that enjoy complex novels will because there is some serious plot in this novel. The different timelines in the book were a neat feature. In its entirety, it was a pretty good book. (3 stars out of 5.)