Book Review 3: The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

Erin Morgenstern: The Night Circus 

Genres: Fantasy, Historical Fantasy, Fantasy-Mystery, Fantasy-Romance, American Literature

Reading Level: New Adult

Setting: New York (USA); London, England (UK); Concord & Boston, Massachusetts (USA); Munich, Germany; Lyon & Paris, France; Cairo, Egypt; Vienna, Austria; Prague, Czechia; Barcelona, Spain; Glasgow, Scotland (UK); Basel, Switzerland; Constantinople (Istanbul), Türkiye; Dublin, Ireland; Montreal, Canada; 1873-1903

Published: 2011

Page Count: 512 (Paperback)

Rating: ★★★⋆ (3.5 out of 5)

The Night Circus’ greatest strength is also its greatest weakness. Morgenstern makes a very deliberate writing choice in which she withholds much of the actual world-building and explanation of the magic system from her reader. In fact, she withholds a lot of the plot from her reader as well. It creates a mystical atmosphere throughout the entire story, where the reader almost never fully understands what exactly is going on. The plot slowly reveals itself as it becomes necessary to do so. The choice is definitely intentional, as it mirrors the way the supporting characters in the book themselves feel; they understand something greater is going on, but they can’t quite figure out what that really is. 

This tactic works to the story’s advantage for the first 30-40% or so of the novel. It takes what would otherwise be a pretty straightforward fantasy and blends it with aspects of the mystery genre, and that definitely keeps the pages turning, as the reader wants to figure out what’s happening. However, after a certain point, as the plot progresses, the withholding of information starts to inhibit the quality of the story. There is never really a clear point where the reader fully grasps the magic of the “competition” between Celia and Marco. It is clear they are using the circus as a means of showing off their different skills with magic, and eventually, Morgenstern reveals that the competition only ends when one of the two exhausts themselves into death, and their magic keeps the circus (and all of its inhabitants) running and alive, unaging. The issue here is not the concept, but that Morgenstern is reluctant from beginning to end to reveal how they are doing it. The reader never really sees a lot of insight into their powers, how they work, there’s quite a bit of vagueness to the construction of the circus attractions they are making in competition with each other. It leaves one to wonder if perhaps Morgenstern couldn’t come up with an intricate magic system with rules and explanations, so she just avoided any depth all together. What’s there as far as the fantasy elements are good, very intriguing, but never fully satisfying. 

Celia and Marco’s relationship also could have had more development. Though sometimes this book is

labeled as a “fantasy-romance,” these two main characters do not really interact with each other in any meaningful way until several hundred pages into the book. Just as their relationship finally feels that it’s beginning—complete with tension and obstacles—the story jumps a few years into the future. Supposedly, Celia and Marco are deeply in love with each other, and their devotion to one another is integral to how the story ends, but Morgenstern skips out on developing the critical early points of their relationship that would really allow readers to invest in this relationship. There needed to be more tension, chemistry, longing, build up, etc. based on the type of desperate, emotional ending that Morgenstern created for these characters. The way the novel goes as written, Poppet and Bailey’s relationship had more depth to it than Celia and Marco. I can partway forgive the more “insta-love” aspect of their relationship—at least more than I could with a book set in a non-fantasy, contemporary setting—because it’s drawing off the way the magic of the competition has bound Celia and Marco, so it certainly manipulates the intensity of their feelings around each other. Just as a reading experience, though, it would have been enjoyable to spend more real time watching the relationship unfold more naturally. 

Also, the whole thing leaves Isobel as a highly underused character. She’s quite intriguing, and she plays at least a substantial role in the story towards the end. However, because she’s largely the “other woman” that Marco is involved with before Celia, it doesn’t seem like Morgenstern gives her enough time to shine on her own outside of her feelings for Marco. It also doesn’t help the reader connect with Marco very well either, as he gets involved with Isobel romantically, uses her, casts her aside immediately for Celia, then “apologizes” for not telling her sooner he was in love with Celia, as if it was somehow difficult to stop using her. All in all, Celia and Isobel are both intriguing characters, but their relationships with Marco fall a bit flat. 

Some of the side characters are quite interesting and often carry the story in places, especially the Murray twins (Poppet in particular), and then Tsukiko towards the end. The revolving door of points of view, as well as the way that the chapters jump forward and backward in places, may be off-putting to some readers, however it does add quite a bit to the overall aesthetic of the novel. The whole story is set in a magical circus, and the differing POV chapters of characters and time frames themselves feel like riding a carousel. By the end of the story, it’s also quite clear why Morgenstern chose to tell Bailey’s portion of the story out of sequential order with the rest. It really helps to add to the conclusion and was very clever. 

The writing itself is decent if it borders on being purple prose in a few places. I can mostly excuse it because of the type of story The Night Circus is. The circus is very mystical, very enchanting, and very much over the top, so it makes sense that the writing style should read that way to cater to the tone and feel. I was a bit confused at the start about whether this was YA or adult, because the characters are mostly adults, and the book is labeled as being adult fantasy, but it reads more similarly to the style and pacing of YA in certain places. I think this book works well as a novel that would have almost been better if it had specifically been written to be new adult. I did enjoy the way that Morgenstern tied the last line back to the first line of the story. Throughout the book, I couldn’t quite understand the purpose of the short interludes written in second person point of view. I am still not convinced they are entirely necessary, but this part helps. 

Overall, I enjoyed what was here, but I wanted more development to it. 

Book review 3 of ~5,000 lifetime goal.