I’m back with another review! I was hoping to have had one posted by now but Christmas and New Year really threw my reading schedule out, I’m a bit of a home bird and I’m not used to being so busy on the social side of life! But no stress, I am back with another book for you all. I hope your Holidays were all amazing and lovely, what did you all get up to? Did you get any bookish gifts? Let me know in the comments! Without further delay though, this weeks book: The Night Circus.
It took me a long time to want to read this book. It has caught my eye in bookstores for years, but I never bought it or I always changed my mind at the last minute, opting for something else. But someone bought it me as a Christmas gift and I finally decided now was the time to read it. Before reading it, I had listened to a very interesting podcast by the BBC 4 guys at Book Club, where the author Erin Morgenstern was chatting with them about the book, I recommend giving it a listen. In the podcast Morgenstern revealed she wanted to create a world that had the sensibility of Harry Potter but for adults. This caught my interest as, as a teen I loved the Harry Potter novels and now as an adult I feel its hard to find that outside the YA genre, with a more mature setting that is still magical. I was genuinely excited to read this.
The cover art is beautiful. Its colour scheme is monochromatic, black and white with little splashes of red, which as you read, you will soon realise that this colour scheme is integral to the story. I think the font style is a perfect choice, very elegant and classy, it upholds the character of the circus and the simplicity of the whole design is stunning. It isn’t busy and it isn’t trying too hard.
As always I’ll pop the synopsis below:
The circus arrives without warning
No announcements precede it…
It is simply there, when yesterday it was not
That is it. A little spoiler that is the first few sentences of the book also. I think this kind of synopsis is so well thought out. I can’t even explain how or why but upon reading it, I just felt the mystery all at once. I felt like a kid again, that really innocent feeling of complete wonder.
During the book it skips between different times and places but it is really easy to follow and I think that without doing so, some of the magic would be lost. I think if the narrative was strictly lineal it wouldn’t have created that same feeling. With the narrative switching over time and countries you got a sense of really traveling along with the circus. Morgenstern also includes small sections where the narrative addresses the reader directly, describing them walking through the circus, which only adds to that feeling of being there. I found as well that it helped me to really picture the circus as she would have. It was a very smart way of drawing the readers into the world that she had created. I felt like I was a part of it.
The characters were also beautiful. So well rounded and unusual. I fell in love with them all, I felt like they could be real people. Everything about them as people and the world they live in seemed palpable the more that you read. It is a very powerfully written book in that sense. I felt like I was reading about magic for the first time. Morgenstern somehow created this sense of wonder so amazingly and perfectly. I was just rooting for the characters and the Circus to succeed. I don’t think I’ve wanted a happy ending so much in my life.
I think this book has something for everyone. It has romance, friendship, action, magic and mystery. It is truly a work of art. I have never read a book quite like it and I’m sceptical if I ever will. I didn’t want it to end. I loved this book and it is high, now on my list of what I would recommend. I think to rate it any less than 5 stars, would be blasphemous.
Rating /5 Stars
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I’m back with another review! I was hoping to have had one posted by now but Christmas and New Year really threw my reading schedule out, I’m a bit of a home bird and I’m not used to being so busy on the social side of life! But no stress, I am back with another book for you all. I hope your Holidays were all amazing and lovely, what did you all get up to? Did you get any bookish gifts? Let me know in the comments! Without further delay though, this weeks book: The Night Circus.
It took me a long time to want to read this book. It has caught my eye in bookstores for years, but I never bought it or I always changed my mind at the last minute, opting for something else. But someone bought it me as a Christmas gift and I finally decided now was the time to read it. Before reading it, I had listened to a very interesting podcast by the BBC 4 guys at Book Club, where the author Erin Morgenstern was chatting with them about the book, I recommend giving it a listen. In the podcast Morgenstern revealed she wanted to create a world that had the sensibility of Harry Potter but for adults. This caught my interest as, as a teen I loved the Harry Potter novels and now as an adult I feel its hard to find that outside the YA genre, with a more mature setting that is still magical. I was genuinely excited to read this.
The cover art is beautiful. Its colour scheme is monochromatic, black and white with little splashes of red, which as you read, you will soon realise that this colour scheme is integral to the story. I think the font style is a perfect choice, very elegant and classy, it upholds the character of the circus and the simplicity of the whole design is stunning. It isn’t busy and it isn’t trying too hard.
As always I’ll pop the synopsis below:
That is it. A little spoiler that is the first few sentences of the book also. I think this kind of synopsis is so well thought out. I can’t even explain how or why but upon reading it, I just felt the mystery all at once. I felt like a kid again, that really innocent feeling of complete wonder.
During the book it skips between different times and places but it is really easy to follow and I think that without doing so, some of the magic would be lost. I think if the narrative was strictly lineal it wouldn’t have created that same feeling. With the narrative switching over time and countries you got a sense of really traveling along with the circus. Morgenstern also includes small sections where the narrative addresses the reader directly, describing them walking through the circus, which only adds to that feeling of being there. I found as well that it helped me to really picture the circus as she would have. It was a very smart way of drawing the readers into the world that she had created. I felt like I was a part of it.
The characters were also beautiful. So well rounded and unusual. I fell in love with them all, I felt like they could be real people. Everything about them as people and the world they live in seemed palpable the more that you read. It is a very powerfully written book in that sense. I felt like I was reading about magic for the first time. Morgenstern somehow created this sense of wonder so amazingly and perfectly. I was just rooting for the characters and the Circus to succeed. I don’t think I’ve wanted a happy ending so much in my life.
I think this book has something for everyone. It has romance, friendship, action, magic and mystery. It is truly a work of art. I have never read a book quite like it and I’m sceptical if I ever will. I didn’t want it to end. I loved this book and it is high, now on my list of what I would recommend. I think to rate it any less than 5 stars, would be blasphemous.
Rating /5 Stars
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️