The Night Circus

Considering the recent disappointment I experienced after buying into the mega-hype of a new book (see first review), I was reluctant to take a chance on another.  But Erin Morgenstern’s debut novel, The Night Circus, is a lovely book, and more than lived up to expectations.  While totally original, the tale does recall the mood and imagery of some pretty heavy hitters, namely Ray Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes; Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber, The Magic Toyshop, and Nights at the Circus (ahem); and lastly, perhaps my favorite book of all-time, Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. 

There are even shades of The Hunger Games, for those of you who like your popular fiction really popular.  Here, two children, Marco and Celia, are pitted against one another in a magical battle to the death, the outcome of which will settle an ages old argument regarding magical theories between Celia’s father, Hector, and the eccentric AH__.

Thus, the stage is set.  Celia and Marco train for the fight throughout their childhoods, and are at last unleashed to do their worst just as they reach the cusp of adulthood.  Their battlefield?  A stunning nighttime circus, the likes of which has never been seen, made all the more fantastic by Morgenstern’s flawless imagery and gorgeous prose.  The exhibitions – a room of stoppered bottles holding the fragrances of life’s most precious and hideous moments, a blooming garden of ice, a haunting tree that grants wishes, just to name a few – are only outdone by the sublimity of the language used to paint them.  I found myself gasping an awed “Wow” more than once during the passages where she describes the circus and its inhabitants, though no one was around to hear me except my cats.  (Yeah, I’m that lady.  And?)

Of course, Celia and Marco fall in love, just in time to learn that one must kill the other in order to win the game.  Sound familiar?  Of course it does.  But Morgenstern manages to hold this star-crossed love story to a higher standard than most.  Once again, her dazzling imagery, coupled with a metaphorical exploration of the relationship between love and magic, give this love story something fresh, poignant, and all its own.  Every emotion between Celia and Marco, every longing, every moment of wonder, every pang of fate is beautifully wrought, and my only complaint is that they did not have nearly enough time together on the page.   

There has been some rumbling that nothing happens in The Night Circus, and when it does, it’s boring.  That the characters are flat, and the plot is jumbled.  Whine, whine, bullshit, bullshit.  True, this is not The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.  Nothing blows up, and no one gets shot (though someone does get run over by a train).  The plot is not jumbled, but Morgenstern certainly doesn’t hold your hand or spell things out for you.  Quite a lot happens, and it is never boring, but you have to pay attention.  The Night Circus is a quiet book, subtle, and if you’re sitting down to read an evening’s worth of brain candy with back to back action, this book will not be the one for you.

Having said that, I can sort of understand how some “literary” readers might say there is too much plot, while “genre” readers will say there’s not enough.  I would have liked to have seen a little more development between to the two main characters, as well as a bit more in relation to some of the terribly fascinating periphery folks that help give this novel its many layers.  The wrap up is a little too convenient, and there’s at least one character who likely could have been eliminated and caused no suffering to the tale.  

Morgenstern never quite reaches the level of poignancy that Bradbury does in Something Wicked, or the level of pure, skin crawling horror that Carter manages to weave into even her most humorous works (though she comes close in one memorable scene during a magic “lesson” with Celia).  Her level of detail, while stunning, is not on par with Clarke’s in Jonathan Strange, but then, this novel isn’t nearly 900 pages long, either.

What she does accomplish, however, is quite amazing.  Her settings are masterful, as is the integration of magic as just another part of the workaday world.  It is these elements that most remind me of the aforementioned Jonathan Strange, and it is these elements that ground the book in reality just enough to allow the reader to believe, to feel that with just the proper tilt of the head, they might catch a refrain of ethereal circus music floating on the air from somewhere nearby.  It is this quality that most recalls the writers mentioned above, and it is this quality that makes any story truly magical.  

This is a terrific novel, and I am really looking forward to both seeing the movie (yes, it’s already been optioned – hate to be obvious, but Tim Burton would tear this up!) and read future work by Morgenstern.  But for those of you who haven’t read this one yet, there’s no need to wait.  This time, do believe the hype.