February Review: 'The Night Circus'

Image may be subject to copyright

Book: The Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern

Publication date: 2011

WCRG meeting: 21 February 2018

Rating: 4


Thank you to all who either attended in person, or submitted their reviews in advance of our meeting on 21 February where we discussed The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern.

I’m afraid the group could not find much to commend/recommend the book so most of our comments are rather bleak.

The group struggled to find out what the book was actually about, most had come along to find the answers, to which there were none! Several found it long and going nowhere. There was little development of the main characters and plot. It was suggested it was more targeted at the young adult audience, and would appeal to Harry Potter readers. Interestingly the 2016 edition of the book has an appendix with descriptions and more details of the characters.

The descriptions of the circus and the illusions (magic?) were more detailed but repetitive. The circus colours were black and white, names were unimportant – just labels. (all very confusing)! However, we all enjoyed the lavish meals and the food descriptions were good, if repetitive. Clothes were described in great detail and all the characters seemed to enjoy reading.

The story plot as described on the advertisements “a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors.” This was misleading as again this theme was not developed in any cohesive way. Celia’s father was cruel and remained a ‘ghost/shadow’ constantly criticizing her efforts; whilst Marco was much loved but his character was less developed, so the reader didn’t identify with either of them.

One reader noted that the author had entered a writing challenge which formed a basis for her novel: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Novel_Writing_Month This is the National Novel Writing Month (often shortened to NaNoWriMo)), an annual, Internet-based creative writing project that takes place during the month of November. Participants attempt to write a 50,000 word manuscript between November 1 and November 30.

The group did enjoy the originality of the title of the book and the potential the novel presented but didn’t achieve. All felt it could be developed into a visually stunning film. The scoring definitely reflected the 'Marmite' analogy as we received votes of 9 and 1.

The final mark was a disappointing 4.