Erin Morgenstern
4/5 stars
Le Cirque des Rêves is a circus that arrives unannounced and is only open at night. It is a magnificent, enchanted place, and with good reason. It is the venue for a competition between two young magicians, Celia and Marco.
I struggled with this book for the first half. After Morgenstern used "sheer" as an adjective three times in six pages, I nearly gave up. There was no real world building, and it wasn't easy to decide if she was placing her story in Victorian England or an alternate universe, due to her characters acting in distinctly non-Victorian ways, such as kissing in public.
About half way through, though, when Marco and Celia met, the novel began to gel. The writing became less stilted, the jumps back and forward in time flowed better, and the story became more interesting. As it progressed toward the conclusion, it became hard to put down.
The bottom line is, if the reader can slog through the first 200 pages or so, the Night Circus becomes an enjoyable and rewarding read.
