The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

Synopsis:

This is a fiction book about a magical circus that only opens at night. It is called Le Cirque des Reves (The Circus of Dreams) and only opens at night. It is about two rival magicians, Celia Bowen, the daughter of the famous illusionist, Prospero the Enchanter, and Marco Alisdair, the orphan ward of Mr. A.H. They are both separately recruited to join the Circus of Dreams. Celia entertains the crowds and maintains the tents and exhibits, and Marco acts as an assistant to the producer of the circus.

They each build exhibitions that display their individual powers in an attempt to win. Eventually, after Marco and Celia learn that they are competitors of each other, they fall in love. Celia finds out that the game will continue until one of the participants is either unable to go on or dies. Celia and Marco negotiate with the ghost of Prospero and Mr. A.H. to end the competition but they fail, and Marco is about to be killed by the contortionist of the circus, but Celia saves him at the last minute which binds the two of them to the circus as spirits.

This causes the Circus of Dreams to self-destruct until Celia and Marco magically bind it to two of the performers (the twins Poppet and Widget) and Bailey, a boy devoted to the circus, and the circus is then restored and saved from being ruined. The contest is then declared to be completed, and Poppet, Widget, Bailey, and the circus still exist currently, and Bailey is the new proprietor.

Review:

I loved this book and would absolutely recommend it. I loved the vivid descriptions of the circus and the various tents and also loved all of the characters, particularly the twins, Poppet and Widget and the romance between Celia and Marco.

“The circus feels strange in the daytime, too quiet. There is no music, no noise. Just the calls of nearby birds and the rustling of leaves in the trees. There doesn’t even appear to be anyone there, as though the whole place is deserted. It smells like it does at night, but fainter, of caramel and popcorn and smoke from the bonfire.”

“Celia is not sure which is worse. The knowledge that for the game to end, one of them will have to die, or the possibility that she means nothing to him. That she is only a piece across the board. Waiting to be toppled and checkmated.”

“People see what they wish to see. And in most cases, what they are told that they see.”