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ASIN: 0307744434
ID #113824
The Night Circus: A Novel   (Rated: ASR)
Product Type: Book
Reviewer: Jaeyne of the Free Fab Five
Review Rated: E
Amazon's Price: $ 15.00
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Further Comments...
I get that I am in the minority, here. This book has 5-stars all over the place. It obviously has an audience. I am not one of them. It's not that the book was bad. I rated it two stars overall because I felt it was okay. I prefer to read books that I at least 'like' (3-stars). This one was a struggle.

The Night Circus has been sitting on my bookshelf for at least 2 years. I'd read about 1/3 of it as soon as I'd purchased it. I relegated it to DNF. Once in a while, I'd take it down, fawn over the cover, read the first page, and promptly put it back. Don't judge a book by its cover works for pretty books, too.

Though this book is marketed as a "love story for adults", it reads more YA. It's an important point to consider if you are, in fact, an adult.

This book promises a "fierce competition" and a "magical duel" and a "deep, magical love story", all built within the world of a magical circus, with magical characters, where the magic is not bound by any rules. They should be one heck of an exciting read, but it is not. The most excitement I got out of the book was keeping track of how high my blood pressure went each time I became frustrated with the story.

A fierce competition and a magical duel indicate that there would be a fierce competition and a magical duel. Neither of these things actually happens. Unless you consider "fiercely competing" to be finishing your coworker's tasks, you may be disappointed. Neither protagonist has any idea what the competition is even about for the majority of the book.

The reader never enjoys a sense that there are constraints or rules of any significance in this world, nor any significant consequences for those who created it. For a book with such highly descriptive prose of nearly everything the author touches, the lack of detail for the important parts was quite the letdown. More on that later.

The "love story for adults" is a flat-out lie in my opinion. Since the other pieces of the story lack any urgency or consequence, there is very little of these characters for the reader to cling to. Spoiler alert: adults know that life doesn't always work out the way we want. spoiler ▼

Getting back to the descriptive prose, there is another review somewhere in here that states "wedding cakes are often the prettiest cakes, but they are rarely the tastiest cakes". Don't get me wrong — the author's ability to set the mood and setting is quite good. But that never translates to an actual motivating story, and the book as a whole suffers for it. After a while though, the elaborate descriptions and explanations of everything but the actual plot becomes rather grating. You will find out that the tent is black and white. I don't feel bad about telling you this, because the author seems to have no problem about reminding you. You will never forget about the black-and-white-ness. You will learn much about beautiful and ornate timepieces, parties, and clothes. At one point you will learn what it feels like to stand in a line (that is not a joke). At no point do you really learn about any motivation for any of the characters.

My problem is not with the pacing of this book. My problem is not with the verbose and detailed descriptions. In fact, I commend the author for her imagination and descriptive abilities. My problem is with the lack of balance between world setting and character development. Had that balance been present in this book, I would be writing a very different review because her ability to give us the ornate descriptions is quite lovely. Yet, instead of character development the author gave us repetition, as though the reader couldn't take previous information and carry it forward. Giving us the guts of the world and allowing us to use our own imaginations to fill in the repetitive details would have created a far more engaging reader experience. That being said, there are still issues with what this book promises and what it delivers that would not have been solved through that alone.

Overall, it is a boring book with gorgeous window-dressing. If you know that going in, you may not be as disappointed as I was.
Created Dec 06, 2018 at 8:10pm • Submit your own review...
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