The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. The black sign, painted in white letters that hangs upon the gates, reads:
Opens at Nightfall
Closes at Dawn

As the sun disappears beyond the horizon, all over the tents small lights begin to flicker, as though the entirety of the circus is covered in particularly bright fireflies. When the tents are all aglow, sparkling against the night sky, the sign appears.
Le Cirque des Rêves
The Circus of Dreams.

Now the circus is open.
Now you may enter.

Sometimes it happens that you go to write a review of a book that you’ve just finished, and you find that nothing comes out. I don’t mean this a disservice to Morgenstern’s The Night Circus because I really enjoyed her book, and loved the concept and the writing style and the characters. I just mean that when it comes to writing something somewhat intellectual and insightful about this particular book, I feel a little inadequate.

Recommended and bought for Christmas by a friend, The Night Circus is a joyful ride of magic, magicians and circus tents full of wonders. It’s a love story wrapped in darkness and magic, and it felt simultaneously childlike and adult which I kind of liked.

I liked the hopping between time and characters and I liked spending some of the time not really knowing what was going on. I liked too the way Morgenstern writes and the sense that her circus of dreams is something of a passion project, and a creation of her own dreams.

And I guess that’s really all I have to say about the novel: I think sometimes you’re perfectly within your right to simply like a novel and not having anything special to say about it.

So sorry Erin, I really liked your book and look forward to reading some more of your work! It’s as simple as that.