The Night Circus is an overly long, drawn-out tale about two children--a boy and a girl--being chosen to outdo the other with the power of magic while being contained within the confines of a circus that is open only at night. Their magic teachers decide this when Celia is six years old and Marco fourteen. Of course, when they both are at the circus, they fall in love, and then are distraught to discover that the winner of this contest of sorts is decided by one of them dying in one way or another (not magic inflicted by either party). It gets very convoluted and confusing, with each chapter jumping between locations and times. It made me want to pull out my hair at points because I did not have a clue what was going on, and so many characters are involved that by the end I just had to read it and go with the flow and assume I knew who the author was chattering on and on about. This book would have been much better if it had been more tightly written, perhaps cutting 100 pages from its girth (387 pages). There are of course a myriad of sub-plots and whatnot, but something I kept thinking of while reading this was Anne of Green Gables when it is said that it is better to use short words than long ones.
Okay, done whining, but I would definitely put this in the same bin as Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.
And I thought it was one of the best books I read in 2011. It was as visual an enjoyment for me as it was anything else even thought there are no pictures except those that you create as you read it. It was beautiful and transcendent. The maze of clouds and the garden of ice built as love letters were about as beautiful as anything I could ever imagine. This book managed to do what every truly great book should do, it transported me to a different time and place and gave me a chance to escape - if only for an hour or two. I wanted to be in this circus. I wanted to experience her world. Reading this was the best kind of dream ... one you can go back to over and over again if only you buy the book. I did not think the author wasted a single word.
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