Title The Night Circus Series --- Author Erin Morgenstern Cover Art Helen Musselwhite Publisher Doubleday - 2011 First Printing Doubleday - 2011 Category Fantasy Warnings None Main Characters Celia Bowen, Marco Alisdair, Bailey Clarke Main Elements Magicians

The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it, no paper notices plastered on lampposts and billboards.. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not.

Within these nocturnal black-and-white-striped canvas tents awaits an utterly unique experience, a feast for the senses, where one can get lost in a maze of clouds, meander through a lush gardern made of ic, stare in wonderment as the tattooed contortionist folds herself into a small glass box, and become deliciously tipsy from the scents of caramel and cinnamon that waft through the air.

Welcome to Le Cirque des Rêves.

Beyond the smoke and mirrors, however, a fierce competition is under way - a contest between two young illusionists, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood to compete in a "game" to which they have been irrevocably bound by their mercurial masters. Unbeknownst to the players, this is a game which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will.

As the circus travels around the world, the feats of magic gain fantastical new heights with every stop. The game is well under way and the lives of all those involved - the eccentric circus owner, the elusive contortionist, the mystical fortune-teller, and a pair of red-headed twins born backstage among them - are swept up in a wake of spells and charms.

But when Celia discovers that Marco is her adversary, they begin to think of the game not as a competition but as a wonderful collaboration. With no knowledge of how this game must end, they innocently tumble headfirst into love. A deep, passionate, and magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands.

Their masters still pull the strings, however, and this unforeseen occurrence forces them to intervene - with dangerous consequences, leaving the lives of everyone from the performers to the patrons hanging in the balance.

Both playful and seductive, The Night Circus, Erin Morgenstern's spell-casting debut, is a mesmerizing love story for the ages.

I went in expecting a book of magic and wonder and that was exactly what I got. The circus is one of the most wonderful settings in all of fantasy literature. It is described in beautiful detail and if anything, the circus itself is one of the main characters in the book, for though it isn't alive, in a way, it kind of is. I remember when I first when to see Cirque du Soleil, it was a most magical experience. Of course over time I've seen enough of the shows to no longer be so impressed but that first time, compared to the standard three-ring circus, it was pure magic. But this circus really is magic. Of course the spectators don't know that, thinking that behind the scenes there must be some amazing engineering, but what it is, in fact, a stage for a competition between magicians, each one trying to outdo the other and win a game whose rules the competitors know nothing about. Only that they have been raised nearly from birth for this purpose and the game can go on for years. As they create greater and greater wonders, achieving greater and more complex feats of magic, they become inextricably entwined with the circus itself, perhaps to the point that they become one and the same with it.

This is not a tale of action. The plot is very slow, in fact one could argue there is barely a plot there at all. There's the competition of course, but this is no wizard war, this is all about creating bigger and more wonderful showpieces, a room of clouds, a frozen garden, a tree of memories. Its a battle of skill and refinement, and also how far one can push one's magic without giving the secret away to hundreds of visitors a night.

There's a decently large cast of characters, the two magicians, their masters, and the non-magical folk brought in to the make the circus what it is. Just because you don't have magic doesn't mean you can't create magic, even if all you have to work with are fabrics and gears. It takes a lot to make a circus work, more than just a couple magicians can pull off, and not everyone is who they appear, and while others are, they know more than they should.

And knowledge is dangerous here, those on the outskirts notice the strangeness more and suffer the consequences of it if they cannot accept it. This is a dangerous and deadly game, more than the competitor realize. And their masters are cold and cruel, for they just want their candidate to win for their own selfish pride in their abilities as a teacher.

There will be people who find this book boring. But if you love atmosphere, and world building, and just letting your imagining create places so wonderful you wish you could run away and join this circus, then this is the book for you. I read Piranesi shortly before this, and while both books have mysteries at their core and wonder in their hearts, the magic of The Night Circus is more elaborate and refined and dark, while in Piranesi it is more the awe of innocence. In both, there is love of a place, a place nearly as alive as those that inhabit them.

This is also a love story between two characters, a complicated relationship and a destiny that they cannot escape, literally bound to by magic and cannot be broken. There is only one way this competition can end, only one can win and one must therefore lose.

I can't put into words how beautiful this book is, and some of the twisty turns, though slow to unravel, can leave the reader in despair as to how it could possibly end happily. Did it have a happy ending? Well for you to read an decide. It was definitely bittersweet.

One hint, the dates at the start of the chapters will help you a lot, I disregarded them for a while and got a bit confused.