Crabbycat's Bookblog

The Night Circus: a Dream of a Book


The Night Circus opens like a premonition and a sense of deja vu. The reader is invited into the show which opens only at night. Although this device seems both stagey and overly familiar--a recent episode of Torchwood immediately comes to mind--any reservations are soon put to rest as the reader is transported by the magical swirl of Erin Morgenstern's writing.
This book does everything that Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell promised but failed to deliver. Both Celia and Marco are motherless and delivered up to fathers who are cruel and cold and more than willing to sacrifice their children to the competition of magic. While the children are brilliantly trained, the ongoing and ultimate sacrifice is ominously implied from the moment of their sealing. 
"The man in the grey suit leans forward and whispers something in her ear, too low for her father to overhear. A small smile brightens her face.
"Hold out your right hand," he says, leaning back in his chair. Celia immediately puts out her hand, palm up, unsure of what to expect. But the man in the grey suit does not place anything in her open palm. Instead, he turns her hand over and removes a silver ring from his pinkie. He slides it onto her ring finger, though it is too loose for her slim fingers, keeping his other hand around her wrist.
She is opening her mouth to state the obvious fact that the ring, though very pretty, does not fit, when she realizes that it is shrinking on her hand.
Her momentary glee at the adjustment is crushed by the pain that follows as the ring continues to close around her finger, the metal burning into her skin. She tries to pull away but the man in the grey suit keeps his hand firmly around her wrist.
The ring thins and fades, leaving only a bright red scar around Celia's finger....
"Good girl," her father says." (pp.17-18)
Of course the ultimate sacrifice always involves love which is the centre of both magic and tragedy. The story is Dickensonian in its length and unsentimental portrayal of childhood yet it never lags or fails to entertain. The blockbuster list of characters is well drawn but sometimes threatens to overwhelm the main protagonists. And the timeline can be confusing--it helps to check out the dates at the beginning of each chapter--especially if reading in fits and starts. No doubt there are some things that are a bit too precious--the food for instance, which is straight out of Harry Potter : "chocolate bats with impossibly delicate wings" or "shaped like mice, with almond ears and licorice tails". 
The book design--with blackened pages and stripes and stars interspersed throughout--is delightful. But then, almost everything about The Night Circus is delightful. Which makes it the perfect Christmas gift--somebody buy it for me.

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