The Night Circus- Review

Blurb: 

The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night.

But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway: a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them both, this is a game in which only one can be left standing. Despite the high stakes, Celia and Marco soon tumble headfirst into love, setting off a domino effect of dangerous consequences, and leaving the lives of everyone, from the performers to the patrons, hanging in the balance.

My thoughts:

I had heard some good things about The Night Circus, so I was pretty excited when I found a copy at a used bookstore that was in decent shape.

It wasn't really my favorite.

I mean, the idea behind it was really fantastic, but I would have done it a bit differently.

But it was much darker than I was expecting. See, I thought it was going to be a bright, happy, small magic, darling and enchanting story. Boy was I wrong.

It was a let's ruin two other people's lives (and potentially a few more) for the sake of a selfish competition between two old magicians with different skills and views so they can have bragging rights and continue to jab at each other kind of story, with deep seriousness.

The pace of the book kept changing too. It was stiff and slow for a while, then it finally loosened up and went faster and was more interesting, only to go back to being stiff and slow. Also the time hops and the fact that nobody involved with the production of the circus could age threw me off a bit.


A caution to younger readers/parents of younger readers: 

First of all: Magic. Just for the sake of magic. If you don't want to read about magic that is unexplained and overall without purpose, this is not the book for you.

Language: There is one f-word and the d-word is used a few times. It took me by surprise completely, so there's that warning.

There is kissing in there. Also a short scene where two characters behave as if they are married. It is described semi-vaguely, but could have been left out as it did not move the plot anywhere except to make sure the readers knew they were supposed to be in love, and all that would've needed to happen for that would be for them to say "I love you." But no, for some reason it was included and as soon as I figured out what was going on I skipped the scene.

There is also a character that was hinted at being gay, but nothing explicitly stated there.

For these reasons, I would not recommend The Night Circus to readers under 16-17.



Honestly, I wanted to like The Night Circus, but there were just too many things that didn't sit right with me. 
2 Stars- mostly for the creative idea, and the cover is pretty.

What are your thoughts?