I just finished reading The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, and while the book's idea is very interesting the writer's style fails me in some aspects.
While the story itself is wrapped in a veil of anonymity and mystery, many of the surprises are easily predictable. I don't know if it's just me or everybody who read it, but you can guess what is going to happen in each chapter by the first page of it. I found that to make the experience of reading this book -which is based on a great idea- a bit dull.
Basically the book is about a magic battle with Le Cirque des Rêves as its venue. The contenders must create magic without interfering with the other's work. Both of the opponents are bound by magic. The writing style of the author is very captivating. She is very lyrical in her choice of words. Her paragraphs are medium in length but are filled with vivid descriptions. The direct speech and conversations are kept to a minimal, something I found very suiting for this book.
Many of the main characters are well developed, such as Celia, Chandresh, Herr Thiessen, Widget, and Ethan Barris. Other characters are very cliched and hastily put together, like Marco, Tsukiko, Bailey, Poppit, Isobel, Alexander, and Hector. Likewise, the relationships of the characters in the book differ from deep and well developed relationships to shallow how-could-this-happen relationships.
The book is divided into five titled parts, each containing several chapters. I thought that there wasn't much reason behind why the book was divided as such, except for the author to print those quotes by actual characters from this exact book. Okay, there was one Oscar Wilde quote.
After the quote comes a tiny "chapter"that is written in the second person pov. I strongly oppose anything written in this form. Do not force include me into stories in ways you see fit, author. I want to be every character, not an insignificant by stander.
I also just read this in the author's website:
Is there going to be a movie?
Maybe. This will continue to be the answer for a good long time because anything can happen in the strange and mysterious world of film production. The film rights have been optioned by Summit Entertainment, which means they have the option to make The Night Circus into a film. They are indeed working on it but I do not personally know all that much about what’s going on with it at any given point. When there are official updates, I’m sure the internet will know.
PSA: I have very little to do with the movie. Strange but true. I wrote the book, other people will adapt it into a screenplay and handle casting and designing and do all the movie-making things. I cannot tell you how to audition or anything like that, not that it’s even reached that stage yet. Summit is in charge. I’m just along for the ride.
And because of the movie talk here is a very beautifully enchanting fan-made poster:
and here are some internet based casting options and my views on them:
except shouldn't they cast two guys to play Marco? considering he has two faces and all. Also, it would be great if they made the movie in paper animation. Just putting this idea out there for you, summit.
final rating of the book: 4/5
This footnote is for my dear friend Rehab who got me this book as a gift. THANK YOU so much! You were right in thinking I would love this because I did enjoy it very much.
Basically the book is about a magic battle with Le Cirque des Rêves as its venue. The contenders must create magic without interfering with the other's work. Both of the opponents are bound by magic. The writing style of the author is very captivating. She is very lyrical in her choice of words. Her paragraphs are medium in length but are filled with vivid descriptions. The direct speech and conversations are kept to a minimal, something I found very suiting for this book.
Many of the main characters are well developed, such as Celia, Chandresh, Herr Thiessen, Widget, and Ethan Barris. Other characters are very cliched and hastily put together, like Marco, Tsukiko, Bailey, Poppit, Isobel, Alexander, and Hector. Likewise, the relationships of the characters in the book differ from deep and well developed relationships to shallow how-could-this-happen relationships.
The book is divided into five titled parts, each containing several chapters. I thought that there wasn't much reason behind why the book was divided as such, except for the author to print those quotes by actual characters from this exact book. Okay, there was one Oscar Wilde quote.
After the quote comes a tiny "chapter"that is written in the second person pov. I strongly oppose anything written in this form. Do not force include me into stories in ways you see fit, author. I want to be every character, not an insignificant by stander.
I also just read this in the author's website:
Is there going to be a movie?
Maybe. This will continue to be the answer for a good long time because anything can happen in the strange and mysterious world of film production. The film rights have been optioned by Summit Entertainment, which means they have the option to make The Night Circus into a film. They are indeed working on it but I do not personally know all that much about what’s going on with it at any given point. When there are official updates, I’m sure the internet will know.
PSA: I have very little to do with the movie. Strange but true. I wrote the book, other people will adapt it into a screenplay and handle casting and designing and do all the movie-making things. I cannot tell you how to audition or anything like that, not that it’s even reached that stage yet. Summit is in charge. I’m just along for the ride.
And because of the movie talk here is a very beautifully enchanting fan-made poster:
no
NO!
err... BEN BARNES! but no.
except shouldn't they cast two guys to play Marco? considering he has two faces and all. Also, it would be great if they made the movie in paper animation. Just putting this idea out there for you, summit.
final rating of the book: 4/5
This footnote is for my dear friend Rehab who got me this book as a gift. THANK YOU so much! You were right in thinking I would love this because I did enjoy it very much.
I think it's awesome you did a real review on the book. I would agree with the predictability, but the first time I got the the intro thing at the beginning of the chapter, it just failed to move me in any way. So i didn't deem it important and skipped all the rest, so I pretty much fell got lost in the description! In any case, you have an epic entry, kudos.
ReplyDeleteThank you very much for your comment and sorry for the super late reply, I still am failing to set my notifications correctly.
DeleteI, too, was very confused at first but I cannot skip pages in any book I'm reading cause I feel like I'm missing out on potential good parts.