Imagination Unleashed

As someone who likes her stories written in straight lines, it was a challenge to read The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. Frequent reversals to different time periods and telling the tale from viewpoints of various characters encouraged total concentration to follow the story. Having pointed that out, I still enjoyed reading the book and would recommend it to others despite the fact that it was not my genre choice for pleasure reading.

The creativity of the author's descriptions of the Night Circus made the reader anxious to be a part of the unusual circus, or even one of the “reveurs” (a fan group whose members distinguished themselves by wearing a red scarf or other accessory and who tried to discover the location for the next appearance of the venue of magic. The imagination of the characters who created the circus tents, costumes and entertainment certainly was much of the content. But the movement of the story's plot was carried out by the intersection of the characters.

Not all was fantasy and light in the story. The conflict within, the contest of wills, the sinister nature of the man in the grey suit and the manipulation of some characters by others made the novel dark and disturbing at time. Is it a novel of good versus evil? A fantasy? A depiction of human nature? A tale of forbidden love?  All of these?

I would recommend that you read it and draw your own conclusions. Then perhaps you will look forward, as I do to the movie version that will be premiering soon.

~diane