Friday, January 17, 2014

The Night Circus

Back in January of 2013, Sicilian Mama reviewed this book on this  blog as part of her favorite books of 2012. Her review was part of what made me want to read this book and I thought I would include what she wrote here:

"The Night Circus - Have you ever read a book that you were afraid to put down because you were afraid you were going to miss something? That's how Erin Morgenstern's debut novel was for me. It has mixed review on Goodreads, but I absolutely loved it. I recommended it to pretty much everyone I know who loves to read and I even bought it as gifts for my besties for their birthdays. In fact, I just went out and bought a copy for myself so I could reread it again. That's how amazing it was - I'll reread it less than a year after reading it for the first time! Seriously, though, it was magical. Truly magical."

I must agree with the "truly magical" statement, on several different levels but for me, the most important one being the writing/storytelling. This was a rare book where not only did the imagery provide a visual backdrop, but it somehow provided a feel, at times haunting, at times exciting and always, magical.

As I recently mentioned to all of you, I personally don't like the writing device that takes the reader back and forth to and from different periods in time, Morgenstern does that in this book but at least the time periods are relatively close together - which for me, made it easier to follow and more tolerable. I don't know that the general public has nearly as hard a time as I do with this technique but for me, it takes a little bit away from the overall reading experience. That said, the things that were really great about this book were really great. I don't think it's a stretch to call it a period piece but it didn't feel dated, I felt pulled right in and a part of it all.

I can't say the story itself was flawless, but I guess if you pick carefully enough, you can find flaws in anything. The good news here, they don't affect how I feel about this book. If you love to read and have your imagination challenged while still providing s story that makes sense, and has you feeling something, I highly recommend this; I still have chills from some of this!

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