Book Bearings
The Night Circus
- 512 pages · about 9 hours
- First published 2011
- 37 editions
Bookshop.org links may earn us a commission. It supports independent bookstores and costs you nothing.
1 About this book
Le Cirque des Rêves arrives without warning, opens only at night and is gone by dawn. Its black-and-white tents hold illusionists, fortune-tellers and attractions that seem to defy the laws of nature. Behind it lies a contest: two young magicians, Celia and Marco, have each been trained since childhood by rival teachers for a duel of skill in which the circus is the arena, and neither fully understands the rules. As the contest goes on, the two fall in love. Erin Morgenstern's novel, published in 2011, is told out of order and from many points of view.
- Magicians
- Magic
- Competition (Psychology)
- Romance, fantasy
- Fantasy, historical
- Circus
- Games
- Psychokinesis
2 What to expect
A romantic fantasy set in a mysterious traveling circus that opens only at night, the stage for a long contest between two young magicians who fall in love. The plot is slight and slow, and the book's strength is its atmosphere, with tents, illusions and performers described at length. It reads like a fairy tale, told out of order from many viewpoints, and its mood is dreamy and ornate.
Good for readers who want: atmospheric fantasy, a magical circus, and a dreamlike romance.
3 About Erin Morgenstern
Bio adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
4 Similar books
- Stardust by Neil Gaiman
- A Darker Shade of Magic by V. E. Schwab
- The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
- Circe by Madeline Miller
- The Magician's Nephew by C. S. Lewis
- The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V. E. Schwab
- Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas
- Babel by R. F. Kuang