Erin Morgenstern

Waging a fierce competition for which they have trained since childhood, circus magicians Celia and Marco unexpectedly fall in love with each other and share a fantastical romance that manifests in fateful ways. A first novel. 175,000 first printing.

A Novel

The Night Circus

Cassidy Nolan

You think, as you walk away from Le Cirque des Rêves and into the creeping dawn, that you felt more awake within the confines of the circus.

You are no longer quite certain which side of the fence is a dream.

Widget takes a sip of his wine and puts his glass down on the table. He sits back in his chair and steadily returns the stare aimed at him. Taking his time as though he has all of it in the world, in the universe, from the days when tales meant more than they do now, but perhaps less than they will someday, he draws a breath that releases the tangled knot of words in his heart, and they fall from his lips effortlessly.

“The circus arrives without warning.”

 the circus. You can hear his footsteps in the Labyrinth. You can smell her perfume in the Cloud Maze. It’s marvelous.”

Marco stands beneath the Wishing Tree, watching as the candles come alight along the branches.

A moment later, Celia reappears at his side.

“Did it work?” he asks. “Please, tell me it worked.”

In response, she kisses him the way he once kissed her in the middle of a crowded ballroom.

As though they are the only two people in the world.

“I made a wish on this tree years ago,” Marco says, as though he knows what Bailey is thinking.

“What did you wish for?” Bailey asks, hoping it is not too forward a question, but Marco does not answer.

Instead, he folds the glowing ring into his palm, and then he offers his hand to Bailey.

Bailey hesitantly reaches out, expecting his fingers to pass through Marco’s hand as easily as they did before.

But instead they stop, and Marco’s hand in his is almost solid. Marco leans forward and whispers into Bailey’s ear.

He thinks of a litany of questions but none of them truly matter.

His choice was made when he was 10 years old, under a different tree, bound up in acorns and dares and a single white glove.

Marco only stares at her as she approaches, thinking her a dream.

“I thought I’d lost you,” she says when she reaches him, her voice a tremulous whisper.

She seems to be as substantial as he is, not transparent like the garden. She appears rich and vibrant against a background of white, a bright flush in her cheeks, her dark eyes brimming with tears.

He brings his hand to her face, petrified that his fingers will pass through her as easily as they had with the rose.

The relief when she is solid and warm and alive to his touch is overwhelming.

He pulls her into his arms, his tears falling into her hair.

“I love you,” he says when he finds his voice.

Celia holds her hands to her lips, not quite believing her eyes. The sight of Marco standing in the Ice Garden is one she has imagined so many times before while alone in the icy expanse of flowers, it does not seem real despite the darkness of his suit against a bower of pale roses.

Then he turns and looks at her. As soon as she sees his eyes all her doubts vanish.

For a moment, he looks so young that she can see the boy he was, years before she met him, when they were already connected but still so far apart.

There are so many things she wants to say, things she feared she would never have the opportunity to tell him again. Only one seems truly important.

The words echo throughout the tent, softly rustling the frozen leaves.

When Tsukiko speaks, she addresses them both.

“I have been surrounded by love letters you two have built each other for years, encased in tents. It reminds me of what it was to be with her. It is wonderful and it is terrible. I am not yet prepared to give it up, but you are letting it fade.”

Marco moves to close the distance between them, kissing away her tears before catching her lips with his own.

As he kisses her, the bonfire glows brighter. The acrobats catch the light perfectly as they spin. The entire circus sparkles, dazzling every patron.

The room around them changes again, expanding into an empty ballroom. Moonlight filters in through the windows.

“This is when I knew,” Celia says, her voice a whisper echoing softly through the room.

“This is when I knew I loved you,” he says.

They stand on opposite sides of a small, round room painted a rich blue and dotted with stars, on a ledge around a pool of jewel-toned cushions. A shimmering chandelier hangs above them.

“I was enchanted from the moment I first saw you,” Marco says, “but this is when I knew.”

 Truly, Celia, do you not understand that?”

Celia says nothing, but tears begin to roll down her cheeks. She does not wipe them away.

“How can you think that I don’t love you?” Marco asks. “Celia, you are everything to me. I don’t know who is trying to convince you otherwise, but you must believe me, please.”

“Celia, wait,” Marco says, standing but not moving closer to her. “You are breaking my heart. You told me once that I reminded you of your father. That you never wanted to suffer the way your mother did for him, but you are doing exactly that to me. You keep leaving me. You leave me longing for you again and again when I would give anything for you to stay, and it’s killing me.”

“I am trying to make the circus independent,” Celia says. “To untie it from the challenge, from us. From me. I needed to learn your system to make it work properly. I cannot let a place that is so important to so many people fade away. Something that is wonder and comfort and mystery all together that they have nowhere else. If you had that, wouldn’t you want to keep it?”

“I have that whenever I’m with you,” Marco says.

“Is something wrong?” Lorena asks as he openly stares around the opulent lobby.

“I feel like one of those girls in fairy tales, the ones who don’t even have shoes and then somehow get to attend a ball at the castle,” Bailey whispers, and she laughs so loudly that several people turn and stare.

Celia does not answer. The phrasing of the question bothers her. Only hours ago, she was certain. Now, sitting in this cave of lightly perfumed silk, what seemed constant and unquestionable feels as delicate as the steam floating over her tea. As fragile as an illusion.

“Before, I had not thought you were in the position to be the one to lose.”

Celia wishes she could freeze time as she listens to the steady beat of Marco’s heart against the ticking of the clock. To stay forever within this moment, curled in his arms, his hands softly stroking her back. To not have to leave.

Trapped in silence, Marco traces apologies and adorations across Celia’s body with his tongue. Mutely expressing all the things he cannot speak aloud.

He finds other ways to tell her, his fingers leaving faint trails of ink in their wake. He savors every sound he elicits from her.

The entire room trembles as they come together.

“I would have written you, myself, if I could put down in words everything I want to say to you. A sea of ink would not be enough.”

“But you built me dreams instead,” Celia says, looking up at him.

And before he can tell her to tell Widget goodbye for him if need be, she leans forward and kisses him, not on the cheek, as she has a handful of times before, but on the lips, and Bailey knows in that moment that he will follow her anywhere.

Marco takes her hand and brings it to his lips, kissing the silver ring that conceals her scar.

Celia traces the line of his jaw with her fingertips. Then she turns, disappearing before he can reach out to pull her back.

“When all of this is over, no matter which one of us wins, I will not let you go so easily. Agreed?”

this is undeniably the most beautiful book I've i've read in my entire life. immediately, i was drawn in, attracted to the gorgeous prose and evocative world-building. celia and marco, their chemistry, the way they're drawn together despite it all. it had me in tears. the way everything ties together, and all characters being equally important to the story was so important. absolutely astonishing.

will

I really wanted to like this book - the writing is magical and I'd love to see the circus manifested into a motion picture - but ultimately I saw no point to it. What was the plot? The MCs were flat and the love at first sight thing didn't sell it for me. 

I'd still try another book of the author's because her writing is absolutely beautiful!

Hill

I really wanted to like this book - the writing is magical and I'd love to see the circus manifested into a motion picture - but ultimately I saw no point to it. What was the plot? The MCs were flat and the love at first sight thing didn't sell it for me. 

I'd still try another book of the author's because her writing is absolutely beautiful!

This book was fine, but it wasn’t for me.

Celia and Marco are chosen by their respective guardians to participate in a challenge. However, neither knows what the challenge is and are constantly told that they don’t need to know all the details. Celia is a performer in the circus, while Marco is more on the management/organisation side, but both add magical tents to the circus.

Celia and Marco were fine as characters, and I liked the scenes with the magic, but it wasn’t really explained.

The circus has a lot of performers, but it’s more of an atmosphere of lots of people than actually seeing them and their personalities. There were occasional perspectives from other people, and while they weren’t awful, since nothing is really explained in this book, it was annoying to read about things that aren’t directly linked, without knowing what the plot actually is.

I went into this book thinking that there was going to be a competition between the magicians at a circus show. Instead, the book spans many years and shows, without there being much of a direct competition/comparison between them. I didn’t like the ambiguity of the challenge (which turns out to be whoever survives the longest) and then I thought that the ending skips a lot of important details, but it fits into the theme of the book. Why and how is Bailey going to keep the circus going? What are Celia and Marco doing? What are Poppet and Widget’s roles?

This book wasn’t for me because it was a lot about the atmosphere, which was written well, but it wasn’t enough for me. I don’t think I’m going to try other books by this author.

This book was fine, but it wasn’t for me.

Celia and Marco are chosen by their respective guardians to participate in a challenge. However, neither knows what the challenge is and are constantly told that they don’t need to know all the details. Celia is a performer in the circus, while Marco is more on the management/organisation side, but both add magical tents to the circus.

Celia and Marco were fine as characters, and I liked the scenes with the magic, but it wasn’t really explained.

The circus has a lot of performers, but it’s more of an atmosphere of lots of people than actually seeing them and their personalities. There were occasional perspectives from other people, and while they weren’t awful, since nothing is really explained in this book, it was annoying to read about things that aren’t directly linked, without knowing what the plot actually is.

I went into this book thinking that there was going to be a competition between the magicians at a circus show. Instead, the book spans many years and shows, without there being much of a direct competition/comparison between them. I didn’t like the ambiguity of the challenge (which turns out to be whoever survives the longest) and then I thought that the ending skips a lot of important details, but it fits into the theme of the book. Why and how is Bailey going to keep the circus going? What are Celia and Marco doing? What are Poppet and Widget’s roles?

This book wasn’t for me because it was a lot about the atmosphere, which was written well, but it wasn’t enough for me. I don’t think I’m going to try other books by this author.

i wanted to love this book i really did, but it ended up just being very okay. the writing was absolutely beautiful, and so easy to read but so little actually happened i found myself feeling dragged through this book. i did love how love was written between celia and marco, i found myself swooning over their relationship but other than that i just felt bored unfortunately 

this was such an adventure im so glad i took my time reading this it was so nice

Everyone said this book was “no plot, just vibes”, and tbh when I read this book that’s all I was expecting but I was shocked when I was hit with an amazing out of this world plot, with amazing world building.

The writing in this book was very lyrical, and romantic. It definitely gave a lot of vibes, it’s very heartbreaking.

It doesn’t feel as if I read the same book that everyone’s calling plotless but this definitely checked off many of the requirements of a perfect book. It definitely made me feel like I was in another world, living in a splendid universe. And I loved it, every second of it. Keep in mind the dates at the start of every chapter, don’t get lost!!🫶

OH MY GOD, THIS BOOK WAS GOOD!!!! I loved how it was so entertaining. The writing style was immaculate. The romance was heart-wrenching and I am so happy it ended on a happy ending. It was what I wanted and more. Literally could not put this down and read it in 2 days. DEFINITELY WILL REREAD THIS IN A FEW YEARS

Anna 

** spoiler alert **
           myslela jsem si, že noční cirkus se zařadí mezi mé oblíbené knížky, ale bohužel jsem na něj neměla náladu, a nebo mi styl erin morgenstern jednoduše nesedí, protože jsem se do čtení nutila a vůbec mě to nebavilo :/. po tři čtvrtiny knihy jsem nechápala, o co vlastně jde, co má být ta hra, která se v knize celou dobu řeší. hodně jsem se ztrácela a všímala si, že čtení nevěnuji pozornost a že čtu, aniž bych věděla o čem. chápu, že kniha neměla být o ději jako spíš o postavách, ale i ty mi přišly takové... prostě nijaké. celia ani marco neměli podle mě skoro vůbec vykreslené charaktery a já o nich ani po strávení s nimi 500 stran nic nevím. vedlejší postavy mi přišly zajímavější a mrzí mě, že se jim nedostalo tolik prostoru (sestry burgessovy, pan barris , A. H.). kniha skákala hodně v čase a já měla problém si zapamatovat, kdy se vlastně všechno odehrávalo, jak dlouho cirkus existuje, kdy se stala ta nebo ona významná událost. když bych se bavila o samotném cirkusu, nemohu říct, že by mě nějak výrazně okouzlil. myslím, že se dal popsat mnohem lépe a přesněji. já se bohužel ztrácela jak v magickém systému, tak třeba i v rozmístění stanů v cirkusu. autorka si vymyslela nějaká pravidla, kterými se postavy drží, nebo kouzla, která mohou používat, ale už nám nevysvětlila, jak fungují. marcův sešit plný inkoustových stromů je v tomto dobrým příkladem.
a samotný boj, který se měl mezi dvěma hlavními postavami odehrát? ten se vůbec neodehrál. nečekejte žádný magický duel plný kouzel a triků. jediné, v čem marco a celia 'soutěžili', bylo, kdo postaví hezčí stan. to není žádná magická soutěž. ke konci knihy zjistili, že vítěz = přeživší soutěže, takže se hned jeden pro druhého chtěli obětovat (protože se do sebe samozřejmě zamilovali). ale oni vůbec nemuseli. hru mohli normálně zastavit, protože jim nijak neubližovala, nikdo je do ní nenutil a oba, celia i marco, by spolu prožili krásný život v cirkusu, kdyby aspoň trochu přemýšleli. 
abych ale nemluvila jen o negativních věcech; autorčin svět je rozhodně zajímavým místem, ráda bych se o něm dozvěděla víc, jak tam fungují kouzla v praxi a kdo to vlastně byli alexander a prospero. konec knihy (rozhovor výlupka s A. H.) byl za mě rozhodně nejzajímavější částí knihy, co se děje i myšlenek týče. zároveň mě bavily pasáže večeří u chandershe, ty byly popsané hezky a opět, zajímala by mě backstory jeho a mnoha dalších vedlejších postav. podle mého názoru se autorka zaměřila na špatné hrdiny a nedala prostor těm, kteří si ho skutečně zaslouží :D.
.
knihu hodnotím jako průměr - 3*/5*

ploral

I've never read anything more beautifully written. The words took me into this new magical world that I couldn't help but love. It is all so intense and magical and beautiful that I simply just want to go back and experience it all over again. I have no words to describe how amazing I felt when I was reading it. The story felt so real. I could see it all in my head and it was beautiful. 

My only issue with the book is that it lacked plot. There was one but it wasn't that good or solid. If you remove the experience you go through while reading the book, you'd probably not be impressed by this book. 

The characters were fine. They weren't spectacular or anything but they were fine. 

A book with a simple plot and not spectacular characters and yet here I am, sitting on my bed, exclaiming that I loved it. I really did. It'll make you fall in love with the night circus. It's so well written. I absolutely adore it and would give anything to be able to read it for the first time again. You need to read it ASAP, if you haven't already.

This was an an agonizing read. Everyone’s tastes are different, so if you love this book and enjoyed it,- I’m happy you did. That’s the beauty of books. However, if you’re on the same wavelength I was while reading it, and finding yourself confused, continuing the read hoping it gets better, allow me to save you the trouble: it doesn’t. 

I feel like the author had an amazing concept, but for a book so focused on the mystical world it exists in, there’s no world to explore. There’s no characters you get to know despite there being an abundance. It was a whole lot of words to say a whole lot of nothing. In the attempt to make a mystical and mysterious atmosphere, it just ends up falling short and not quite accomplishing what I believe the author intended. The only reason I finished it was to meet my goal of 200 books by the end of the year. 

Allow me to again state that I’m sure this book is amazing for others, but it just fell extremely short for me.

I 100% understand why people love this book. However, I did not. I LIKED it, but nothing more. It did have beautiful writing and was a very magical story, but it was soooo slow and soooo description heavy. Also sorta confusing. It just took me forever to get through. 

Jillian Roberts

read this circa 2017, and i still can’t get over the disappointment i felt over this book. i expected this to be ‘more’, but i got ‘less’. i even bought a physical copy after reading the blurb somewhere in tumblr lol. too many fillers, it’s annoying.

still, giving this 2 stars for the magical feels it gave me. may or may not change it to 1 star after i re-read soon.

Chloé

Just beautiful story and gorgeously written. The descriptions I felt like I was at the circus. These characters had so much life to them. CELIA AND MARCO OWN ME.

Such a fun book. It had been on my list for years and years, such a delight to finally read this book.

BC Hark

Gladys Marcos

Megan

I couldn’t finish this book. I’ve never not finished a book before, but I had to put this down. It’s slow and very description heavy. If you like that, you might like this book. It was too slow for me, it felt like the beginning dragged on forever. Maybe I’ll try to read it again in the future, but it just wasn’t for me.

Sarah Sammis

I'm skittish of overly popular books. I'm usually the one who doesn't like the book that everyone else is praising. So I steered clear of The Night Circus by Erin Morgensternuntil I could no longer give in to lure of the beautiful cover art. I opted for the audio version as I often do with longer books because I can listen a little bit at a time without ticking clock of the due date.

The Night Circus opens with a tour. It arrives without warning and is open only at night. It's only colors are black and white. Fans of the circus, some who travel around the world to follow it, dress the part but add a bit of red. Though none of them expect it, they hold the key to the circus's continued existence.

Morgenstern presents the chronology of the Cirque des Rêves out of order. Listening on audio, I had to keep track of the dates mentioned at the start of each chapter. At first I missed a few things but once I noticed that things weren't in order, I paid better attention. As a fan of logic puzzles, I enjoyed trying to piece the story back together.

The heart of the book, though, and the part that will either make it or break it for you, is the competition between two aged magicians through their student proxies, Celia and Marcus. They are bound to each other and the only way to win the game is to kill the other. Caught up in the middle of this battle to the death is the circus itself.

The problem with complex projects is that they take on a life of their own. The Cirque des Rêves is no exception. That the resolution of the novel hinges more on the continuation of the circus over Celia and Marcus's competition and ill fated romance is a bone of contention for many reviewers. I liked it. No, I loved that all that dramatic build up (so common in fantasy) ended up being a few nights of closure for the circus. There was no threat to the world or the universe — just a magical but still petty competition resulting in a personal tragedy.

For me, therefore, the true protagonists of this complex fantasy are Bailey — a boy who doesn't want to inherit the family farm — and the twins born at the start of the circus, Poppet and Widget. It's their story that caused me to make excuses to sit in my car for a few minutes longer.

I have also gotten a copy in tradepaper to re-read the book in print form, just as I did The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente.

chateau

it's actually 4.5, the half point lost in the ending where i specifically neeeedss something more with them, but it's alright i can cope up with that since the plot and the characters -that is beauutifully driven- are covering it!!! 

i loove this book. that's all. i love it. a lot.

Julia

Waging a fierce competition for which they have trained since childhood, circus magicians Celia and Marco unexpectedly fall in love with each other and share a fantastical romance that manifests in fateful ways.

great vibes, but the characters felt very stagnant. some storylines felt rushed or underdeveloped, as they relied on relationships between characters that just didnt feel real, they just kinda…happened? i dooo understand why people like it but not for me

Stas

incredibly fun, i have a predilection w the circus it could never be bad. i love nonlinear storytelling. wanted more overt romance even though that’s antithetical to their whole thing

marie

Rebecca C Wright

Lush prose and wonderful characters. This is an immersive book that takes you into the world of the Night Circus and you never want to leave.

This was a confusing one. I had no idea what was really happening until about the 70-75% mark. I understood the main things but there was a lot of details and the plot was slower building the world of the circus. I had to look up the book after finishing to just get a better idea of the it and what I found was what I understood while reading. It’s difficult to rate it well when it was so heavy world building but the main parts of the plot were easily comprehended but occured very quickly and towards the end of the book because it was at that point it had less interest in it. 

Priscilla Stanfield

Izabela Borges

Has some minor spoilers ahead.

Well… the book is well written I’ll give you that. It's very well-constructed prose and it's very beautiful in that sense. But I’m not sure what I feel and think of character development throughout the book... there are a few interesting characters, but we never see it get past the "this is promising" kind of feeling. I think it had potential, but ended up coming oh so short of it.

I feel the magic is so soft system and so “it’s magic” that it ends up being annoying rather than intriguing. Going for so long with broken snippets scattered through the whole book and not really any explanation (you literally only get something akin to an explanation in the second to last chapter and anything before that is mostly guesswork), is not my cup of tea.

I will concede that part of my dislike is my own fault. I read through the first few chapters without as much as a glance to the dates at the beginning of chapters, and realising way ahead that things were being told from different points in time and not exactly chronologically made me very confused. And continuing from there without going back to check the dates from other stuff ended up maybe toning down my reading experience.

But that's not to say that fucking up the chronology due to attention deficit is what made this book a total drag. The book is slow at best in the beginning, not really that intriguing, and the set-up takes at least half the book before anything gets really catching. 

Marco manages to be more annoying and vomit-inducing for me than even Hector. For someone that is the best student Alexander ever had (and god what a way to show that huh?), dude, he's lacking. And the charisma? Non-existent in my perception.

The enemies-to-lovers romance is a rivals-to-lovers at best, and there was no tension whatsoever there. The biggest anticipation I had of anything happening between the two is that I wanted Celia to find out who her opponent was, and instead of it being a "wow" moment it was just a big turn-off. so it didn't have that much of enemies or rivals, but shocker, it also didn't have much romance. They were so flat and there was no chemistry or tension there that I was just looking forward to one of them dying (preferably Marco because god, what a self-absorbed entitled little prick). The 16-year-olds had more chemistry than the two grown-ass supposed-to-be-enemies adults.

I have so many more things I dislike about that book, but well, if you want someone more eloquent than me go read this review, it's everything I would like to say about this book.

The Night Circus A Novel

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