The Night Circus - Erin Morgenstern

See, the thing is that I finished The Night Circus few days ago. And have been trying to think of what to say about it since. It’s a strange new habit I seem to have created; to start trying to put together an opinion half way through a book.

The problem here is that at the end, my opinion is pretty much… meh. I didn’t hate it. I don’t think it’s a bad book. It actually has a lot of the elements I usually dig; magical realism, a bit of suspense, a smidge of a love story, a look into a fantastical world. But they didn’t really come together for me. I wasn’t blown away. I could put this book down. And in fact did for a few days in the middle there with no guilt at all. Anyone that knows me and my obsessive reading habits knows what a big deal that is.

The Circus itself is basically a world of dreams. A world where anything is possible. With gardens of ice, labyrinths made of clouds, memory invoking smells and illusionists who don’t rely on tricks. The story though, left me wanting more. I wanted more magic. I wanted to be reminded of the magic in the mundane and every day. I wanted to be left thinking about how we each have the ability to live out our dreams. I wanted to love these people and their fantastical abilities. I wanted to be swept up into a world of illusion and color and love and fantasy.

Instead I felt more like I had just spent the evening at a boring wedding. You know the kind I mean. You don’t know many people so the conversation is tepid. The food is decent if you like wedding chicken and cold rice pilaf. The decorations look like handmade low budget Martha – not ugly, but not Pintrest “Repin” worthy either. The DJ plays enough music to get the crowd dancing but nobody breaks a sweat. You take a few pictures, but nothing worth framing. The next day when someone ask you how it was you say, “It was ok” and nothing more.

I wanted to rave about this book. But really, there’s not much else to say. The Night Circus is a perfectly fine book. But, that’s sort of like saying a homely girl has a good personality. And, really, who raves about her?