Print List Price:	$19.00
Kindle Price:	$13.99 Save $5.01 (26%)
Sold by:	Random House LLC Price set by seller.

Promotions apply when you purchase

Add an

audiobook with Audible narration for $8.99

Audiobook Price: $17.72

Save: $8.73 (49%)

Read with our free app

You've subscribed to ! We will preorder your items within 24 hours of when they become available. When new books are released, we'll charge your default payment method for the lowest price available during the pre-order period.

Update your device or payment method, cancel individual pre-orders or your subscription at
Your Memberships & Subscriptions

There was an error. We were unable to process your subscription due to an error. Please refresh and try again.

Follow the author

Erin Morgenstern

+ Follow

More books from this author

My Favourite Books

Image Unavailable

Image not available for
Color:

To view this video download Flash Player

2 VIDEOS

The Night Circus: A Novel Kindle Edition

by Erin Morgenstern (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.4 46,769 ratings

Editors' pick Best Literature & Fiction

See all formats and editions

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Two starcrossed magicians engage in a deadly game of cunning in the spellbinding novel that captured the world's imagination. • "Part love story, part fable ... defies both genres and expectations." —The Boston Globe

The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night.

But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway: a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them both, this is a game in which only one can be left standing. Despite the high stakes, Celia and Marco soon tumble headfirst into love, setting off a domino effect of dangerous consequences, and leaving the lives of everyone, from the performers to the patrons, hanging in the balance.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Q&A with Author Erin Morgenstern

Q. This is a lovely and unique story. Why a circus? How did this story first come to you—through a character, a plotline, an emotion?

A. The story came as a location created out of desperation. I was working on a different story altogether, one that was becoming progressively more and more boring because nothing was happening. I needed something exciting to happen and I couldn't figure out how to do it with the locations I had so I sent the characters to the circus. That circus was immediately much more interesting and eventually I abandoned that other story and its characters entirely and focused on the circus instead. What eventually became The Night Circus started from exploring that spontaneously-created location, figuring out who created it and who performed in it and what its story was.

Q. What was your inspiration for some of the amazing acts in this circus?

A. Some of them were traditional circus acts or attractions made a bit more unique, like the acrobats performing directly overhead or the carousel that doesn't simply go in circles. The Cloud Maze is a play on a climbing maze I hazily recall from childhood visits to the Boston Children's Museum. Other tents were created based on color, or lack thereof. I had a lot of dark tents and wanted something lighter and white, the Ice Garden developed from that relatively simple starting point.

Q. Do you have a favorite character?

A. It's impossible to pick a true favorite, though Poppet & Widget are very dear to my heart as they're the first of the characters to turn up in my imagination. They're also just plain fun, both individually and as a pair.

Q. What was the most challenging aspect of developing this story?

A. It didn't have a plot for a very long time. Really, my biggest challenge was finding the actual story within all the atmosphere. I had the place and the characters and the feel of the book long before it had a proper story structure to tie everything together. The novel went through a great many revisions before it figured out what it wanted to be, I tried things that didn't work and then things that sort of worked and replaced old ideas with new ones until I got it right.

Q. Is there an emotion that you had to spend a lot of time with that made you uncomfortable?

A. I'm an emotional sort of person in general and I have a vivid imagination, so I feel the whole spectrum of emotion strongly when I write. It's something I'm used to, though, so nothing in particular made me uncomfortable. There is a lot of frustration felt by various characters, which is not the nicest emotion to be spending a lot of time with, but it helps to drive characters to actions which bring different emotions along.

Q. Tell me about your writing life. Do you have any rituals?

A. I binge write. I think it's because I started seriously writing by participating in National Novel Writing Month, an online-based challenge to write 50,000 words in 30 days. I don't have as tight a time limit anymore but I still write in long marathon sessions and then I won't write for a while, I'm not a write-every-day writer. I go back and forth between input phases where I'm reading a lot or trying to get out and explore the world a bit and soak up inspirations and then I'll get back into output mode and write and write and write.

I don't have any particular rituals, I sometimes like to write in longhand when I'm searching for ideas but I do the vast majority by typing, I can't always keep up with my thoughts longhand. I'm not a coffeeshop writer because I feel obliged to order more coffee and then I end up over-caffeinated.

Q. What's the one true thing you learned from your characters in this novel?

A. I think it's something that I knew already but explored more with these characters, that nothing is as simple as black or white, good or evil. There are all those shades of grey and everyone acts from a place that they see as right and true. (Though they are allowed to change their minds.)

Review

“Magical. Enchanting. Spellbinding. Mesmerizing.” —Associated Press

“Erin Morgenstern has created the circus I have always longed for and she has populated it with dueling love-struck magicians, precocious kittens, hyper-elegant displays of beauty and complicated clocks. This is a marvelous book.” —Audrey Niffenegger, author of The Time Traveler’s Wife

“Get ready to be won over. . . . Part love story, part fable, and a knockout debut. . . . So sparklingly alive, you’ll swear the pages are breathing in your hands. . . . The Night Circus defies both genres and expectations.” —The Boston Globe

“A riveting debut. The Night Circus pulls you into a world as dark as it is dazzling, fully-realized but still something out of a dream. You will not want to leave it.” —Téa Obreht, author of The Tiger’s Wife

“The Night Circus is the real deal, the kind of novel that will appeal to romantics, history buff, circus aficionados, mystery fans, and lovers of a good story. . . . Steeped in circus lore, filled with evocative scenes of magic and illusion, enriched by characters as varied as the clockmaker who crafted the circus’s iconic timepiece . . . The Night Circus is worth staying up for.” —Bookreporter

“One of the best books I have ever read.” —Brunonia Barry, author of The Lace Reader

“[A] few pages in . . . and you know you are in the presence of an extraordinary storyteller.” —The Daily Beast

“Echoing the immense pleasure of Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, The Night Circus presents a sprightly version of 19th-century English magic. . . . A love story for adults that feels luxuriously romantic.” —The Washington Post

“Dark and extravagantly imagined.” —People

“Pure pleasure. . . . Erin Morgenstern is a gifted, classic storyteller, a tale-teller, a spinner of the charmed and mesmerizing—I had many other things I was supposed to be doing, but the book kept drawing me back in and I tore through it. You can be certain this riveting debut will create a group of rêveurs all its own.” —Aimee Bender, author of The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake

“[Morgenstern] employs her supple prose to conjure up a series of wonders: A maze made of clouds, a ship of books floating on a sea of ink, a tent that seems to contain a vast desert.” —Salon

“Reading this novel is like having a marvelous dream, in which you are asleep enough to believe everything that is happening, but awake enough to relish the experience and understand that it is magical.” —Newsday

About the Author

ERIN MORGENSTERN is the author of The Night Circus, a number-one national best seller that has been sold around the world and translated into thirty-seven languages. She has a degree in theater from Smith College and lives in Massachusetts.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

ANTICIPATION

The circus arrives without warning.

No announcements precede it, no paper notices on downtown posts and billboards, no mentions or advertisements in local newspapers. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not.

The towering tents are striped in white and black, no golds and crimsons to be seen. No color at all, save for the neighboring trees and the grass of the surrounding fields. Black-and-white stripes on grey sky; countless tents of varying shapes and sizes, with an elaborate wrought-iron fence encasing them in a colorless world. Even what little ground is visible from outside is black or white, painted or powdered, or treated with some other circus trick.

But it is not open for business. Not just yet.

Within hours everyone in town has heard about it. By afternoon the news has spread several towns over. Word of mouth is a more effective method of advertisement than typeset words and exclamation points on paper pamphlets or posters. It is impressive and unusual news, the sudden appearance of a mysterious circus. People marvel at the staggering height of the tallest tents. They stare at the clock that sits just inside the gates that no one can properly describe.

And the black sign painted in white letters that hangs upon the gates, the one that reads:

Opens at Nightfall
Closes at Dawn

"What kind of circus is only open at night?" people ask. No one has a proper answer, yet as dusk approaches there is a substantial crowd of spectators gathering outside the gates.

You are amongst them, of course. Your curiosity got the better of you, as curiosity is wont to do. You stand in the fading light, the scarf around your neck pulled up against the chilly evening breeze, waiting to see for yourself exactly what kind of circus only opens once the sun sets.

The ticket booth clearly visible behind the gates is closed and barred. The tents are still, save for when they ripple ever so slightly in the wind. The only movement within the circus is the clock that ticks by the passing minutes, if such a wonder of sculpture can even be called a clock.

The circus looks abandoned and empty. But you think perhaps you can smell caramel wafting through the evening breeze, beneath the crisp scent of the autumn leaves. A subtle sweetness at the edges of the cold.

The sun disappears completely beyond the horizon, and the remaining luminosity shifts from dusk to twilight. The people around you are growing restless from waiting, a sea of shuffling feet, murmuring about abandoning the endeavor in search of someplace warmer to pass the evening. You yourself are debating departing when it happens.

First, there is a popping sound. It is barely audible over the wind and conversation. A soft noise like a kettle about to boil for tea. Then comes the light.

All over the tents, small lights begin to flicker, as though the entirety of the circus is covered in particularly bright fireflies. The waiting crowd quiets as it watches this display of illumination. Someone near you gasps. A small child claps his hands with glee at the sight.

When the tents are all aglow, sparkling against the night sky, the sign appears.

Stretched across the top of the gates, hidden in curls of iron, more firefly-like lights flicker to life. They pop as they brighten, some accompanied by a shower of glowing white sparks and a bit of smoke. The people nearest to the gates take a few steps back.

At first, it is only a random pattern of lights. But as more of them ignite, it becomes clear that they are aligned in scripted letters. First a C is distinguishable, followed by more letters. A q, oddly, and several e's. When the final bulb pops alight, and the smoke and sparks dissipate, it is finally legible, this elaborate incandescent sign. Leaning to your left to gain a better view, you can see that it reads:

Le Cirque des Rêves

Some in the crowd smile knowingly, while others frown and look questioningly at their neighbors. A child near you tugs on her mother's sleeve, begging to know what it says.

"The Circus of Dreams," comes the reply. The girl smiles delightedly.

Then the iron gates shudder and unlock, seemingly by their own volition. They swing outward, inviting the crowd inside.

Now the circus is open.

Now you may enter.

PART I:
Primordium

"The Whole of Le Cirque des Rêves is formed by a series of circles. Perhaps it is a tribute to the origin of the word 'circus,' deriving from the Greek kirkos meaning circle, or ring. There are many such nods to the phenomenon of the circus in a historical sense, though it is hardly a traditional circus. Rather than a single tent with rings enclosed within, this circus contains clusters of tents like pyramids, some large and others quite small. They are set within circular paths, contained within a circular fence. Looping and continuous."
--Friedrick Thiessen, 1892

"A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moon-light, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world."
--Oscar Wilde, 1888

UNEXPECTED POST
New York, February 1873

The man billed as Prospero the Enchanter receives a fair amount of correspondence via the theater office, but this is the first envelope addressed to him that contains a suicide note, and it is also the first to arrive carefully pinned to the coat of a five-year-old girl.

The lawyer who escorts her to the theater refuses to explain despite the manager's protestations, abandoning her as quickly as he can with no more than a shrug and the tip of a hat.

The theater manager does not need to read the envelope to know who the girl is for. The bright eyes peering out from under a cloud of unruly brown curls are smaller, wider versions of the magician's own.

He takes her by the hand, her small fingers hanging limp within his. She refuses to remove her coat despite the warmth of the theater, giving only an adamant shake of her head when he asks her why.

The manager takes the girl to his office, not knowing what else to do with her. She sits quietly on an uncomfortable chair beneath a line of framed posters advertising past productions, surrounded by boxes of tickets and receipts. The manager brings her a cup of tea with an extra lump of sugar, but it remains on the desk, untouched, and grows cold.

The girl does not move, does not fidget in her seat. She stays perfectly still with her hands folded in her lap. Her gaze is fixed downward, focused on her boots that do not quite touch the floor. There is a small scuff on one toe, but the laces are knotted in perfect bows.

The sealed envelope hangs from the second topmost button of her coat, until Prospero arrives.

She hears him before the door opens, his footsteps heavy and echoing in the hall, unlike the measured pace of the manager who has come and gone several times, quiet as a cat.

"There is also a… package for you, sir," the manager says as he opens the door, ushering the magician into the cramped office before slipping off to attend to other theater matters, having no desire to witness what might become of this encounter.

The magician scans the office, a stack of letters in one hand, a black velvet cape lined with shockingly white silk cascading behind him, expecting a paper-wrapped box or crate. Only when the girl looks up at him with his own eyes does he realize what the theater manager was referring to.

Prospero the Enchanter's immediate reaction upon meeting his daughter is a simple declaration of: "Well, fuck."

The girl returns her attention to her boots.

The magician closes the door behind him, dropping the stack of letters on the desk next to the teacup as he looks at the girl.

He rips the envelope from her coat, leaving the pin clinging steadfastly to its button.

While the writing on the front bears his stage name and the theater address, the letter inside greets him with his given name, Hector Bowen.

He skims over the contents, any emotional impact desired by the author failing miserably and finally. He pauses at the only fact he deems relevant: that this girl now left in his custody is, obviously, his own daughter and that her name is Celia.

"She should have named you Miranda," the man called Prospero the Enchanter says to the girl with a chuckle. "I suppose she was not clever enough to think of it."

The girl looks up at him again. Dark eyes narrow beneath her curls.

The teacup on the desk begins to shake. Ripples disrupt the calm surface as cracks tremble across the glaze, and then it collapses in shards of flowered porcelain. Cold tea pools in the saucer and drips onto the floor, leaving sticky trails along the polished wood.

The magician's smile vanishes. He glances back at the desk with a frown, and the spilled tea begins seeping back up from the floor. The cracked and broken pieces stand and re-form themselves around the liquid until the cup sits complete once more, soft swirls of steam rising into the air.

The girl stares at the teacup, her eyes wide.

Hector Bowen takes his daughter's face in his gloved hand, scrutinizing her expression for a moment before releasing her, his fingers leaving long red marks across her cheeks.

"You might be interesting," he says.

The girl does not reply.

He makes several attempts to rename her in the following weeks, but she refuses to respond to anything but Celia.

* * * * *

Several months later, once he decides she is ready, the magician writes a letter of his own. He includes no address, but it reaches its destination across the ocean nonetheless.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B004J4WKTW
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Anchor (September 13, 2011)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ September 13, 2011
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 3850 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 401 pages
Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 0385534639

Best Sellers Rank: #14,366 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #36 in Metaphysical & Visionary Fiction (Books)
- #55 in Magic Romance eBooks
- #62 in Historical Fantasy (Kindle Store)

Customer Reviews:
4.4 46,769 ratings

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Upload your video

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

Erin Morgenstern

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

ERIN MORGENSTERN is the author of The Night Circus, a number-one national best seller that has been sold around the world and translated into thirty-seven languages. She has a degree in theater from Smith College and lives in Massachusetts.

twitter & instagram: @erinmorgenstern

http://erinmorgenstern.com

http://www.facebook.com/erinmorgensternbooks

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5

46,769 global ratings

How customer reviews and ratings work

Reviews with images

See all photos

Sort reviews by

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

JTF

Fabulous novel; Morgenstern is a brilliant writer.

Reviewed in the United States on April 10, 2013

Verified Purchase

Ms. Morgenstern has created that sublimely rare gem of great narrative, compelling characters, and a superb setting using finely crafted writing; all of this accomplished in her debut novel. As I have noted elsewhere, there are a number of authors who are successful; they provide a good read and keep us connected to their novels that do one or two of these things well. They might provide good narrative and a compelling world of Stephanie Meyer's Twilight series. Her characters are fine but the writing is just adequate. She doesn't carefully craft her sentences. Many people look down their nose at Ms. Meyers, but there are many, possibly most writers who are good at some of these aspects of storytelling that are still worthwhile to read. I've read the entire Twilight series as well as The Host. I'm glad I did. She is successful for a reason, but she doesn't execute on every one of these elements of writing.

Morgenstern is one of those very rare authors who do it all. Each sentence, description and phrase is a marvel. She almost takes the care of a poet, but over many pages. We become fully immersed in her characters, her world and her story. We do so in the "air" of her exquisite writing. She is a delight to read. I will pre-order anything she cares to write. As she's noted in her blog, she won't be cranking out a book ever year; I'm absolutely good with that. Her writing is worth the wait (said now in the early cycle of waiting for her next piece).

The Night Circus contains a number of threaded stories that weave together into a beautiful, whole cloth. The book would have been great just getting to the circus or just with the character studies of the principles and the unfolding of their relationships. It would be a great novel simply living within the magical elements or immersed in the parties at la maison Lèfevre. Not only does it have all of these elements but weaves them together in a beautiful dance that provides a coherent overall show. Of course, don't take my stilted words for it but let's see a marvelous example:

"The Cloud Maze
An Excursion in Dimension
A Climb Though the Firmament
There Is No Beginning There Is No End
Enter Where You Please
Leave When You Wish
Have No Fear of Falling

Inside, the tent is dark-walled with an immense, iridescent white structure in the center. Bailey can think of nothing else to call it. It takes up the entirety of the tent save for a raised path along the perimeter, a winding loop that begins at the tent entrance and circles around. The floor beyond the path is covered with white spheres, thousands of them piled like soap bubbles. The tower itself is a series of platforms swooping in odd, diaphanous shapes, quite similar to clouds. They are layered, like a cake. From what Bailey can see, the space between layers varies from room enough to walk straight through to barely enough to crawl. Here and there parts of it almost float away from the central tower, drifting off into space."[i]

I will not go into the storyline (see Amazon's synopsis here) in fear of given away the plot. I simply will conclude with unfettered praise for Ms. Morgenstern's writing; she is absolutely fabulous.

A couple of side notes: I jumped between the Kindle edition of this and the audible (despite the fact that Whispersync for Voice isn't enable on the Windows Phone 8 app - I'm looking @ you Audible development team). Jim Dale (of Harry Potter fame) does a wonderful job reading The Night Circus. If you like listening to audiobooks, I highly recommend his work.

The second note I wanted to make is that reading this work gives me hope for a more civil, connected public discourse in an increasingly divisive America. I suspect that Ms. Morgenstern and I have starkly different views of social, political and theological issues. I don't know this, but a New Englander that graduated from Smith would not share the same worldview with a conservative Christian living in the South. Despite this, Ms. Morgenstern draws me completely into her world; I absolutely connect with her in the portion of her thought life she makes available in her work. This encourage me. If we can connect, surely we Americans can connect with one another better, have a more civil discourse in those areas where we diverge and listen to one another more often. I don't anticipate that we would change each other's views; I do believe we can respect each other without doing so. There seems to be this thought the tolerance for one another depends or either not believing there is an objective truth ("what you believe is true for you but not me") or we should not be strong in our convictions (if you are, you're a fundamentalist). I would rather have us acknowledge our stark differences and firmly, but humbly, hold our beliefs and yet be civil to one another. The connection engendered by Ms. Morgenstern and her work gives me hope that this is possible.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[i] The Night Circus, Erin Morgenstern, Kindle Edition, Location 3151

9 people found this helpful

Helpful

Evie

A Lovely Debut, But Needed More Tension

Reviewed in the United States on September 13, 2011

Verified Purchase

I put down Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix to read The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern right away. Having both books in the forefront of my mind, the only comparison I can draw is they are both written in third person, and there's magic. Oh, and a train. So if you think you're getting a dose of dueling wizards battling it out to the death in the name of good against evil with bolts of electricity flaring from wands, you'll be sorely disappointed. The press is drawing the comparison for publicity and money. Let's all just admit that there will never be another Harry Potter, and move on to embrace the new.

That's you, publishers and media!

Erin Morgentstern's The Night Circus is not the traditional circus you know. It's a beautifully imagined, intricately detailed, magical place that enchants all who enter. The circus is as much a character in the story--if not more so--than all the other characters combined. I never use to understand people saying they wished they could live in a certain favorite fictional world. Until now. I would SO run away with this circus, easily donning black with a splash of scarlet to become a reveur, giving up my predictable life to follow the Night Circus to all its exotic and romantic locales: Constantinople, London, Munich, Sydney, Paris, to name a few. Morgenstern was sure to involve all the senses when describing the circus. It's such a disappointment that it isn't real.

Two rival magicians--Prospero the Enchanter and a man known only as Mr A. H-- decide to throw down and have a contest to see who can produce the better student of magic. Chosen as children, Celia and Marco are kept separated, training their whole lives for the competition, but the rules are never explained.

One sorta major detail left out in their education is only one can survive. (The Night Circus is as similar to The Hunger Games as fried chicken is to beignets. Just saying.) The circus venue is announced and the competition begins, although no one knows anything about it save student and mentor.

There are cloud mazes in the air, a wishing tree, forests of sonnets. Practically everything is controlled by magic, but the beauty of it is it's real magic disguised to look believable. A person's grip on reality can be a fragile thing; it's best to leave others alone in their safe perceptions. Years pass as Celia and Marco keep adding more and more magical entertainment, learning to respect each other long before they meet. Once they do meet, their romance is slow to grow as both are aware it would complicate things if they collaborated on projects.

I enjoyed how Morgenstern occasionally used the very rare second person POV, putting readers directly into the story, experiencing the circus for themselves:

"You feel the warmth of breath on your neck, but when you turn no one is there."

Harry Potter feels like a wild, epic adventure whereas, to me, The Night Circus and its cast of characters is a controlled execution, proper and refined, just like the Victorians are often portrayed, and this absolutely fits the story.

"The silence that falls between them is a comfortable one. He longs to reach over and touch her, but he resists, fearful of destroying the delicate camaraderie they are building."

Erin Morgenstern has a wild imagination, and I love her attention to detail. An example of her creativity:

"This woman's skin is shimmering and pale, her long black hair is tied with dozens of silver ribbons that fall over her shoulders. Her gown is white, covered in what to Bailey looks like looping black embroidery, but as he walks closer he sees that the black marks are actually words written across the fabric. When he is near enough to read parts of the gown, he realizes that they are love letters, inscribed in handwritten text. Words of desire and longing wrapping around her waist, flowing down the train of her gown as it spills over the platform.
The statue herself is still, but her hand is held out, and only then does Bailey notice the young woman with a red scarf standing in front of her, offering the love letter-clad statue a single crimson rose.
The movement is so subtle that it is almost undetectable, but slowly, very, very slowly, the statue reaches to accept the rose. Her fingers open, and the young woman with the rose waits patiently as the statue gradually closes her hand around the stem, releasing it only when it is secure.
And then the young woman bows to the statue, and walks off into the crowd."

Although I enjoyed Celia and Marco, my favorite character was Bailey (besides the circus itself). He was the only one that had any real palpable tension. I kept waiting for something to happen between Celia and Marco, but even they confess that the circus competition feels like an exhibition. Curious things happen, but rather than being hooked, I was merely nibbling at the bait. It is not until more than halfway through the book that Celia and Marco realize the consequences of losing, and this ratchets up the emotion, the tension, the suspense. The reader becomes invested.

Having said that, Erin Morgenstern has still written an exquisite novel that will be treasured as creative genius. Imagining her actually making tiny models of the circus and other things--she's an artist after all--only contributes to the magic.

This from USA Today:

"With a first printing of 150,000 copies, and rights sold in 30 countries, expectations are high for this first-time novel. Morgenstern says she didn't plan the book as a series, but enough questions dangle at the end to set the stage for a sequel."

Through a short tweet session with Erin Morgenstern, she said she's not sure what they mean by "dangling questions" and said perhaps publishers are interested in tangential tales.

This book is lovely as a stand alone. I'm not doubting that Morgenstern can pull off lavish tangential tales, but this book resonates as it is, and sometimes it's best just to say, "That was a damn good story."

"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."

10 people found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Translate all reviews to English

Eveline Burciaga

IT'S SO GOOD

Reviewed in Mexico on September 5, 2023

Verified Purchase

I love that there's no one main character, the circus on itself is a character, while you follow people involved with/in it, you get to know many characters and their perspective.

It's written in a way that you can imagine everything and feel you're part of the world. The love story between the "main" characters is worthy of Aphrodite, 100%, is that love that's so strong it hurts, that's hard to keep because there are so many obstacles in the way but it's not just a love story, you still have this magic that all fantasy novels have and it's wonderful.

You might get thrown off by the way you jump in the time line but it all makes sense at the end.

I really enjoyed it, I picked it up after Ashley Johnson mentioned it in 4-Sided Dive and after knowing it was part of the inspiration for Candela Obscura... Let me tell you, I will never doubt Ashley's taste in books.

Thais

Pocket Edition

Reviewed in Brazil on June 22, 2022

Verified Purchase

O livro chegou bem rápido e sem defeitos, vale lembrar que é uma edição de bolso então ele é em tamanho pequeno.

One person found this helpful

Translate review to English

TC

Très beau livre

Reviewed in France on April 23, 2024

Verified Purchase

Je recommande autant pour l'histoire que pour l'objet

Translate review to English

Navin m

A Magical Masterpiece: "The Night Circus"

Reviewed in India on July 15, 2023

Verified Purchase

The Magic Book Review ‘‘The Circus of the Night‘‘ by Erin Morgenstern is a captivating and captivating novel that takes the reader on an enchanting journey into the world of wonder, mystery, and love.
Morgenstern weaves a captivating tale full of breathtaking imagery, intricate narratives and a touch of magic that completely enchants the reader.
The competition is set in the Night Circus, a mysterious and extraordinary place that only opens at night.
As the circus travels from city to city, Celia and Marco must prove their magical abilities through enchanting and breathtaking performances, but soon they find themselves in the fabric of the circus.
From the aromas of caramel and popcorn in the air to the exquisite black and white striped tents that house wonders, every element of the circus comes alive across the pages, captivating the senses and inspiring the imagination.
The characters in The Night Circus are intricately designed and highly engaging.
The turbulent love between Celia and Marco is beautifully portrayed, their passion and longing jumping off the page.
Morgenstern also features a variety of supporting characters, including an enigmatic Grandmaster, an eccentric clockmaker, and a captivating acrobat, each with their own intriguing story that fits seamlessly into the overall narrative.
Morgenstern deftly leaps back and forth through time, slowly revealing the intricate layers of the story, building suspense and encouraging readers to eagerly turn the pages.
Night Circus is more than just a tale of magic and love.
In summary, Night Circus is a masterpiece of storytelling that transports the reader into a world of magic and wonder.
Erin Morgenstern's poetic prose, intricate plot, and memorable characters combine to create an engaging read that lingers long after you turn the last page.
If you're looking for a novel that will spark your imagination and fill your mind with magic, The Night Circus is a must-read.

Rating: ★★★★★ (5/5)

3 people found this helpful

Hanna Wall

I loved it

Reviewed in Sweden on September 14, 2022

Verified Purchase

A beautiful story with lovely writing and an intricate and unique plot that takes you on a journey. Would highly recommend.

Buy for others

Buying and sending eBooks to others

Follow the author

Image Unavailable

The Night Circus: A Novel Kindle Edition

Customers who bought this item also bought

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Q&A with Author Erin Morgenstern

Review

About the Author

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Product details

Videos for this product

No novel has enchanted me as this one did. 10/10

Videos for this product

The Night Circus

Videos for this product

A Mysterious Shows Up Out of Nowhere! - Beautifully written

About the author

Erin Morgenstern

Customer reviews

Reviews with images

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Top reviews from other countries