Willow's Reviews > The Night Circus

The Night Circus was an obsession of the author, I can tell. I can tell because I can clearly see the passion and love for all things gothic and magic in her vivid descriptions of the circus. This book is a dream of ex-goth children like me who still fancy the dark elegance of black and white striped stockings and corset ribbons.

I flew through this book and would certainly recommend it to anyone. The story is romantic, the characters are fun, and the setting is beautiful.

That being said, I can also see that this was the author's first novel. It was an ambitious one with many characters to keep track of and a plot that needed to kept moving for a lofty 500+ pages. In the acknowledgements, Morgenstern writes, "...my agent, Richard Pine, who saw potential in something that was once truly a god-awful mess...". As a reader, I can still see the mess. It isn't messy anymore, but the novel reads like a house that has been cleaned for a special guest but is usually cluttered and messy. It reads like someone tried to reorganize their files after moving but they still need to go through it one more time.

This is not to say the book was bad. It was so much fun...but I see that she is still developing as a writer. I will be so excited to read what Morgenstern comes up with next, because I have a feeling it is going to be fantastic.