The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

The thread arrives without warning...

Sorry. I couldn't resist. All things Night Circus. Are you obsessed like I am? Do you wish you could read it over for the first time knowing it won't be the same the second time through now that you know everything?

Talk to me! I'm dying for people to have read it!

... leaves snacks on table to entice people

I've been avoiding tearing into it a second time. For one, because I'm reading St@c3y Sch1ff's Cl30p@tr@ bio and it's so dense I'm having issues with sorting out that incestuous family tree, but for the other, I'm afraid of ruining that feeling of discovery as you read each new bit.

I tore through Night Circus, starting at midnight, but I actually took longer to read it than even the final H@rry P0tt3r because I kept taking breaks, wanting to savor the imagery. I can still close my eyes and SEE the cloud maze, which is amazing; there are few books with world-building done that well.

And vfury, Mac assures me spoilers are expected in here. Although I'm tiptoeing this far out of R&D.

Okay, I'm going to start asking QUESTIONS.

Did anyone else think Isobel was Celia for, like, the LONGEST time, or was that just me?

Manuel Royal said:

So, you folks recommend the book? I noticed it on the B&N website but haven't looked at it.

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Yes. And Evie is an AWer. And I'm sitting on anyone who doesn't read it. So that gives you three reasons. Get thee hence, read, and return to us to discuss, and hurry.

dystophil said:

QFT.

Also, 4B's, I thought that for a little while, I think until I caught up with Celia again and was like "ahhhh two different people. Okay." Other than that I'm usually prone to think people go under false names etc. anyway, so yeah, that's definitely been there for me.

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I was thinking for a bit there that she was the more initially devious of the two -- that Prospero had made her that cold that she could play him to his face -- but I was happy when I realized they were two different people. I'm not sure that if they HAD been one person, she could have come back from that initial deception.

But I wonder if my perception of Isobel was colored from that belief? It's one of the reasons I know I have to reread; if I know who Isobel is from the start, will I still dislike her intensely? (Because I did)

Manuel Royal said:

I can't afford to buy a book these days, but I'll put it on my B&N Wish List.

Sounds interesting from the synopsis.

Mysterious traveling circuses have long been a good subject. Is this novel reminiscent in any way of the treatment of that subject by Bradbury, or Charles G. Finney, or Tom Reamy?

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There's always the library.

It's not Bradbury, and I've never read Reamy or Finney; I'm sorry to say.

If I had to compare my faves, I'd say it's a bit of Gruen mixed with Esquivel and then a world-building all its own. She manages to layer the magical realism of this circus over this darker business underneath and have it seamlessly intersect.

Manuel Royal said:

That's hard to pull off without straying into either the precious or the depressing. So, that's impressive. (And now I'll have to look up Gruen and Esquivel.)

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Oh good. I feel better, then about not having read your two. I tend to read any magical realism I can get my hands on. Esquivel is best known for Como agua para chocolate (released in U.S. as Like Water for Chocolate, with associated movie). I've also read a lot of Isabel Allende, with my fave still being her first (holy cow... still can't believe it was her debut) La casa de los espiritus (The House of the Spirits, again with associated movie, although this one wasn't nearly as good as the adaptation of Esquivel's).

Oops... I got off track there. And yes, it is impressive. The world-building is fascinating, and at times, you can see where it really could have veered off into the precious if there wasn't this very sinister back story going on underneath.

WOO HOO!!!!

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