GoodRead - The Night Circus

I have no idea when I am going to post this review. I am writing at the beginning of December but I have no idea when I want to post this. It's either going to be the first review of the New Year (happy 2013 everyone!), the last Thursday of the year or on the Winter Solstice (because that's the longest night - but that's very apt for Beautiful Darkness as well). So, whenever you are reading this, I do hope this makes sense.

I read this because of Twitter. I've always wanted to read this and bought it on my kindle earlier this year, but never got round to it. And I thought I wanted Twitter to choose my next read. So, I picked six books at random (3 books, 3 eBooks) and Twitter picked this. So, I owe Twitter...

The Circus arrives without warning. It just appears, as if by magic, and leaves just as quickly. Its black and white tents holds wonders so magical, you can't believe it. But underneath the surface, as war of magical wits  is happening, and it is affecting the lives of everyone within the circus...

I'm not going to write any more than that. The reason for this is because no matter what my summary will be, it won't do the book justice. If I write one way, it makes the book sound like a thriller (and it's not). If I write it another way, it will sound like a romantic (and again, it's not). And I know, no matter how I write this, you guys will go "That's not right!" at me so, let's stop there!

First of all, let's get this out of the way. This isn't a story of the two magicians and their war with each other. It is a fraction of the story and it is the starting point of the novel, but isn't the story. This isn't a story of two people. It's a story of a thing - the Night Circus itself - and the people it affects. And while I completely get why everyone goes "There's no plot!", there is but it's so gentle interwoven into the Night Circus itself, you don't realise it's there. It's like life, in a way. Each of us are going somewhere but no idea knows how long the journey of our lives are, how quick the journey will be or how it will affect the people around us. Erin is very clever with this.

And the little chapters that are in second-person (I didn't realise this either but second-person is when the author doesn't use "I" or "he/she" but "you"). Apparently, that is a very rare and very hard to pull off. But Erin does it perfectly. I always loved reading these little chapters.

I'm sorry, but I loved this read. I know that there are people out there who will hate this read and complain that it's too slow or lacks plot or pacing, but I adore this book! There was something whimsy yet utterly compelling about this book. If you can, read it. It, like The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey, enchanted me.