(Posting this from December 12, 2014 and I've been a bit lazy for a revision)
This is my attempt in creating a review.
After all the efforts that I’ve gone through with the
guidelines of writing a review, as well as reading samples from various blogs
and references, I realized that this is not going to work if I stick too much
with the formalities. I will write what I thought, when I thought them – and
just let the common sense of reviewing get ahead with what I would write.
I have been reading a lot since I got to the province
mainly to pass my time. I’ve lost count on the number of books that I’ve
finished since September of this year, and the count still continues up to this
date. I’m thinking of creating an inventory of the Titles that I’ve already
finished, then composing my own review based on what I’ve contemplated on.
For now, I’ll start with the most recent read.
----- ----- ----- -----
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| Book Cover |
The
circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it, no paper notices
plastered on lampposts and billboards. It is simply there, when yesterday it
was not.
Within
these nocturnal black-and-white striped tents awaits an utterly unique, a feast
for the senses, where one can get lost in a maze of clouds, meander through a
lush garden made of ice, stare in wonderment as the tattooed contortionist
folds herself into a small glass box, and become deliciously tipsy from the
scents of caramel and cinnamon that waft through the air.
Welcome
to Le Cirque des Rêves.
Beyond
the smoke and mirrors, however, a fierce competition is under way--a contest
between two young illusionists, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since
childhood to compete in a "game" to which they have been irrevocably
bound by their mercurial masters. Unbeknownst to the players, this is a game in
which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a
remarkable battle of imagination and will.
As the
circus travels around the world, the feats of magic gain fantastical new
heights with every stop. The game is well under way and the lives of all those
involved--the eccentric circus owner, the elusive contortionist, the mystical
fortune-teller, and a pair of red-headed twins born backstage among them--are
swept up in a wake of spells and charms.
But when
Celia discovers that Marco is her adversary, they begin to think of the game
not as a competition but as a wonderful collaboration. With no knowledge of how
the game must end, they innocently tumble headfirst into love. A deep,
passionate, and magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow
warm whenever they so much as brush hands.
Their
masters still pull the strings, however, and this unforeseen occurrence forces
them to intervene with dangerous consequences, leaving the lives of everyone
from the performers to the patrons hanging in the balance.
Both
playful and seductive, The Night Circus, Erin Morgenstern's spell-casting
debut, is a mesmerizing love story for the ages.
(Summary from Goodreads)
My initial thought for the theme dominant on the book
were of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. The main characters of the story were
pretty much star-crossed lovers, though not to the extreme that it includes
clannish conflicts and first blood or all those dramatic murders and suicide.
Through the duration of the novel, brutality comes in
the forms of, yes it was still there, death by unintentional murder and the
heart-wrenching drama of losing someone one loved with the cliché of love
stories and their rivals. These negative impacts were essential in the
character build up and adds up to the character’s development with the story.
I wouldn’t want to delve too much with the details for
fear of spoiling too much.
Characterization and what it entails were fine, I’d
say, an average and I wouldn’t claim too much to be the ‘perfect’ well
developed characters in a story. There are no wasted characters though there
were some who seemed to have faded after exposing their role in the story. At
least, in a sense that they were given a hastily concluded ending.
The story itself, I could rate on an above average
scheme, as it gives the feeling that things were not what I had been expecting
as I progress through the chapters. I never realized the importance of the
dates and places prior to the beginning of the chapters until I got to Part II,
where the discrepancies in time eventually converges giving the conclusion of
the story its impact that it well deserved.
Overall, The Night Circus is a well-written novel, a
must-read if I should say – I wouldn’t hesitate reading it over again.
