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The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
Narrator: Jim Dale
Source: Personal copy
Finished: 12/29 /11
Rating: 8 out of 10
Publisher: Doubleday
Pages: 400
Published: 2011
Synopsis (from Barnes & Noble): Erin Morgenstern’s dark, enchanting debut takes us to the black and white tents of Le Cirque des Reves, a circus that arrives without warning, simply appearing when yesterday it was not there. Young Celia and Marco have been cast into a rivalry at The Night Circus, one arranged long ago by powers they do not fully understand. Over time, their lives become more intricately enmeshed in a dance of love, joy, deceit, heartbreak, and magic.
Overall Impression: This was highly praised by All The Bloggers. Everywhere I went, people were praising this all over the place. Which meant that I went into The Night Circus with a big case of Over Hype.
I also went into it with a horrible case of Jim Dale Of Harry Potter Fame Was Narrating It And While I Adore Jim Dale It Was Like Listening To Harry Potter And So My Brain Thought It Was OK To Tune It Out A Little Because I’ve Read Harry Potter Before. This is, obviously, a very rare and specific disease. But it meant that I found myself having a hard time concentrating and sometimes I’d realize I hadn’t comprehended anything for the last few minutes. I also had such a difficult time with the timeline and the short chapters, especially in audio book form. I think this kept me from enjoying the book as much as other people did. I do own a hard copy — I’m guessing I’ll give it a shot in a year or two. I think it will go down better than the audio did.
But other than that criticism, I really did enjoy it. Morgenstern is one of those writers who has the gift of painting with their words onto a page. It’s more than writing — it’s truly art, and the story came alive through her words. Her descriptions of setting and characters were magnificent. I loved how she created a deep romance without resorting to cliches. And while I had a difficult time following the timeline in the beginning, everything came together about 2/3 of the way through the book and I really loved it from there on out.
Positives: Her writing! It was gorgeous.
Negatives: Difficult to get into due to a changing timeline.
Narration: I really do think that Jim Dale is one of the best audio book narrators out there. His skill with Harry Potter was phenomenal and I love hearing his voiceover work in the (sadly canceled) show Pushing Daisies. His reading of The Night Circus was excellent, but like I said above, it might have been too similar to Harry Potter, so I had a hard time keeping my brain on the book when I was doing other things (cleaning, cooking, sewing, etc.).
Other books I’ve read by Erin Morgenstern: none
Other blogger opinions:
My Books. My Life.: “This is not a mere tale of magic. It is a story of love, friendship consequences, and destiny.”
Literary Musings: “If you are looking for something unique that offers a balance of enchantment, romance and mystery, you’ve got to read The Night Circus.”
Little Red Reviewer: “Don’t let the non-chronological order thing make you nervous, there is no better way of telling this story.”
books i done read: “I started reading this and was enjoying it muchly and then the twitternets went all squirrelly with the BEST BOOK EVAR and CHANGED MY LIFE and BOOK CURES CANCER and I was internally like, Dudes! You must mellow the hype. Because The Night Circus is excellent and great and good (and yes, has stripey end papers) but it will not bring your blood sugars down to an acceptable level or make you attractive to the sex of your choice.”
