Celia Bowen, the daughter of the infamous Prospero the Enchanter, and the orphan Marco Alisdair have both been trained from their early childhood for a magical duel which rules neither truly understands. As the competition takes its course with the night circus as its battlefield and the initial rivalry between Celia and Marco changes to love, everything starts to fall apart.
"The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it, no paper notices on downtown posts and billboards, no mentions or advertisements in local newspapers. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not."
This book definitely needs you to be a certain kind of reader in order to absolutely enjoy it, so you'll probably either love it or hate it. Luckily, this is exactly my kind of book and I ended up falling in love with everything about this story. It made me feel enchanted like no other book did so far. The whole ambiance and feeling this story has is just utterly magical and completely unique.
The writing is fantastic and because of the many exact descriptions really colorful and detailed, so while reading I had no trouble imagining the characters and their environment, even felt as if I was part of the circus, mainly due to the short parts that are written in second person, which honestly was unusual at first, but super enjoyable once I got used to it. It took me in general a bit until I got used to the way the story is told, since a lot of things about this book are pretty extraordinary. First of all, the chapters are in no way chronological thus it's important to check the date and location at the beginning of every new chapter. There are also tons of different point of view characters, which I all really enjoyed.
The plot is rather slow and certainly not fast-paced, since the whole story takes place over nearly three decades but suprisingly it's exciting and especially addicting nonetheless. Once I got familiar with the book, which took me about 50 pages, I genuinly had to force myself to put it down everytime I was reading it because it is so enthralling, so I wouldn't spend the whole night reading and - more importantly - it wouldn't end so fast and I could enjoy it as much as somehow possible. The magical elements are pretty unique and special, particularly in the whole circus setting, in which they fit so good into. I honestly wished for nothing more while reading than to be able to visit the circus, so another aspect I really loved was the way the visitors' fascination for the circus is conveyed so realisticly and the existence of this huge fan base. Once you've finished the book, you're rewarded with a perfect ending that just shows how utterly complete this novel is since the first sentence is the last and vice versa.
The characters are all likeable and very interesting, since they're so different in age, occupation and gender. Celia Bowen, one of the main characters, is so strong and bad-ass, but not in an agressive kind of way and rather shows her strength and power peacefully, which was a nice change from a lot of YA books I've read recently. Marco, the second main character, is amazing as well. He's compared to many other male characters really patient and creative, but still in no way boring and plain. I enjoyed the romance between those two so much since it's such a delicate and truly special thing and their chemistry is amazing. The minor character I probably liked the most is Herr Friedrick Thiessen. I can't even tell you why I became so attached to him, since he's not the kind of character I ususally like, and I guess it's partly due to having the same cultural background because he's living in the city I'm living in as well, but what I really love him for is probably starting and establishing this huge fan base called the rêveurs, who share the fascination for the circus with the readers.
Rating: 5/5 ✹
Hopefully this review isn't too confusing and I didn't repeat myself too often, so you're still able to enjoy this review. Have a beautiful day!
Leah
No comments:
Post a Comment