Sign up for our newsletters to receive our Best of 2024 ezine!

What readers think of The Night Circus, plus links to write your own review.

Summary |  Excerpt |  Reading Guide |  Reviews |  Beyond the book |  Read-Alikes |  Genres & Themes |  Author Bio

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

The Night Circus

A Novel

by Erin Morgenstern
  • BookBrowse Review:
  • Critics' Consensus (8):
  • Readers' Rating (31):
  • First Published:
  • Sep 13, 2011, 400 pages
  • Paperback:
  • Jul 2012, 400 pages
  • Rate this book

About This Book

Reviews

Page 1 of 4
There are currently 31 reader reviews for The Night Circus
Order Reviews by:

Write your own review!

T Wood

The Night Circus
I read The Night Circus when it was first published. I fell in love with Erin Morgenstern's work. I read it again a few months later. Then I saw not just the beauty but felt the darkness that surrounded the young magicians.

I felt the beautiful spirit of the book while driving on a long road trip.

I have now read this book 4 times. In times of hate and lack of trust, a little magic helps the heart. Magic is what we need today and rereading The Night Circus is joy.
Emily

Circus Magic
The book was magical for me. I really enjoyed the descriptions and even more so enjoyed letting my imagination run off with Erin Morgenstern's descriptions. A magical book that any true dreamer would be able to enjoy.
I can somehow understand how people might not enjoy as much as I did. There is a lot of slow parts and for those people who don't have the creative imagination it takes to read a really good book, I imagine that they would struggle.
Hopefully it won't be long before the author writes another amazing book.
Tillie H

Magic vs reality
A wonderful book where magic and reality are blended together. The reader is quickly drawn in to the uniqueness of the circus, as well as the lives of Celia and Marco and the contest they must complete. Drawn together by a bond that was forced upon them as children, they build the circus which becomes the platform for the contest.

I highly recommend this book. It combines fantasy, intrigue and romance in a delightful book, sure to please.
Daveann

Swept away
I absolutely lived this book!!! It was mystical, imaginative, unique and creative! I would love to see Erin write a sequel and a prequel. I am suggesting it in my book club and giving it away in a book exchange. Thank you for the entertainment, I savored it.
Power Reviewer
Louise J

Purely Magical!!!
Erin Morgenstern has done it! “THE NIGHT CIRCUS” has definitely lived up to the hype and hoopla. This is a purely magical and enchanting story that will fit the bill for every reader. The prose is beautiful but not too simplistic, the fantasy images are easily understood and so vivid and almost real. The descriptive narrative is so clear and concise that one’s mind easily slips into the circus at night as you experience the words on the page with such clarity and vividness that it’s startling.

The love story that takes place between two illusionists is at once real and tempered with just the right amount of verbage to keep you guessing and wondering to the end. It’s fairy-tale atmosphere that makes this romance a slow-burning ride to the conclusion.

The Night Circus was utterly flawless and Ms. Morgenstern is well on her way to becoming a well-known, respected, and talented author. For a debut novel, it surpassed the mark by millions!!
Chris (Wauwatosa, WI)

The Night Circus
This was a book I could not put down! The characters are fascinating and so memorable. The settings, interactions, and conversations are fantastically described. I could see it all and imagine being there.

The overall setting of a circus is irresistible and a circus that's only open at night....who would want to resist?
Juli S. (Portland, OR)

Elegantly entertaining
This was a beautiful, exciting, sad, happy and altogether elegant story. The author created a world in which I thoroughly enjoyed losing myself. I intentionally waited to read it until I had time to read it in just a few sittings. I’m glad I did. This is the kind of book that wraps it’s setting around you as you read. The imagery is both delicate and strong and always beautiful even in the darker parts of the story. At its heart a love story, the book is about a competition between magicians that takes place within a mysterious circus that seems to appear and disappear and is only open at night. Its storylines weave in and around each other and forward and backward in time in a way that feels almost like a dance. There is a distinct elegance to the writing and the story that takes the reader on a wonderful journey.
Hannah B. (Portland, OR)

The Night Circus
I really enjoyed this book! The style of writing is unique in that the perspectives and point of view changes quite frequently throughout the book as each chapter is told through the voice of a different character. The author is wonderful at creating settings that become extraordinary rich and vivid in your mind while reading it. The use of words are deliciously creative...poetic almost, and the mysterious plot with magical mystical elements kept me wanting to read more....what a fun book! I feel like people of all ages would enjoy it : )

Top Picks

  • Book Jacket: Small Rain
    Small Rain
    by Garth Greenwell
    At the beginning of Garth Greenwell's novel Small Rain, the protagonist, an unnamed poet in his ...
  • Book Jacket: Daughters of Shandong
    Daughters of Shandong
    by Eve J. Chung
    Daughters of Shandong is the debut novel of Eve J. Chung, a human rights lawyer living in New York. ...
  • Book Jacket: The Women
    The Women
    by Kristin Hannah
    Kristin Hannah's latest historical epic, The Women, is a story of how a war shaped a generation ...
  • Book Jacket: The Wide Wide Sea
    The Wide Wide Sea
    by Hampton Sides
    By 1775, 48-year-old Captain James Cook had completed two highly successful voyages of discovery and...

BookBrowse Book Club

Book Jacket
In Our Midst
by Nancy Jensen
In Our Midst follows a German immigrant family’s fight for freedom after their internment post–Pearl Harbor.
Who Said...

When I get a little money I buy books...

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Wordplay

Big Holiday Wordplay 2024

Enter Now

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.