Me on The Night Circus

Title: The Night Circus
Author: Erin Morgenstern
Release Date: September 13, 2011
Publisher: Doubleday Canada (Random House Canada imprint)

The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents in an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night.

Behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway - a duel between two young magicians, trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their instructors. Unbeknownst to them, 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. Despite themselves, the two magicians tumble headfirst into love.

But true love or not, the game must play out.

Fantastical, enchanting, The Night Circus draws you in, wraps itself around you, envelops you in black and white until you can do nothing but breathe in the magic and the wonder. It dances behind your eyelids. So many possibilities, so many truths and secrets, so much mystery like stars in the night sky. So much magic it's hard to breathe.

These are glimpses in time, not just Celia and Marco but their masters, the circus owner, the contortionist, the fortune teller, the red-headed twins. These are snippits and snatches of their lives, of the circus, of the magic of the circus and the dreams it brings to life.

So enchanting, yes, but also so dark and dangerous. The game must be played, events must play out. The masters have to heart, no affection for their pupils, no desire beyond winning and moving onto the next round with new competitors. But will Celia and Marco prove them wrong? Will Le Cirque des Rêves be the difference?

The Night Circus crept into my head and came to life the way few books have, the way Laini Taylor's Daughter of Smoke & Bone enchanted me, the way Tahereh Mafi's Shatter Me fractured my heart.

I have been left at a loss for words. Whatever I could say would be dull and tarnished words next to the glorious bonfire that is this book. The Night Circus is storytelling in its purest form, in its most wonderful and fantastical. When I finished this book, I was overcome with the urge to cry, without rhyme nor reason. My greatest desire is to curl up with this book on the floor of a dark room, sleep for a hundred years, and dream as many dreams as I can. This book will be one I will take with me for the rest of my life.

(I won a copy of this book on Twitter.)