My Review:

The Night Circus was a beautifully written story that was completely unique and magical. However, it just wasn't "my cup of tea".

The book description made it sound like it was about a duel between two young magicians who inevitably fall in love, with the circus as merely the stage. I read the words "love" and "magic" in the same sentence and knew I had to read it, being the fantasy romance enthusiast that I am. It wasn't really about the magicians though, the story was trully and completely the story of the circus itself. Since the two magicians, Celia and Marco, are a big part of the circus' story, they are there but they are hardly the focus. I would say maybe half of the story was actually pertaining to our two lovebirds. The rest of it was about numerous other random characters that, while they did have important roles in the story of the circus, I honestly didn't care about. And a much larger portion of the book is just description..

I've seen this in a few other of the reviews, so I know I'm not the only one that is bothered by the extensive descriptions. Don't get me wrong, the writing is like poetry, absolutely lovely, but no matter how lovely the writing is it doesn't make the description of "the smell of caramel" any more interesting after hearing about it for the fifth time. Everything you can think of in each and every scene in the book is described in intracate, excruciating detail. I don't mean to sound so bitter, it was easy enough to dig through it to the buried dialogue and action, but it was bothersome.

Now with all this being said, I think that this could really be a 5 star book for some people out there. Have a creepy obsession with circuses? Love descriptions more than things happening? This is the book for you! Okay, about not sounding bitter.. Really though, I think some people might like it. It really was a unique story and beautifully written, I just didn't particularly enjoy it for the reasons above.

Summed Up:

The Night Circus was beautifull written and had an interesting story premise, but that premise wasn't what the book was about. It focuses on the circus, not any starcrossed magician love. On top of that, the descriptions were way too long and the story itself was very slow.