The United States and Europe,
between 1873 and at least 1903. Two magicians enter into a wager; they are to
train apprentices in magic and have them contest each other over time. The
forum for the bet is to be a travelling fair, a circus that travels by train
and arrives, unannounced, in the night. The neophytes, initially unaware that
they are in competition with each other, begin to fall in love. A child,
Bailey, becomes besotted with the circus and is desperate to find out more.
The
Night Circus has a certain kind of atmosphere going for it, a touch dreamlike, a
little whimsical, at least initially intriguing. There are whiffs of Ray
Bradbury, Susannah Clarke, Tim Burton and Neil Gaiman in the writing, plot and
imagery, and for die-hard fans of magical fantasy there may be much that’s
worthwhile here.
For some, though, the touch may
be too light. Not a great deal happens. The love story is obvious rather than
inevitable, and there aren’t secrets worth finding out. Initial hints of
darkness turn out to be shadows of the novel’s influences rather than those
cast by The Night Circus instead. The
period settings are background here; there’s nothing gained by the novel being
set in the past (it probably loses by not having the magical elements being juxtaposed
against the present day).
It’s lightweight stuff then; a
story for children stretched out over four hundred pages. The fault may well be
with me – I like my meat rarer than this – but this is cotton candy; initially
impressive, but sweet, cloying, insubstantial.
Morgenstern, Erin. 2012. The Night Circus (London: Vintage), 496
pages, 978-0099554790
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