Confession: I’m a huge fan of Lauren Conrad. I know, I know, Laguna Beach and the Hills were kind of horrible, but I loved those shows and despite all the unnecessary drama of her life, I always thought Lauren was such a classy gal. Nowadays, I settle for following her via her website, which is how I came across the idea to read The Night Circus. Plus it was described as “enchanting,” so I just couldn’t say no.
Books about the circus are best read while eating popcorn.
And enchanting it is. My gosh, the imagery is incredible. I can’t remember the last time I read a book with as much visual description (um Harry Potter maybe?), but it was truly magical. The story revolves around, well, a night circus, but even more than that, it revolves around two magicians that are pitted against each other in a fight to the death. The two end up falling in love, making the whole competition a bit more interesting. I’m generally annoyed by any kind of love story (they all seem so phony!) but I really loved the relationship Erin Morgenstern created between the two characters. It was romantic without being too overdone.
My one criticism was that the book never seemed to go into any specifics, which created this sort of mysterious feel, but also made me wonder what the heck was going on a majority of the time. Some books make you feel so close to the characters but with this one I felt like I was just hovering over everything, kind of on the outside. Okay, this is getting weird. I guess I just didn’t feel immersed in the lives of the characters or the world they existed in. Does that make more sense? And although I felt the vagueness of the book was sort of a cop-out, I can’t deny that the feeling it created was completely unique and different from anything I’ve ever read.
Now I need to get together a fall reading list. Any suggestions?
Life as Lauren 