The Night Circus

A Novel

By: Erin Morgenstern

Narrated by: Jim Dale

#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER • 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 is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night.

But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway—a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial 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, however, Celia and Marco tumble headfirst into love—a deep, magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands.

True love or not, the game must play out, and the fates of everyone involved, from the cast of extraordinary circus per­formers to the patrons, hang in the balance, suspended as precariously as the daring acrobats overhead.

Written in rich, seductive prose, this spell-casting novel is a feast for the senses and the heart.

Sadly Overrated

The advance hype drowned out the experience. It was weak story with little character developoment. It turned out to be just an average book read by a brilliant narrator.

Not that great

This book was a little boring. It went back and forth too much and could not keep me interested. It was very hard to get through this audiobook.

Ehhh...

I read all of the reviews before listening to this book. They all claimed it to be the "next big thing". I do not agree. Probably the only reason why I made it through the whole book was the excellent narrator, Jim Dale. I found the storyline to be tedious and boring with too many loose ends never resolved. Hopefully, my next book to listen to will be another narrated by Mr. Dale.

Wow!

When this book came out the reviews were good, but it was because Jim Dale narrated it that made me buy it. I bought it and let it "sit" until now. I'm not a huge fan of period books, that's my only excuse for why I let it sit for so long (Diana Gabaldon being the exception). I'm kicking myself for not listening to it until now. It is awesome! It's very well written. Morgenstern does such an amazing job of describing everything in such a way that it is not tedious and also makes you feel like you're there. At times I swear I could smell popcorn and caramel. I didn't catch on that it was going back and forth in time right away, but I caught on fairly quickly. The narration only makes the book that much more amazing, as I think Jim Dale would be magic reading the yellow pages. An excellent book.

If it weren't for Jim Dale, I wouldn't have finish

What did you like best about The Night Circus? What did you like least?

The narrator, Jim Dale, who breathed some life into an otherwise dull and convoluted story.

What could Erin Morgenstern have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

Make it a little less complicated, jumping back and forth between the dates. Introduce fewer characters. Having so many characters without confusing a reader is a rare feat.

Have you listened to any of Jim Dale’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Of course the whole Harry Potter series. I suppose nothing compares to that one.