The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern review

     Okay, so first let me say that I'm not trying to be different in my opinion of this book just to be "different".  I truly wanted to enjoy it since all my friends did, but I didn't and I couldn't.  Is the circus magical and amazing and just as awesome as every other book reviewer in the world seems to think it is?  Absolutely!  The problem lies in that this is where the magic stopped for me.  

     I cared nothing about the characters, to me they were all just skeevy and conniving (maybe this is why I didn't like them, since I prefer to always try to see the good in people). I felt no connection to the "love story", the ending was very "meh", and we never get a good enough sense of the characters emotions and personalities since so much of the book is spent explaining the different intricacies of the circus itself.  

      After I read a book that I don't like, I try to go back and think about what the author could have done differently (for me, I know that others adore this book and I'm in the minority) that might have made me like it, and with this book it's a problem I don't think could be fixed, because the only way the magic of the circus would still be there and yet the character development become better would be if it was another 150-200 pages long to give a more in-depth look at the characters lives outside the circus.  

     This would present a huge problem as by the end I was already bored and just wanted to be done with it, so if I had to slough through another 150 pages it might have become a DNF rather than just a book I didn't enjoy but did at least complete.  

     So with all that being said, I'm torn.  I love the atmosphere and the descriptions of this amazing place, but it was definitely very forgettable and I feel like in a couple months time someone could try to discuss a plot point in the book and I won't even remember what they're talking about because I've pushed it to the back of my brain in favor of other, better books.  Like I said, I'm definitely in the minority, but just because a book is about magic doesn't mean that it IS magic like a lot of people had led me to believe.

Rating:  2 out of 5 stars