The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern....

Image from indiebound.org

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern was another book in the summer reading suggested list I found in The New Yorker.

It was a very, very, very different book from those I usually read. And I'm so glad I read it.

Except for the fact that the author makes me feel like an abject failure as a writer. I can never reach her level of vivid description and imagination.

The Night Circus is a venue for a challenge between prodigies of two men with magical powers. When the book opens, a young girl is being delivered to one of the men, and she has a note pinned to her dress. When the man looks at her, it is like looking into his own face, and he utters the words more than likely spoken by a billion men in the same situation, "Oh f***." (I thought at that moment he and Hubby might be related.)

This book is part love story, part mystery, part fantasy, part science fiction, and wholly enjoyable. I'm very glad I branched out from the familiar and experimented with reading something outside my typical choices.

I have just read a few reviews of the book, and most people did NOT like the book, for the same reasons I enjoyed it. So you'll have to decide for yourself whether it's worth your time or not. As one reviewer said, it's not like it's going to change your view of the world or make you realize something tremendous about yourself. I found the imagery and fantastic (in both senses of the word) description very entertaining.