The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
It started out so promising. The small chapters that provided tiny glimpses into the various characters and their situations kept them far away from the reader to induce intrigue, but close enough to maintain interest. However, halfway through the book I grew very frustrated and annoyed by the turn of events this story had taken. All of a sudden the intrigue of the characters was gone and the actual plot seemed forgotten, plus I could detect a very annoying hint of the Romeo and Juliet concept being added for extra drama that was not really needed. I understand that this was partially important to the plot, but at this point it seemed unnecessary and could have been executed differently.
The climax of the story was pushed way back into the last few sections of the book and ended abruptly that left me unsatisfied, considering that at this point I had suffered through 100 pages to finally find out what this whole story was supposed to be about.
Generally speaking, I liked the characters and the concept of the circus to provide a home for these lost souls who have no home or other family, but then again this appeared to have gone missing in the tangle of the narration itself.
Overall, I can say that I liked the story. It was a nice change from my usual classic literature fix that plunged me into the world of magic and fantasy.
