Book-It 'o14! Book #58
Dec. 16th, 2014 07:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alivemagdoleneThe Fifty Books Challenge, year five! (2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013) This was a library request.
Title: The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
Details: Copyright 2011, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Synopsis (By Way of Front Flap):
"The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it, no paper notices plastered on lampposts and billboards. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not.
Within these nocturnal black-and-white striped canvas tents awaits an utterly unique experience, a feast for the senses, where one can get lost in a maze of clouds, meander through a lush garden made of ice, stare in wonderment as the tattooed contortionist folds herself into a small glass box, and become deliciously tipsy from the scents of caramel and cinnamon that waft through the air.
Welcome to Le Cirque des Rêves.
Beyond the smoke and mirrors, however, a fierce competition is under way-- a contest between two young illusionists, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood to compete in a "game" to which they have been irrevocably bound by their mercurial masters. Unbeknownst to the players, 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.
As the circus travels around the world, the feats of magic gain fantastical new heights with every stop. The game is well under way and the lives of all those involved-- the eccentric circus owner, the elusive contortionist, the mystical fortune-teller, and a pair of red-headed twins born backstage among them-- are swept up in a wave of spells and charms.
But when Celia discovers that Marco is her adversary, the begin to think of the game not as a competition but as a wonderful collaboration. With no knowledge of how the game must end, they innocently tumble headfirst in love. A deep, passionate, and magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands.
Their masters still pull the strings, however, and this unforeseen circumstance forces them to intervene with dangerous consequences, leaving the lives of everyone from the performers to the patrons hanging in the balance.
Both playful and seductive, The Night Circus, Erin Morgenstern's spell-casting debut, is a mesmerizing love story for the ages."
Why I Wanted to Read It: This came up as I stumble through the "magical realism" genre of fiction.
How I Liked It: In my previous review, I explored a theme that's arisen frequently throughout this project: great concept, lacking execution. This is... not that exactly.
This is indeed a great concept. But it's not so much lacking in execution as the fact its execution isn't a story, not really. It reads far more like a screenplay, so I wasn't surprised to find that this was being optioned as a film.
What do I mean that it reads like a screenplay? Well, for starters, it's huge on the "tell, don't show" trope, which applies to just about everything from the settings to the characters. What brilliance and vividity that some authors are able to evoke (Ann-Marie MacDonald's exquisite Fall on Your Knees, the heart of Wally Lamb's work, Alice Hoffman generally), this one simply states. We are told that we are amazed. We are told that the circus is brilliant. We are told we feel a chill of anticipation.
I thought maybe this was simply attributable to the fact the book is a bit ambitious for a first novel: spanning decades, generations, and multiple tense switches (and also going backwards and forwards at one point). A vast cast of characters with complex backstories, evolving personalities, and hidden motives along with a plot that's kind of rickety is going to overwhelm anyone. But in reading more about the book (and the author)'s promotion, I'm more sure that the hollow screenplay feel is more because that's what this book is intended to be: a stepping stone to a (probable) franchise, which includes a movie, maybe tie-in products, and possible future future-screenplays.
And given the concepts put forth in this book, that truly is a shame that it's executed that way.
Notable: The author thanks Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab for inspiration in the acknowledgements, which by that point sounds like she might have a collaboration with them set for the movie. Given their proclivity for pairing with authors/creators, this is not unimaginable. The sad thing is that one could imagine the scents and their creation having more thought put into them than the actual characters, plot, or settings of the book itself.
Title: The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
Details: Copyright 2011, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Synopsis (By Way of Front Flap):
"The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it, no paper notices plastered on lampposts and billboards. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not.
Within these nocturnal black-and-white striped canvas tents awaits an utterly unique experience, a feast for the senses, where one can get lost in a maze of clouds, meander through a lush garden made of ice, stare in wonderment as the tattooed contortionist folds herself into a small glass box, and become deliciously tipsy from the scents of caramel and cinnamon that waft through the air.
Welcome to Le Cirque des Rêves.
Beyond the smoke and mirrors, however, a fierce competition is under way-- a contest between two young illusionists, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood to compete in a "game" to which they have been irrevocably bound by their mercurial masters. Unbeknownst to the players, 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.
As the circus travels around the world, the feats of magic gain fantastical new heights with every stop. The game is well under way and the lives of all those involved-- the eccentric circus owner, the elusive contortionist, the mystical fortune-teller, and a pair of red-headed twins born backstage among them-- are swept up in a wave of spells and charms.
But when Celia discovers that Marco is her adversary, the begin to think of the game not as a competition but as a wonderful collaboration. With no knowledge of how the game must end, they innocently tumble headfirst in love. A deep, passionate, and magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands.
Their masters still pull the strings, however, and this unforeseen circumstance forces them to intervene with dangerous consequences, leaving the lives of everyone from the performers to the patrons hanging in the balance.
Both playful and seductive, The Night Circus, Erin Morgenstern's spell-casting debut, is a mesmerizing love story for the ages."
Why I Wanted to Read It: This came up as I stumble through the "magical realism" genre of fiction.
How I Liked It: In my previous review, I explored a theme that's arisen frequently throughout this project: great concept, lacking execution. This is... not that exactly.
This is indeed a great concept. But it's not so much lacking in execution as the fact its execution isn't a story, not really. It reads far more like a screenplay, so I wasn't surprised to find that this was being optioned as a film.
What do I mean that it reads like a screenplay? Well, for starters, it's huge on the "tell, don't show" trope, which applies to just about everything from the settings to the characters. What brilliance and vividity that some authors are able to evoke (Ann-Marie MacDonald's exquisite Fall on Your Knees, the heart of Wally Lamb's work, Alice Hoffman generally), this one simply states. We are told that we are amazed. We are told that the circus is brilliant. We are told we feel a chill of anticipation.
I thought maybe this was simply attributable to the fact the book is a bit ambitious for a first novel: spanning decades, generations, and multiple tense switches (and also going backwards and forwards at one point). A vast cast of characters with complex backstories, evolving personalities, and hidden motives along with a plot that's kind of rickety is going to overwhelm anyone. But in reading more about the book (and the author)'s promotion, I'm more sure that the hollow screenplay feel is more because that's what this book is intended to be: a stepping stone to a (probable) franchise, which includes a movie, maybe tie-in products, and possible future future-screenplays.
And given the concepts put forth in this book, that truly is a shame that it's executed that way.
Notable: The author thanks Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab for inspiration in the acknowledgements, which by that point sounds like she might have a collaboration with them set for the movie. Given their proclivity for pairing with authors/creators, this is not unimaginable. The sad thing is that one could imagine the scents and their creation having more thought put into them than the actual characters, plot, or settings of the book itself.
