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The Night Circus - March 2026 Book Club Reading

Falselogic

Falselogic

Lapsed Threadcromancer
(they/them)
The Night Circus is a speculative fiction novel by Erin Morgenstern. The story was originally written for NaNaWriMo The story centers on the titular Night Circus - a wandering, magical circus that only opens at night and closes at dawn. The story is nonlinear and told from multiple viewpoints. The book won the Locus Award for Best First Novel.

Erin Morgenstern is an American multimedia artist. She is the author of two novel - The Night Circus and The Starless Sea.
 
I started it yesterday, and am already 100 pages in. Very easy reading, and the imagery is well done. I wasn't thrilled about reading another selection written in present tense, but it didn't take long for enjoyment to overcome that slight irritation.

This is a minor comment about the structure:
I'm not convinced that there's much point to going back and showing how the Circus came together. I'm feeling ever-so-slightly bogged down in the sections featuring Chandresh, his dinners, and his cabal.
 
I read this when it was new and remember liking it at the time, but nothing else about it. My library had a copy on the shelf so I've got it in hand, though I have to get through a couple of other holds first. I'll probably get to this a little later in the month.
 
Decent hold list at my library and end of February also crept up on me, so just getting into the queue now. Hopefully I get it this month!
 
I had my own copy on Mt. TBR, so had access to it right away. Jan's and Feb's selections were from the library.
 
I read this...gosh, quite a while ago, but I remember liking it a lot. Maybe I should reread it with y'all...
 
Oh yeah, this book. I loved it. It's something very special. I will hold off talking about it for now, but I personally think you're all in for a treat.
 
Still waiting on my hold as well, I'm #2 in line now so hopefully a couple weeks?

Rosewood said:
I had my own copy on Mt. TBR
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What's Mt. TBR?

My brain is autofilling that as Mt Tabor in Portland Oregon because I've been there a lot, and realistically there's probably a little free library or something up there...
 
Violentvixen said:
Started this on the train and these are both Very Bad Dads.
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I also started this on the train this morning and yep, Just The Worst Dads.

The last book I read made me anxious and the other library book I have looks like it'll do that as well, so I dug into this one for an escape hatch. So far so good!
 
One thing that hasn't entirely held together for me so far, is how Marco and Celia go along with The Worst Dads' plans without rebellion, and with very little question. There's no hint of their neglectful and abusive backgrounds, respectively, affecting their present. But there are enough fairy tale-like elements that it's not too hard to make allowances.
 
Yeah, I'm struggling a bit with a lot of the main characters. Everything is a little too dreamy and just seems to happen and while that worked as a setup I'm about halfway through now and getting impatient with the lack of structure. Although I do like a lot of Barris' lines about being open to new perspectives and experiences so maybe I just need to take some of that to heart. I'm also realizing as I'm typing this that this may not be the best book to be reading on trains and in airports where I'm not always giving it my full attention and often have to stop and pick it back up.

I like the clockmaker Herr Friedrick Thiessen though. He made what was asked, was delighted to see it in use, took good notes and started a fan club. The line about wishing he'd been told it would be out of doors so he could do different varnish was very sweet. From how his first story ended I was not at all expecting him to show up again and now I'm curious how he'll play into things.
 
Speaking of Thiessen, most of the imagery in the book is working well for me, with one exception. I have a hard time picturing "a clock that functions as a clock" that also includes so many other fanciful or decorative elements. So in my head canon, he's performing interdimensional magic, perhaps without realizing it.
 
I have a vague memory of also being a bit dissatisfied with the main characters until a detail near the end of the book made something click for me. It's a strange...does it count as a twist? I don't remember. But it explained some things, at least in my eyes. Keep going!
 
Finished it. The writing is gorgeous but I found myself less and less interested in the main characters and more annoyed at them as time went on. Also so many characters were mistreated or killed and that fell a little flat for me. Just seemed to be thrown in to try to prove motivation I guess but I felt like it didn't always work.

The world-building is amazing. I loved basically every chapter that wasn't about Marco and Celia. I wanted more of all their stories, and while the book delivered a lot of that and the meandering is beautiful, I was still annoyed every time a new chapter started and was on Marco and Celia instead of anyone else.

Very glad I read it, I don't recall who nominated this one but thank you!
 
The club's 2026 intro post says it was Issun!

I'm not quite done--got a couple hundred pages to go--and even that early, am not impressed with the romance. It feels very "romantasy" with insta-love between characters who by my reckoning, are barely acquainted with each other. The friendships are much more convincing, such as Bailey's with the twins.
 
Finished this a couple days ago. I still liked it a lot, though maybe not quite as much as when I was a mid-20s hopeless romantic. I agree with everyone else here that the worldbuilding is the real star of the show, but I wasn't as down on the main characters as folks seem to be. I'll grant that they're not super interesting (Celia at least gets some development over the course of the book, unlike Marco) but they didn't bother me too much.

I have a little bit to say about the points that Rosewood is making, but I feel like I should wait until she finishes the book first!
 
Mine hasn't showed up. I don't think I'm going to be able to do this one with you all :( . I better check in on April and make sure I can get it now!
 
I'm getting there, VV. Took a couple days' break from it because 500+ pages of vibes is a lot.
 
Rosewood said:
I'm getting there, VV. Took a couple days' break from it because 500+ pages of vibes is a lot.
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I think you meant lincolnic? But I suspect you're also getting to the same conclusions I did about the characters based on your previous posts.

Violentvixen said:
Very glad I read it, I don't recall who nominated this one but thank you!
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Rosewood said:
The club's 2026 intro post says it was Issun!
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Thank you @Issun ! Hope you get a chance to read this book (if you haven't already).

Falselogic said:
Mine hasn't showed up. I don't think I'm going to be able to do this one with you all :( . I better check in on April and make sure I can get it now!
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Thanks for this reminder, turns out The God of Small Things has a bit of a hold list at my library so now I'm in the queue.
 
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this book is a love letter to the act of writing and to the english language. i do not remember a single thing about the plot or characters, only that her writing was a magic spell that created an atmosphere and mood like no other. it is a tone poem.
 
This just reminded me that Erin Morgenstern published another novel a few years back, The Starless Sea. I just requested it from the library.
 
lincolnic said:
This just reminded me that Erin Morgenstern published another novel a few years back, The Starless Sea. I just requested it from the library.
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Oh yeah, we did that for a TT book club back in 2022 it looks like. Seems like I had similar meandering concerns with that one, I personally liked Night Circus better.

shivam said:
this book is a love letter to the act of writing and to the english language. i do not remember a single thing about the plot or characters, only that her writing was a magic spell that created an atmosphere and mood like no other. it is a tone poem.
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This is a really interesting perspective, and why I think that overall I did like the book. Thinking of it as more poetic is a good idea.
 
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