The Night Circus is probably one of the greatest fantasy novels I've ever read and after discovering it on my "one random book a week" challenge [Where I pick one random book to read that I either find, get recommended or just see on my Amazon homepage] I loved the entire thing. After being written in 2011 [originally for NaNoWriMo], this novel is perfect for light-reads and for using as an analysis text (which I did).
Characters:
My favourite character is probably Celia as she seemingly represents this state of heroine forced between right and wrong, friends and family, magic and reality and ultimately life and death. Her whole life is like a chess board - black or white with no grey area. She must make decisions that you cannot see characters like Poppet and Widget, Bailey or even Marco or Tsukiko making.
Themes:
Obviously, the very best theme is the theme of binary realities. Black and White with no grey area. The constant symbol of the chessboard adds to this - and so do the states of Celia's decisions. These all finally build to the grand finale in which Celia must choose between life and death in order to save or kill her opponent (Marco) who is also her lover. This includes betraying Tsukiko and Prospero (her father) and intentionally killing herself. Her choices are solely binary: Lover or Family, Life or Death and Save or Kill. I think this is amazingly explored and deserves more recognition as a major theme. Also, if you want to check out more stuff to do with the binary reality in narrative - check out this theorist: Tzetan Todorov and his Theory of the "Equilibrium". I bet you've heard me mention him more than once - he's quite easy to read so why not have a go and impress your friends with your English Literature Nerd-ism. [I do not own the slides used on this link].
Storyline:
The storyline is amazing, filled with strange and macabre ideas - you can just imagine the Saint-Saens song Danse Macabre playing in the background as you read it. It's amazing, really - don't believe me? Read it for yourself!
[Also, it's really good to listen to that song in the background when you do read it. I'm a huge advocate for getting into book moods].
Verdict:
I give this book 9/9
100% for character: I really do love Celia and Marco and Poppet and Widget and Tsukiko and even Prospero and the rest of them! I can't choose and it was really difficult to decide that Celia was my favourite character!
100% for themes: I really got into the theme of binary reality and love the way it's written because it represents that it wants you to make the decision with Celia and carry on reading in order to find out her fate. Her and Marco are the Black and White of the game in The Night Circus.
100% for storyline: The way this book is written makes it an excellent YA novel and a brilliant light read - I love re-reading it in my spare time and having it on hand whenever all my textbooks are getting too boring and I want something fun and exciting!
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