There were parts that I really took to. The opening chapters found a way to hook me in, short and tantalizing as they gave hints about the bigger story. The descriptions of the Night Circus, though not quite literary thaumaturgy at work, still helped me visualize Celia and Marco's world. But what of the rest? The book set the stage for a battle, but all I got was akin to foreplay. Celia and Marco were two people caught in a game not of their own shaping, but I didn't really feel them struggling against their bonds. In fact, they took to their kind of prison quite well -- and if the romance is any indication (not a spoiler to anyone who reads the book blurb before purchasing), they even welcomed it in a way -- so I felt the book did not have a central driving conflict behind it. I found myself interested in the characters but not really caring for them one way or the other, and I sincerely hope that it was my failing as a reader that led me to that conclusion.
Then there was the chronology. Events were chronological enough, but between their chapters was the story of Bailey (and the circus twins Poppet and Widget), which progresses separately at first but eventually ties in to the others. I would have been fine with it had it not been for some moments when the stories approach each other closely but never connect; I found it hard to jump between teenage Poppet and Widget in the Celia/Marco storyline and then back again to the Bailey one. It made my reading experience somewhat disjointed and from then on I could never really recover whatever magic The Night Circus was promising. When the story ended, I found myself drawn Bailey and the twins marginally more, even though they only appeared in a third of the book. It left me strangely empty, as if the experience of reading it had been as illusory as the magicks in the Night Circus.
6 comments:
I felt that all those magical moments were written to compensate or distract the reader from the lack of meat in it as you mentioned. I found myself a little bored with the Bailey chapters at the start but you're right, his chapters got interesting towards the latter part of the book. His chapters reminded me of Something Wicked This Way Comes though.
Now that you mentioned it, I understand what you mean! I only started caring for him and the twins towards the middle. At the beginning I really had this huge "Anong meron" question mark where he was concerned haha.
I also recall a Ray Bradbury short story that involves a traveling circus. I just can't remember the title right now.
It really felt like Ray Bradbury's story that sometimes when I try to think of the events in Bailey's chapters in the early part of the book, I come up with events from Something Wicked This Way Comes haha.
I finally remembered the Bradbury short I was referring to: "Pieta Summer" from We'll Always Have Paris. I'm not saying it's similar ha, I just remember the Americana meets the circus bits. Bailey's longing for the Night Circus reminded me of "Pieta Summer".
Thank you for putting into words what I truly felt about this book! Haha. It was building into something that was potentially epic (and I did love the descriptions of the circus) but the supposedly climactic battle was like Clash of the Titans without the actual clash. (Sorry, wala akong maisip na ibang comparison haha!) I liked Celia/Marco at the beginning but towards the latter part, I found myself more interested in Bailey and the twins and getting bored with the main couple.
Same here! I actually liked them well enough in the beginning but didn't understand where the Bailey chapters were heading, but I reversed my opinions of them towards the end. I wouldn't have minded if the battle didn't take place between them, but I kind of wished some confrontation between them and their 'masters' (sorry, wala akong maisip na word) had happened.
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