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The Night Circus is enchanting.

What makes this story so fascinating is the fact that Marco and Celia are really more periphery characters than main characters. We learn more about them from other characters. In addition to their competition and love story, we meet the original creators of the night circus, a brilliant German clock maker, an average American circus savior, and the talented and mysterious performers of the circus. Many of these characters take center stage during various scenes and it is often through others' eyes that we learn the most about the young magicians. I love the many points of view that we get of the circus and its development.

One of the most unique aspects of the novel is how Morgenstern manipulates time. It's a bit disorienting at first as each chapter jumps from year to year. We begin with an agreement between Celia's father, Prospero, and Marco's mentor, Mr. A. H--, regarding the magical competition to take place in the night circus. Then the reader is transported through the stages of development leading to opening night of the night circus. It took me a bit to orient myself to the way the chapters change, but once I got it, I loved it!

My one qualm with the novel is the ending is a bit abrupt. I feel that the story is so beautifully written and the detail is so precise throughout the first parts of the novel that the ending feels a bit underdeveloped. We get so much leading up to Celia and Marco discovering that they are both competitors and lovers, but the finale lacks that same emotional climactic build up. I would like to hear more about exactly what happened to Celia and Marco (their alternate reality living is a bit confusing) and how a few other characters truly play into the ending (the contortionist, for example, clearly has an intriguing past, but we do not learn much about her).

What sets this story apart is that readers not only experience the story through the characters, but we also experience the circus for ourselves. Throughout the novel, chapters are included detailing experiences of the reader as we walk through various tents and exhibits in the circus. It adds a further sense of reality to the story.