🌜The Night Circus Book Review🎪: Mysteries Explained + Fan Goodies
Answering questions about The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern with my own fan theories, plus technique analysis
Since I began last year’s first book-battle review post with “The Starless Sea” by Erin Morgenstern, it seems only fitting that I should start this new year with an in-depth review of her first book “The Night Circus.” I was told I would love it, and ohhhhhh did I ever!
Settle in for a fan rave about this book that I really think everyone should read (and I am pissed that they bought the movie rights to it and HAVE NOT FILMED IT YET! (What is taking SO LONG, producers?? 😠 Do you even realize how many people would stream this on Netflix in a heartbeat??)
Contents:
The Plot (with fan art! *made by real people*)
Questions about the Night Circus answered!
What I loved about the writing: Technique
The MERCH
The Plot (with fan art! *made by real people*)
I’ve had a thing for magicians ever since I saw exceptional films like “The Illusionist” and “Now You See Me.” Learning that “The Night Circus” is basically a competition of magicians battling to the death (in a circus) who fall in love with each other was really all the pitch I needed to devour this epic fantasy book.
This book is actually ABOUT the circus, though. The circus itself is the real main character, and we see it appear “without warning,” only opening at night, and we enter it, and slowly we discover how it was created, and by whom, and how it becomes a living magical creation = the battleground of the children of the greatest magicians in the world who are arch enemies.
Marco was an adopted orphan, chosen by his surrogate “father” (mysterious Alexander in a “grey suit” whom no one really knows) for his keen reflexes and intelligence to prove the point that any good student can learn the most powerful magic created through material elements and intentions, like charms.
His opponent Celia is the biological daughter of the great magician Prospero, whose magic relies more on intuition and instincts, and he believes the greatest illusionists are born that way, with natural talent.
What the pair of students don’t know is that they are bound to a battle to the death to prove which type of magic is stronger.
Like his adopted father, Marco conceals who he really is and pretends to be ordinary while creating extraordinary things in the circus secretly that everyone thinks are tricks (except they are real magic).
Celia watches these incredible creations appear (like the cauldron burning a white flame that never goes out) and knows they were created by the opponent, but she can’t figure out who it is until one day she accidentally takes his enchanted umbrella that completely repels rain all around her…
…and Marco comes forward to claim his umbrella. Then they finally see each other for who they are…
However, Celia doesn’t trust him and keeps her distance as they create more astonishing exhibits within the Circus to see who can make the most elaborate things (we get an entire garden made of ice, completely with ice-petal roses, and a wishing tree with enchanted flames, and so many more wondrous creations).
Marco had a girlfriend named Isobel that he’d hooked up with quickly when he was lonely during his training, and she reads Tarot cards. Isobel can see in the cards (sadly) that Marco and Celia will likely have an affair, but that it will result in destruction that threatens the whole circus that they uphold with their magic. Thus, Isobel restrains them with a secret charm…(more on that later)…because she also loves Marco and doesn’t want to lose him.
However, Marco is absolutely smitten with Celia from the first time he sees her and becomes totally obsessed with being near her. He begins creating Circus exhibits just to please her, like 3D love letters, and Celia finds herself falling for him slowly as well.
The moment that absolutely shook me was when Marco tries to quit The Game and admits to his “adopted father” (The Man in the Grey Suit “Alexander”) that he loves Celia…only to learn that it’s impossible to quit and live an ordinary happy life with her. He adamantly defies his father and runs out into the middle of the ballroom just to kiss her at last, only to make everyone who saw it forget that it happened afterward. ❤️🩹🥲
Then there were the beautiful moments when Marco came to visit Celia at the Circus, yet she finally pushes him away when she learns that they cannot escape the Circus because they were cursed into this battle, and she decides she will kill herself because she becomes exhausted of maintaining all the illusions and cannot bear the thought that they can’t be together. They all try to find a way out, but they cannot.
(I’m guessing this image is meant to be in front of the Wishing Tree):
At last, another powerful magician steps in to end it because she can’t stand watching this battle end just like the last one had (where one of the contestants had also killed herself to end it because they had fallen in love too and had the same dilemma, sadly)…plus as Celia is growing weaker, the magic in the Circus weakens and threatens the lives of many people who depend on it by now.
The other magician Tsukiko plans to kill Marco rather than Celia through some sort of “magical curse/death” that will trap his spirit in an object, like a tree…but then Celia steps in because she can’t bear to be parted from him…
And you’ll have to read the rest! 😉
Questions answered: What did it all mean?
**These are obviously my personal theories, but I have backed them up with excerpts from the book 😁
Why was Isobel's magic (the Tarot reader) so powerful that Celia could no longer hold the circus together comfortably (after Isobel destroys the charm she made)?
First of all, Celia was already struggling to hold the circus together before Isobel destroyed the charm that she made.
The charm Isobel made wasn’t holding the circus together; it was slowing down Marco and Celia’s romance to create a virtual obstacle between them and keep them apart so that their forces would stay opposing each other. The tension between Marco and Celia created a balance that supported the whole circus. Isobel could see the danger inherent in Marco and Celia’s relationship because of what she saw about them in the Tarot cards she read about their future. Isobel knew that for Marco and Celia to be together meant the circus would fall apart, and one or both of them might die. Thus, Isobel’s charm was meant to make them more cautious and give them more self-control to stop them from destroying themselves and the circus out of their desire to be together.
What Isobel saw about the destruction inherent in Marco and Celia’s relationship is hinted at when Isobel gives Celia a Tarot reading in the cafe, (while Isobel was waiting for Marco and then finally realized he wasn’t coming to meet her.)
On pages 198-199 it says:
“There’s nothing that I can clearly see as good or bad, but it is.. intense." Isobel pushes the cards around a bit, Le Bateleur and La Papessa surrounded by fire-tinged wands and watery cups. The crackle of the fire next to them mingles with the rain pattering against the windows. "It almost contradicts itself, she says after a moment. "It's as if there is love and loss at the same time, together in a kind of beautiful pain."
“…At the same time, it seems to be more of a reading for the circus as a whole than for Celia in particular, but it is so emotional that it overwhelms the details.”
Now another important point: Isobel was learning the basics of magic from Marco.
What I got from that was that when she first met Marco, he was teaching her a few things about magic to impress her and for fun.
It started on page 49:
ISOBEL SITS IN A RARELY OCCUPIED ARMCHAIR in the corner of Marco's flat, a rainbow of silk ribbon twisted around her fingers as she attempts in vain to form it into a single elaborate braid.
"This seems so silly," she remarks, frowning at the tangle of ribbon.
"It's a simple charm," Marco says from his desk where he sits surrounded by open books. "A ribbon for each element, bound with knots and intent. It's like your cards, only influencing the subject instead of simply divining its meaning. But it won't work if you don't believe it will, you know that."
Then we see what Isobel did with this lesson and the charm she made later:
pg. 348- 349:
Isobel places the box upon the table and brushes a thick layer of dust off the top, though much of it still sticks to the knotted ribbons. She hesitates, and thinks for a moment that it would be better to leave it alone, to return it to its resting place.
But it does not seem to matter any longer.
She unties the ribbons slowly, working the knots out with her fingernails. When they are loosened enough for her to remove the lid, she pulls it off gingerly, as though she fears what she might find inside.
Inside the box is a hat.
It is just as she left it. An old black bowler hat, showing some wear around the brim. It is tied with more black and white ribbons, wrapped like a present in light and dark bows. Beneach the knots of the ribbon there is a single tarot card. Between the hat and the card there is a folded white lace handkerchief, its edges embroidered with looping black vines.
They were such simple things. Knots and intent.
She had laughed through her lessons, much preferring her cards. They seemed so straightforward in comparison, despite their myriad meanings.
It was only a precaution. Precautions are wise in such unpredictable circumstances. No stranger than bringing along an umbrella for a walk on a day that feels like rain, even if the sun is shining brightly.
…
Isobel lifts the hat carefully from the box, the long ends of the ribbons spilling in a waterfall around it. It is oddly pretty, for being an old hat and a handkerchief and a card tied up in fraying ribbon. Almost festive.
"The smallest charms can be the most effective," Isobel says, taken aback when her voice catches, almost on the brink of tears.
The hat does not reply.
"I don't think you're having any effect at all," Isobel says.
Again, the hat has no reply.
She had only wanted to keep the circus balanced. To prevent two conflicting sides from causing damage to each other or their surroundings.
To keep the scales from breaking.
Over and over in her mind, she sees them together in the ballroom.
She remembers snatches of an overheard argument. Marco saying he had done everything for her, a statement she had not understood at the time and forgotten soon after.
But now it is clear.
All the emotion in the cards when she would try to read about him, it was all for Celia. The circus itself, all for her. For every beautiful tent he creates, she builds one in return.
And Isobel herself has been helping to keep it balanced.
Helping him. Helping them both.
She looks down at the hat in her hands.
White lace caressing black wool, ribbons intertwined.
Inseparable.
Isobel tears at the ribbons with her fingers, pulling at the bows in a sudden fury.
…The handkerchief floats down like a ghost, the initials
C.N.B. legible amongst the embroidered vines.
The tarot card falls to the ground, landing faceup. The image of an angel is emblazoned on it, the word Tempérance is lettered beneath.
Isobel stops, holding her breath. … She reaches down to retrieve the fallen card, but her hand freezes just above it when she hears something. For a split second it sounds like the squealing brakes of a train.
It takes a moment for Isobel to realize that the noise coming from outside the tent is actually the sound of Poppet screaming.
At the moment Isobel destroys the charm after Marco tells Isobel that he’s in love with Celia and breaks up with Isobel, then the whole Circus begins to collide and fall apart around the fire of Celia and Marco’s now unhindered romance.
The purpose of Isobel’s charm was “temperance,” to slow them down so that they couldn’t be together so quickly or easily because she loved Marco.
This is confirmed on pg. 369:
Marco: “Something threw off the balance and I cannot figure out what it was."
"It was Isobel," Celia says.
"What?"
"The charm Isobel put over the circus, over you and me. I knew about it, I could feel it. I didn't think it was doing much of anything but apparently it was. I don't know why she chose tonight to stop." Marco sighs.
"She chose tonight because I finally told her that I love you," he says. "I should have done it years ago, but I told her tonight instead. I thought she took it well but clearly I was wrong. I haven't the slightest idea what Alexander was doing there."
"He was there because I invited him," Celia says.
"Why would you do that?" Marco asks.
"I wanted a verdict," she says, tears springing to her eyes again. "I wanted this to be over so I could be with you. I thought if he came to see the circus that a winner could be determined. I don't know how else they expect it to be settled.”
As for the question on:
Why did Celia and Marco have to do anything if it's just a last-man standing competition?
Erin Morgenstern herself said in a BBC interview about it that the whole circus and the magician’s battle was essentially “a dog fight.”
They are meant to exhaust themselves, so they had to keep creating and maintaining enchanted circus exhibits as shows of their strength (is what I believe). They have to keep pushing themselves to see how much they can build.
On pg. 403:
"It has to kill one of us," Celia says quietly.
"What?" Marco asks.
"The one who survives is the victor," she says. "The winner lives, the loser dies. That's how the game ends."
"That—" Marco stops, shaking his head. "That cannot be the intent of this."
"It is," Celia says. "It is a test of endurance, not skill. I'm attempting to make the circus self-sufficient before.." She cannot say the words, still barely able to look at him.
"You're going to do what your father did," Marco says.
"You're going to take yourself off the board."
"Not precisely," she says. "I suppose I was always more my mother's daughter."
"No," Marco says. "You cannot mean that."
"It's the only way to stop the game."
"Then we'll continue playing."
"I can't," she says. "I can't keep holding on. Every night it becomes more difficult. And I ... I have to let you win."
"I don't want to win," Marco says. "I want you. Truly, Celia, do you not understand that?"
Celia says nothing, but tears begin to roll down her cheeks.
She does not wipe them away.
"How can you think that I don't love you?" Marco asks.
"Celia, you are everything to me. I don't know who is trying to convince you otherwise, but you must believe me, please."
She only looks at him with tear-soaked eyes, the first time she has held his gaze steadily.
Structural technique I love
The Circus is everything:
The 🎪 setting = main character = core conflict = living & evolving creation of the opponents
As the book opens, first we meet the main character: The Circus.
(Why do I say this? Because typically the main character appears in or is discussed/ referred in almost every scene. Also, without the main character, a story should fall apart…and technically there is no story without the circus.)
Then the story moves onto the people/forces that created The Circus: Celia as a young girl delivered to her magician father Prospero. He then shows his talented magic daughter off to his rival, Alexander (a.k.a. Grey Suit), who agrees to the challenge and goes to an orphanage and picks a boy to be his pawn in the game. These are the main conflict drivers leading to the creation of The Circus.
The story then alternates between the chapters of the magic lessons each of the opponents undergoes over the years, and then the financier Chandresh Cristophe Lefevre is brought in after having been influenced (I’m suspecting) to create a circus unlike any that has ever existed before.
Thus the stage is fully set, and the magicians’ duel begins as they show off their enchanted “feats of strength” to crowds who believe they are all illusions (except they’re really magic). Thus the Circus becomes a visible manifestation of the magicians’ war.
Structurally, it is a gripping way to lay out a story that works extremely well with the pacing and creates a fantastical world.
Interview with the Author Erin Morgenstern
I just have to mention that this interview about the book is my favorite out of all of them. And to all writers who work through a story slowly, take heart because Erin shares how it took her years to create her main character because she spent so much time creating her incredible circus setting that’s the real star of the show. So yes, great art can take time 😁
Listen to Erin’s BBC interview about The Night Circus here.
The Night Circus Merchandise 🤩
Ok, so obviously you need a red scarf to show that you’re a true fan or “reveur” (dreamer) like the fans in the book who follow the circus around the world, so here you go:
You can get this scarf at this online store Shopperboard.
And yes, it has the opening of the Night Circus’ famous prologue printed on it “The circus comes without warning…”
There’s even this beautiful enamel pin on Etsy Night that says “Le Cirque des Rêves”:
There are also these writing gloves with pages from The Night Circus printed on them, perfect for artists and composers and wordsmiths of all sorts (they come in black AND red 😉):
And last but certainly not the least at all is the Phantomwise Tarot deck that the author Erin Morgenstern hand-painted herself since she got inspiration from Tarot while working on this novel. (International orders of the Phantomwise Tarot can be made through the publisher Penguin here.) The whole deck is black and white like the circus, with shades of grey, and it’s absolutely lovely.
Ok, I love the Tarot deck so much I’m adding a video preview for you to see it:
Thanks for reading, as always, and please feel free to share this post with a friend, no strings attached:
Did you read The Night Circus? Tell me what you thought:
P.S. I’ve written loads of other book reviews that you can find here: