The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern EPUB_KAT_CybEx

The Night Circus is a 2011 fantasy novel by Erin Morgenstern.

It is a phantasmagorical fairy tale set near an a historical Victorian London in a wandering magical circus that is open only from sunset to sunrise. Le Cirque des Rêves, the Circus of Dreams, features such wonders and "ethereal enigmas" as a blooming garden made all of ice, acrobats soaring without a net, and a vertical cloud maze where patrons who get lost simply step off and float gently to the floor. The circus has no set schedule, appearing without warning and leaving without notice; they travel in a train disguised as an ordinary coal transport.

The circus serves a darker purpose beyond entertainment and profit. The magicians Prospero the Enchanter and the enigmatic Mr. A.H— groom their young proteges, Celia Bowen and Marco Alisdair, to proxy their rivalry with the exhibits as a stage. As the competition continues, straining both competitors with no sign of a conclusion nor of how a winner will be determined, others connected with the circus start to notice strange events connected to it; the blueprints disappear from the designers' offices, and the performers appear bound to the circus and can never fail, leave permanently, have accidents, or even age.

The book has been extensively promoted, often with mention of Harry Potter or Twilight, but also in comparison to Neil Gaiman, Something Wicked This Way Comes, or Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. Ron Charles writing for The Washington Post compares Morgenstern's imagery to Steven Millhauser's, albeit with "more playful and more dramatic surrealism". Olivia Laing writing for The Observer compares the book to an "eminently intriguing cabinet of curiosities" with an intricate but unmoored setting and colorful but clockwork characters. Laura Miller writing for Salon likewise praises the "aesthetic fantasia with all the trimmings" but not the plot itself. Sarah Stegall writing for SFScope praises the vivid imagery, predicting that it should be nominated for literary awards.

The Night Circus was a candidate for the 2011 Guardian First Book Award. It won an Alex Award from the American Library Association in 2012. The novel spent seven weeks on The New York Times Best Seller list, reaching number two on the hardcover fiction list.

(sourced and edited from wikipedia)