I've been scouring my local Value Village (a thrift store) for books lately ever since I started reading again a month ago. I've taken home some pretty awesome books, at dirt cheap prices. I took advantage of that and got some twenty books or something. I got pretty good copies (not beat up and torn, they look like they've only been read once) of the Hunger games, Insurgent, Lord of the Rings, Percy Jackson... And one thing that caught my eye was The Night Circus.

Just how beautiful is that cover? I kinda wanted a crooked photograph because the text and the little white lines become all holographic and colorful when viewed at a different angle, but obviously my phone didn't capture it. Oh well.

I've been following the blog of this local celebrity from the Philippines Saab Magalona and saw that she particularly mentioned this book. She gave it four stars on Goodreads and mentioned that it gave her some sort of "Harry Potter feel". Hmm. Okay. So when I saw it in Value Village I immediately grabbed it.

It was the best five bucks I ever spent.

The cover description goes like this:

The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night.

But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway—a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will. Despite themselves, however, Celia and Marco tumble headfirst into love—a deep, magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands.

True love or not, the game must play out, and the fates of everyone involved, from the cast of extraordinary circus per­formers to the patrons, hang in the balance, suspended as precariously as the daring acrobats overhead. 

That first line hooks people in. And the following statements can raise your expectations. I mean, a circus that arrives at night with some magic duels between people who are supposedly in love with each other? Interesting.

I personally loved it. A lot. And I mean really, really, really loved it. I have not been able to put down a book like this since Harry Potter. I mean, it's not comparable to HP, but it's as much as the highest praise I can give. I finished this book within two days. I read it on the way to work, during my breaks, on the way home, before going to bed... the spare time in the last two days were literally filled with this book. From the moment Celia was introduced, the first few chapters... I was hooked. It was like the circus cast a spell on me and refused to let me go.

I'll try not to ruin this for you in case you ever plan on reading it.

Celia Bowen is the daughter of Prospero, an acclaimed theatre magician. He was like no other magician though. He didn't use deception. He used actual magic. No sleeves, no smokes and mirrors, no tricks of the kerchief. Celia has powers of her own, but has still yet to hone her skills and control them, in which his father teaches her how.

An acquaintance of Prospero, a man in a grey suit that calls himself Alexander, shows up in one of his shows at the magician's invitation. After some tete-a-tete after the show, they organize a magic duel of some sort. Prospero introduces Celia as his "piece" in the game, and Alexander has to choose his. He chose a random boy from an orphanage, with no name but later dubs himself as Marco. After years of training on both sides, a stage of the duel was made. The Night Circus was born. 

They each have to one up each other, to try to show the other one and display better feats of magic. What they didn't see was that they would fall in love with each other. Marco fell head over hells flat the moment he set eyes on Celia, but she takes a little while to soften.  But since this magical circus is naught but a two-man act, it's inevitable that many people would be caught up in the tangle of the game. And for the game to end, one has to come to the point of surrender, to the point of death. Well, death, really. One has to die.

Sad.

What really caught me was the whole stage of the story, and I have been a sucker for historical settings recently. Add in a sprinkle of magic, and you have me coming back for more. It's like I can almost feel myself whirling around in the middle of the circus, trying to see everything all at once. I feel like Bailey in the story, sort of. And the magic was described in the tiniest of details. It's like seeing the act, seeing every drop of magic unfold and come to life before my very eyes. The vivid color changes, the transitions... I know I have a fickle imagination, and I guess that just helps me visualize the circus like a movie. A good adaptation of the story.

I know that for some readers, the story and the whole point of the game was stupid, along with the deceptive "fierce battle" as described in the cover was just... not fierce at all. It was more of trying to impress the other. I mean, Marco loves her, I understand, but I guess the readers were just looking for more magic, the synopsis being able to live up to what it's selling. It was like watching a trailer only to get your hopes up but just coming up short of the suspense once you actually watch it.

And yes, I agree the whole reason of the game was oh so what-the-fuck. If I could tweak the story a little bit, you know, add a dash of flair and show here and there, pack in a little action, just a little more and it would be complete for me. But then again who am I to do that? I could, but then again I could be deemed as one of those fanfiction wannabes attempting to "raise the bar" only to fail a thousand leagues under (yes, I will forever continue to hate that book). And for the hype... well, there wasn't that much of a hype (at least I think so), but it is worth checking out.

But like I said, I really enjoyed it, more so because it engaged my imagination in so many ways possible, tugging at mind, engaging my senses. It's been a while. And there was just the right amount of romance and sadness to make a lasting impression. Hours after I read the book, I could still feel the magic of the circus lulling me in, like leftover glitter clinging to my skin. I'm writing this review a week and half after I read it, and I could still grasp the magic even as it fleetingly settles like silt underwater in my memory. That was how much of an effect it had on me. It just stayed with me. And I didn't want to shake it off.

Overall, it cast a spell on me. It may fall a little bit short on the whole purpose of the game, and the email address at the end kind of ruined it for me, but then again I guess you would be in the circus at the present time, while I envisioned myself just a few years after the story came to be. But that was a small price to pay for a sumptuous book.

Gist: 9/10

I recommend it, use your imagination, put yourself in the middle of the circus, envision yourself as a reveur and willingly take in the magic Celia and Marco cloaked it in.