"Gates Open at Nightfall and Close at Dawn: Trespassers Will Be Exsanguinated"

Hi Megan,


The Night Circus was, in a word, stunning. It is not often that you come across such vivid prose, and I quickly found myself lost in this mystical world.  Truthfully, Erin Morgenstern's prose is so beautiful, I find the prospect of writing a response to such work intimidating, as anything I write could hardly do justice to her masterpiece. But first, to the plot.

This is the illustration found on the UK cover. I must admit, I prefer it to the USA  cover. 

The content of the book was everything I could hope for in a novel.  I love a good romance, and I love a a world where what would be considered "supernatural" or "magic" on our plane of existence is part of everyday life. Granted, the circus is able to succeed as an elaborate illusion precisely because the laypeople who wander through it's gates are ignorant of such forces, but for those characters around whom the story revolves, manipulating magic is as natural to them as breathing.  And if these two elements where not enough, there is an underlying pursuit of knowledge and love of books that drives many of our main characters.  Since this is something I relate too, it's just one more thing Morgenstern has given me to love about this book. Consequently, my favorite chapter was "Stories," where the grey man has those beautiful monologue on the history of stories, how they've changed over the years, and why we still need them. If the quotes weren't so long, or if I could find an image of them, I'd include them here, it's that beautiful.


That being said, I agree that the romance seemed to blossom too late in the novel. I certainly saw it coming, and the constant interruptions to that plot line often left me angry.  While I could appreciate the story of Bailey and the twins, more often than not I wanted to skip ahead until I was able to read more about Celia and Marco's developing passion. Perhaps, should I re-read this novel in the future, I'll attempt to read each individual storyline in a more linear fashion, skipping ahead and reading a single character's story straight through. It would certainly provide a different perspective.


It's interesting that the timing of the novel proved to be such an issue for you. I, like you, consider myself to be a lazy reader, but that being said I had no problem orienting myself in the different time frames. Perhaps it is because I am lazy and don't pay enough attention to the time period that it didn't cause me any problems (and when I did try, I simply forgot when the last chapter was, and where that lay in comparison to when I was then). Maybe one day we should revisit this novel, and you can read it chronologically while I follow specific narratives, and then compare notes once again!


Alas, I'm almost out of space! So I'll be quick.  Like I said in my opening, I fell in love with Morgenstern's writing.  For some authors, the challenge of describing such a unique and interesting world would be too much.  Yet Morgenstern, like Marco, is able to create a flawless illusion, and I instantly felt like I belonged in that world of awe and wonder.  Truthfully, though the movie rights for her book have already been sold, what I'd like best is to see this reproduced as a graphic novel.  Her universe is that of an artist, and I feel it could only be done justice on a two dimensional plane, where a collaboration of artists could bring life to her surreal world (just as the collaboration of Marco and Celia brought life to her circus!).


Now, I shall close with a few parting links to some fan sites. Enjoy the pictures! I certainly did :)

From the blog, "A Touch of Crimson"

A fansite with links to a Pintrest board dedicated to the book. 

I can't wait until our next letter!


Keep Calm and Read On,
Becca




PS~ I am not a big Dickens fan, neither have I read Water for Elephants, hence my lack of response on those two subjects!

A Brief Reunion

Then, after months of separation, our two bloggers were reunited for one brief weekend.

It was a glorious time of country music, scorching sun, and mountains of books.

However, since the bookworms were busy spending their days together out of doors hunting down their favorite authors, they regretfully neglected their reading.

Consequently, new posts will not be up until the end of the weekend. 

We apologize with this grainy bar photo.

Cheers!

B&M

The Lightning Thief

Hi Megan!

Picking the first Young Adult novel for review proved to be far more difficult than I anticipated.  Truthfully, with the way I devour any and all books from that genre, I thought it would be quite easy. But for my first review, I wanted to choose a book of note. So when my first two choices, Switched by Amanda Hocking and Birthmarked by Caragh O’Brien, were only “okay,” entertaining but not thought provoking or awe-inspiring, I was frustrated to say the least (however, you should still totally read them. Just saying). Fortunately, my fall-back proved to be just as good as the hype surrounding it suggested. I am talking, of course, about Rick Riordan’s The Lightning Thief.

While I am not above reading a book because it’s receiving a lot of media attention, my primary interest in The Lightning Thief comes from its basis in Greek mythology.  As a kid, I read my Grandma’s Readers Digest book about Myths and Legends, especially those of Greek heroes and heroines. And while it’s been years since I’ve explored the subject, I still have that child-like love for tales of supernatural forces and insurmountable quests.

Now, to the book review. Boy, does Riordan know his way around a compelling introduction. The opening words are of warning--beware the reading of this book, because once such things are read they cannot become unknown. Not only did it remind me of Lemony Snickett's A Series of Unfortunate Events, but it really is an ingenious strategy for attracting young boys (and girls).  Assuming his ideal audience is around 10 years old, when kids are are feeling the first stirrings of adulthood and determined to push the boundaries of what is deemed permissible by authority figures, telling a child to put the book down immediately is sure to have the opposite effect. As an adult reader, such an introduction is just as poignant, since I was immediately drawn into the page's forbidden content.
The remainder of the text was just as compelling as the opening words. Though this story lacks the romantic subplot typical to many of my reading choices, I did enjoy the break from the romance plot line. Instead I was transported to a place where, while the young body may be feeling those first inklings of attraction for a friend, such things were frivolous in light of the tasks ahead whose outcomes would determine the fate of the universe! The hero, young Perseus Jackson, also has a very adult sense of sarcasm, which can again be appreciated by both adolescent and aged readers.
What's perhaps most fun about reading this book, in a nerdy, English-major-y sort of way, is finding all the ways The Lightning Thief conforms to what we learned in our Children's Lit class. Remember that class? We hadn't met yet, but later when we were paired for our thesis work, we discovered that we had both been enrolled in the course. Most of the time when I read books for pleasure, I try not to analyze it from a literary perspective, preferring to let any insights come to me naturally rather than forcing them. This is one such book where my analytic training not only kicked in, but actually functioned to make the book much more compelling. I won't give anything away, but I can't wait to hear what sort of things you pick up on.

Keep Calm and Read On,

Becca

The Night Circus

Dear Becca,

I had high hopes for The Night Circus since it was the catalyst for starting this blog and I am happy to say that it did not disappoint. Admittedly, I didn’t know much about the actual storyline before I decided I wanted to read the book. I just knew that it was a debut novel about a very mysterious circus and had gotten excellent reviews. The Night Circus was much darker than I anticipated but luckily it did not have a noticeable impact on my dreams, as many novels have been known to do. The story was fast paced enough to keep my attention during the Bart rides to work and I finished it within two weeks.

Since I had so little knowledge of the plot going into it, I didn’t realize that a romance is so central to the plot. (Had I known this, I would have been all the more eager to read it!) I don’t want to give away too much, but I felt like the real romance developed relatively late in novel and I would have enjoyed seeing more of it. I’ll be curious to hear your feelings on this.

I was very pleased with the narrative style, an omniscient narrator who focuses on different characters in the circus as needed. I was desperately trying to avoid a Dickens comparison, but I’m just not going to be able to do that. The narration feels Dickensian in that it follows each character just enough so that you get a good sense of the community and a vivid impression of everyone important within it and how they weave together. Just as the circus goers are lost in the world of the Night Circus, I was lost in it as well.

Have you read Water for Elephants? At first, The Night Circus reminded me of Water for Elephants because you are so immersed in the life and background of the circus, which turns out to be quite dark in both situations. However, as the novel progressed, it reminded me more and more of The Time Traveler’s Wife, which is also dark in its own way. Like Clare and Henry’s, Celia and Marco’s relationship face many challenges, challenges that are more supernatural than those that most normal relationships have to face. Yet another similarity, though, was the manipulation of time and how the narrative bounces back and forth between years. I would be curious to re-read the book and read the chapters in chronological order.

Speaking of which, the fact that the chapters jump around between different time periods was actually my major pet peeve with this book. It’s worth the work, trying to figure out which year you’re in and it’s really not terribly difficult to keep track of, but as a fairly lazy reader, I prefer to sit back and read the novel straight through, without having to think that hard when this is all taking places. Instead, I felt like I was getting jolted back and forth from one year to the next. It works quite well though, always keeping you a little bit lost. Just like you are in the circus!

I think you’re really going to like this one!

Until we read again,

Megan