The Night Circus is beautifully written, it's compelling, it's not simply a story told on paper to be read, it creates movies in your mind and becomes a sensory experience rather than a passive observation. 

This book is sure to win awards, but how do you say you enjoyed a book when aspects of the story were so horrid it almost became kindling?

This is part of the problem with the start of the book. If you're used to being a passive reader, to simply enjoying a story told, the level of commitment required here is unexpected. The opening chapters are dark, depressing and just yuck. We are introduced to our main players; Celia, age 6, who's mother has just committed suicide and goes to live with her magician/performer father...who then goes on to torture the child in an attempt to train her to use magic; and Marco, who's plucked from an orphanage by Mr A.H. who goes more for emotional abuse than physical abuse to motivate his "student". 

Because of the way the story is written the reader is living these moments, but there is no indication of the story, of what the final outcome will be, which makes it a very dark start, with no hope. I dare say many readers won't make it past the first hundred pages. 

The colouring of the night circus is very much a metaphor for the entire book. It starts out as the darkest blacks, then we start to see a little light and the world becomes grey, finally the light is all we have and the world becomes bright white. But through it all there are splashes of red, sometimes offering love on the greyness, sometimes death. 

It really is a truly spectacular book which is well worth the hype and praise surrounding it. It’s so rare to find a book that can provide a unique reading experience. The closest I can come to compare would perhaps be to suggest Oscar Wildes’ Dorian Grey vrs The Famous Five, yet that doesn’t come close to the magic and pageantry that is the Night Circus.

Like the circus itself, The Night Circus has many layers, and I think it will take repeated visits to truly discover them all.