The Night Circus

The narrator (Jim Dale) seems to have the perfect voice for this novel.
Until he tries to do the various accents and female voices. His accents are terrible and his female voices sound like cross dressing lumberjacks. Distracting to say the least.
The story itself is boring and very slow. It's nothing but tone setting and creating images, the plot is almost non exsistant and secondary.

Plot first, THEN atmosphere.

No. His reading is very good but his character voices and attempts at accents are distracting and embarrassing.

I never listen to abridged versions, no matter how many filler chapters there are. If you deleted the droning tone setting scenes from this book it would be at least 50% shorter.

Strictly for flakes. The blurb for this book is very deceptive, almost nothing happens.

Jim Dales reading was excellent. The novel failed to deliver on the expectations it set.

Delivered on the promise of the novel. The reader is kept waiting for some sort of resolution, instead we are literally presented with a whole passage on how there are no longer any good stories (or are there).

No

No

You’re walking aimlessly through a bookshop looking for a new read. You don’t quite know what you are looking for but you feel as though you’ll recognize it when you see it…

I recognized The Night Circus the second I saw it as something I needed to read. Whether I would enjoy or even finish it I wasn’t sure but something told me that I needed to at least try.

This is not an easy book to define but I’ll do my best. It’s essentially two interwoven stories, one tells the tale of a boy visiting the circus each year or so when it passes through his town. He makes friends with two of the children who work in the circus with a charming kitten show and together they explore all the amazing wonders of the circus and it’s seemingly infinite number of tents. One holds a winter wonderland of snow and ice, another simply holds a bowl of perfect black stones that take away your tears for a night. From incredible to subtly beautiful the boy of course falls in love with the circus so the rest of the world is merely a grey blur in comparison.

The other story is that of the two magicians who created and are still creating the great circus. Marco and Celia are in love and though they met as adults they have been in love their whole lives, writing love letters to one another through each magical tent they create. But they are merely pawns in a bigger, darker game played between Celia’s father and Marco’s mentor. The two lovers have been pitted against each other in a battle of wills and power, a battle to the death.

The Night Circus is not for everyone. It doesn’t read like your usual linear story in fact it reads rather like a painting or rather one of those long tapestries. I’m not sure I would want to read too many stories written this way, but this was so beautifully constructed that I could possibly enjoy a few like it.

One thing I think I should mention - The narration didn't quite do this story justice. I can't really fault the narrator BUT I can't help but think this story would have been more enjoyable if read by an English lady.

Absolutely. The story is intricately and beautifully entwined with mystery and love. It's so jam packed with imagination and imagery, it's like watching a movie in your own head.

The imagery in this book is remarkable.

Jim Dale captured the different accents very well. Even the slightest change in nuance made it immediately obvious which character he was playing.

A deluge of dreams, mystery and love.

I was not sure what to expect having only read the reveiws of this book. It was a slow start and initially the narrators voice did not seem to suit, but after a while it began to become familiar and by the end I could not imagine an alternative. The story line is unusual and the descriptions are vivid but the plotline is rather convoluted and I would have preferred a more dramatic ending. But all in all very enjoyable.

This book is one of those random titles that you pick up, that turn out to be beyond everything you had hoped for!!

I found Night circus, the story, to be just magical as the circus it is set in.
the writer desribes every sight, smell and sound to the point where you feel like you reach out and touch it. the decriptive passages do how ever drag on a little and tend to break up the stroy where you least want it to. but this takes little away from the over all nature of the book

totally enjoyable to the last word!!

Challenging, Imaginative, Vivid

Bailey, it was him that you saw the wonder of the wonder of the circus through and it was him that ended up saving it.

Sukiko, I hope I spelt that right.

Poppet and Widget, I think they would the most interesting and the most fun

This was a very entertaining and fun book to listen to though you have to pay attention careful as it does jump through different time periods

I enjoyed this book but nothing really happened.

For my next listen, I will be looking for something with a little more substance. This is basically a boy mets girl story with a magic background.

The description of the circus and the people in it is wonderful.

The story is pretty conclusive and I dont see a follow up.

I dont know what demographic this book was aimed at, but perhaps a the young adult reader would appreciate it.