The Night Circus by Erin Mordenstern

★★★★★

"The circus arrives without warning.  No announcements precede it.  It is simply there, when yesterday it was not."

" 'Stories have changed, my dear boy,' the man in the grey suit says, his voices almost imperceptibly sad.  'There are no more battles between good and evil, no monsters to slay, no maidens in need to rescue.  Most maidens are perfectly capable of rescuing themselves in my experiences at least the ones worth something, in any case.  There are no longer simple tales with quests and beasts and happy endings.  The quests lack clarity of goalor path.  The beasts take different forms and are difficult to recognize for what they are.  And there are never really endings, happy or otherwise.  Things keep overlapping and blur, your story is part of your sister's story is part of many other stories, and there is no telling where and of them may lead.  Good and evil are a great deal more complex than a princess and a dragon, or a wolf and a scarlet-clad little girl.  And is not the dragon the hero of this own story?  Is not the wolf simply acting as a wolf should act?  Through perhaps it is a singular wolf who goes to such lengths as to dress as a grandmother to toy with its prey."

"Someone needs to tell those tales.  When the battles are fought and won and lost, when the pirates find their treasures and the dragons eat their toes for breakfast with a nice cup of souchong, someone needs to tell their bits of overlapping narrative.  theres magic in that.  It's in the listener, and for each and every ear it will different, and it will affect them in ways they can never predict.  From the mundance to the profound.  You may tell a tale that takes up residence in someones soul, becomes their blood and self and purpose.  that tale will move them and drive them and who knows what they might do because of it, because of your words.  That is your role, your gift.  Your sister may be able to see the future, but you yourself can shape it, boy.  Do not forget that...there are many kinds of magic, after all."

"This is not magic.  This is the way the world is, only very few people take the time to stop and note it.  Look around you...Not one of them even has an inkling of the possibilities in the world, and what's worse is that none of them would listen if you attempted to enlighten them.  They want to believe that magic is nothing but clever deception, because to think it real would keep them up at night, afraid of their own existence."

"You're not destined for choosen, I wish I could tell you that you were if that would make it easier, but it's not true.  You're in the right place at the right time, and you care enough to do what needs to be done.  Sometimes thats enough."

Set in the world of a magical circus, this novel tells the story of Celia and Marco.  To bystanders, the circus is simply a world of entertainment and wonder, but it sets the stage for a competition between the two who have been trained since childhood.  As they get to know one another and eventually fall in love, they it becomes evident that only one of them is meant to be left standing at the end.

I can't say enough about this book and it is by far one of the best books I have read.  It had a wonderfully mysterious story and the description was breathtaking.  I loved the whole thing, but my favorite parts were the amazing descriptions of all of the magical and unique circus tents...I read them over and over again.  I really liked how the author used the different characters through out the novel to reveal tiny bits and pieces of the story.  I can't wait for Erin Morgenstern's next book to come out!!!

This book was #1 on my top ten list of 2012.