Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

An astonishment, and for all the wrong reasons Two mysterious illusionists have a long tradition of choosing contestants and then pitting them against each other in a display of magical strength. Why a `long tradition'? What are the illusionists trying to accomplish by re-staging the same contest over and over? I admit to doing a lot of skimming (this book is VERY boring), but as far as I know there's never any reason offered for the contests to be repeated, because this is one of those books that never offers much of an explanation for anything. Why don't the two illusionists just fight it out themselves? How did this contest tradition get started in the first place? Who are these guys, anyway? Dunno. And why do these guys have unusual abilities? Is it somewhat common in the world they inhabit, or are the characters in the book unique? Dunno. And what exactly is the nature of their abilities? Any limitations? Any costs? Dunno. So, anyway, leaving aside the question of why Morgenstern doesn't even make a little bit of an effort to make her world plausible, we have these illusionists with all kinds of poorly-defined abilities. Do these powerful people set out to cure cancer? Journey to Mordor to defeat the Dark Lord? Build a rocket to the moon? Nope, they create a circus, because these characters are far too shallow to do anything truly interesting or heroic. Oh, and the contestants also attend a lot of dinner parties and wear pretty clothes. In this they are exactly like all the other characters in the book. Nobody does anything but go to the circus, go to dinner parties, and wear pretty clothes. No one has any interest in anything but the circus, dinner parties, and pretty clothes. Oh, sorry. I forgot - they all like chocolate and cinnamon confections. Just imagine how exciting these characters are! I had the sensation of reading a novel about a handful of spineless blind worms wriggling aimlessly across the page. And then there's the exciting plot! Celia and Marco, the two contestants, know nothing about the nature of the contest, so they - not surprisingly - care nothing about it. So, if the two contestants care nothing about the contest, why on earth would the reader care? And this is pretty much the entire plot. Two contestants, and the game they know nothing about, and care even less about, The End. The `point' of the book, if `point' isn't far too flattering a term for this slovenly mishmash, is to describe the supposed wonders of the circus. Yawn. Really, reduced to its essentials, this is the entire book. Celia creates an astonishing illusion, and then Marco creates an astonishing illusion. I just don't get the appeal. I mean, what is sillier than inventing a bunch of illusions that don't have to have any reality in the actual world, and exist in a fictional world where the author hasn't bothered to introduce any constraints on the magic or to make the fictional world in any way internally coherent? And the writing? How's this?: Marco pulls her to him in an emerald embrace, so close that no distinction remains between where his suit ends and her gown begins. To Celia, there is suddenly no one else in the room as he holds her in his arms. But before she can vocalize her surprise, his lips close over hers and she is lost in wordless bliss. Yep, it really is that bad. So, what have we here? Any character in Night Circus is interchangeable with any other character, because they all lack, well, characteristics. None of them has any hopes or fears or interests or struggles or pretty much anything that would define a character. These non-characters stumble around purposelessly in a non-plot where nothing much ever happens. The writing ranges from barely passable to flat out bad. Anything that would make a novel a novel is simply missing here. Nevertheless, this book has garnered some good reviews and seems to be selling. It's a mystery. Must be magic.