#erin morgenstern
BOOK REVIEW: The Night Circus (2011) by Erin Morgenstern
Now that National Novel Writing Month has officially kicked off, I thought it might be nice to take a look at a novel that started out as a NaNoWriMo project and later became an international bestseller. In 2011 Erin Morgenstern wrote in her NaNo pep talk:
The circus was my variation on the wise and ancient NaNo wisdom: when in doubt, just add ninjas. I had this plodding, Edward Gorey-esque thing with mysterious figures in fur coats being mysterious and doing very little else. I got tremendously bored with it because nothing was happening so I sent the otherwise boring characters to a circus. And it worked. I ended up tossing that beginning and focusing purely on the circus. An imaginary location I created out of desperation expanded and changed and became its own story over many non-November months of revisions and more revisions and now it is all grown-up and book-shaped and published and bestselling. And it all started with NaNoWriMo.
Brilliant. Bring on the metaphorical ninjas!
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There are some books that make me ache for a place I can never go, or a person I can never be. This happened often when I was a child. I once longed to be a witch and study in the Ravenclaw tower. I still want to be a demigod, to fight alongside my Demeter siblings. As I have grown older, fewer books called to me in the same way. When I dropped out of college and was unsure about my career path, I dreamed about being a paper magician, to study only origami and hoe to bring it to life. Now there is nothing I desire so completely as to live in a harbor and sail the starless sea. I wish to live in a world where my neighbors love stories as much as me. I want to surround myself with books and cats and underground mysteries. I would walk through that door and never return.
The Starless Sea is a love letter to stories of all kind. Books, movies, and games are equally revered and enjoyed. Dorian and Zachary are the kind of couple I am most fond of; it is a story of longing thoughts and too much distance. Kat is an extroverted version of myself, or perhaps the sister I wish I had. The Starless Sea is beautiful in my favorite poetic way, and I wish I had a door. I would not live in a harbor, but I would always come back.
“Unreliable library lightbulb” is the most wonderful phrase.
Not necessarily a backlog papercraft, but still on the backlog!
Dropping this super fun illustration made for the book tin in Illumicrate’s The Night Circus 10th Anniversary collection box in collaboration with @erinmorgenstern , featuring Marco, Celia, Poppet and Widget!
I’m already a super fan of doing artwork for these tins, because the interactivity of there being an outside/inside or before/after with the lid offers so much opportunity for storytelling. With the previous DOSAB tin, we were able to mimic the setting of Brimstone’s shop literally acting as the door between worlds. Here, we have Marco welcoming guests into Celia’s tent, sneaking her a rose while she waits on the inside.
On the back, Poppet and Widget are seated on the main circus clock, one looking forwards, the other backwards. The spine shows a transition from the Bonfire to the Wishing Tree.I seriously can’t get enough of these tins, I use them for everything! ✨
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“The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not.”
―Erin Morgenstern,The Night Circus
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“You could have been a ballerina,” Mme. Padva remarks to Celia. “You are quite good on your feet.”
“I am good off my feet as well,” Celia says.
DID SHE JUST?????MISS MA'AM
“Did your wish come true?” //“I am not entirely certain yet.”//“You shall have to let me know,” Celia says. “I hope it does. I suppose in a way, I made the Wishing Tree for you.”
“I made a wish on this tree years ago,” Marco says // “What did you wish for?” Bailey asks, hoping it is not too forward a question // “I wished for her,” he says.
WILL I EVER RECOVER FROM THIS *SCREAMS*
Remember when Bailey’s sister told him to grow up and he replied with
“That is precisely what I’m doing,” Bailey says. “I don’t care if you don’t understand that. Staying here won’t make me happy. It will make you happy because you are insipid and boring, and an insipid, boring life is enough for you. It’s not enough for me. It will never be enough for me. So I’m leaving.”
Hey gurl you dropped something MY JAW
no but remember when Marco Alisdair asked Celia Bowen if she remembers all her audiences and she said she only remembers the ones who look at her the way he does and then he asked her what way might that be AND THEN CELIA SAID THE ICONIC “LIKE THEY CAN’T DECIDE IF THEY ARE AFRAID OF ME OR IT THEY WANT TO KISS ME” AND MARCO HAD THE ABSOLUTE AUDACITY TO ANSWER WITH “I’M NOT AFRAID OF YOU”-
The Night Circus - Erin Morgenstern✨
Review asked for by @paintingsandwords:)
I want everyone to read this book. Every single person that walks the planet! It’s absolutely magical so if you enjoy fantasy, then I implore you to give this book a go.
The Night Circus, written in 2011 by Erin Morgenstern, follows a range of characters who are all tied together by a challenge. A challenge where even the two rivals, Celia Bowen and Marco Alisdair, are unaware of the rules. The challenge lasts for years and the two begin by not knowing their opponent or when it will end. The venue for the challenge? A circus. Le Cirque des Rêves.
“Morgenstern’s exquisitely realised world will have the reader wishing to run off and join this circus” - USA Today. And I could not agree more! The circus itself is a magical one, an incredibly magical one. If you think you know what a circus entails, throw that knowledge out of the window because Le Cirque des Rêves is like nothing you’ve ever dreamt of. Morgenstern has a gift for descriptive writing. There were whole chapters that I couldn’t take my eyes off the pages for fear of losing the magic.
This book is filled with heartbreak, budding relationships, death and infuriating characters. One character who Morgenstern writes so well is Hector Bowen (Prospero the Enchanter). He is coldhearted and unloving of his daughter, Celia. But please don’t take my word on it. Read this book yourself and find your own reasons to hate the character. You watch the characters grow up and develop, and you take them in your arms. You are there for the birth of characters and the death of others. You read along as characters are faced with danger or difficult decisions. It truly feels like you are part of the circus from the second you open the front cover.
It is truly fantastic writing and I wish so much to be able to read it again for the first time.
If anyone reading this has also read it, please feel free to add your own (spoiler free!!) reviews in the comments below!
Happy reading!
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern:
“People see what they wish to see. And in most cases, what they are told they see.“
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Favourite Books - The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
“Our instructors do not understand how it is,” she says. “To be bound to someone in such a way. They are too old, too out of touch with their emotions. They no longer remember what it is to live and breathe within the world. They think it simple to pit any two people against each other. It is never simple. The other person becomes how you define your life, how you define yourself. They become as necessary as breathing. Then they expect the victor to continue on without that. It would be like pulling the Murray twins apart and expecting them to be the same. They would be whole but not complete. You love her, do you not?”
“More than anything in the world,” Marco says.
Tsukiko nods thoughtfully.
“My opponent’s name was Hinata,” she says. “Her skin smelled of ginger and cream. I loved her more than anything in the world, as well. On that cherry-blossom day, she set herself on fire. Ignited a pillar of flame and stepped into it as though it were water.”
(inspired by mmorrow’s magazine-type photosets)
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Yansımalar & Çarpıklıklar
Tabelada Aynalar Salonu yazıyordu ama içeri girince bir salondan fazlasını buldun.
Biraz beklediğin gibi, yerden tavana kadar uzanan, süsten uzak cam ayna yüzeyler yerine her biri farklı birçerçevede, değişen boyut ve biçimlerde yüzlerce aynayla karşılaştın. Aynalardan birinde olmayan eşarbın bir başkasında geri dönüverdi.
Arkadanda melon şapkalı bir adamın görüntüsü yansıyordu. Gerçi bazı aynalara yansıyor diğerlerinde görünmüyordu. Dönüp baktığında, aynada gördüğünden daha fazla müşterinin seninle birlikte salonu dolaştığını fark etmene rağmen, adamı bir türlü gözüne kestiremedin.
Salon yuvarlak bir odaya açıldı, içerdeki ışık sen girerken parlıyordu. Işık, bir sirk çadırından daha çok, bir sokağın köşesine aitmiş gibi görünen, tepesinde buzlu camdan bir şişesi olan yüksek, siyah demir bir direkten yayılıyordu.
Buradaki duvarlar, her biri yukarıda görünen tavandaki çizgilerle aynı hizaya denk gelecek şekilde yerleştirilmiş aynalarla tamamen kaplıydı ve zemin uygun renge boyanmıştı.
Odanın içinde ilerledikçe, içerisi, çizgilerin parçalı bir örüntüyle kendini tekrar edip durduğu, sonsuz bir sokak lambaları tarlasına dönüştü.
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Gece Sirki cumartesi günü Foyles,Westfield Stratford şehrine gitmiş.Alışveriş merkezi ve bir kitapçıyı ziyaret eden ekipteki uzun bacak ve kontorsiyonistte küçük bir gösteri yapmışlar.İşte o günden renkli kareler.Daha fazla fotoğrafa ulaşmak için tıklayınız.
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