The Night Circus - Erin Morgenstern

Yet another book that was all over the bookblogosphere (is that even a word?) a while back that I hadn't had a chance to read until now. The description sounded amazing so I really wanted to read it, and I went to the library anyway for some other books, so I figured, why not check it out now.

I really wanted to fall in love with this book, but just couldn't. I loved the idea of the circus, and the reveurs (a wonderful idea), but clunky writing kept interfering with my immersion in its world. Apparently no publishing house employs proofreaders or actual editors anymore - sad. And here's something: in real life I swear like a sailor at home, but go out of my way not to do so on this blog or in situations (work, classes, being in public places) where it isn't appropriate. This book has a single instance of the "F b0mb" that is completely unnecessary, since swearing isn't a general character attribute of the person who says it, for example. In addition, it's anachronistic, and pulls the reader out of the book. It's jarring and it annoyed me, since its only purpose seemed to be to make sure people know the book isn't YA. So if I, as someone who has no problem at all with encountering swear words of all kinds in books of all kinds, object to an author's single use of one, something is very wrong.

Speaking of YA, I think this would have been a MUCH better book if the author had focused on 2 younger characters - it could have been billed as a YA book that adults could also enjoy, and it might have worked a lot better than the plot as it stands now.

Overall I can't really recommend this book, as much as I would like to.