Suffered by comparison. My loss.

The Night Circus
by Erin Morgerstern

I'm finding it impossible to review this book impartially because it suffered so poorly in comparison with its neighbors. Let me explain.

I started listening to the audiobook awhile back, while I was finishing up One Was a Soldier. (Not on purpose, but because I was having trouble with my book player.) Then I read Ghost, resumed with Circus while Patina was being shipped to my nearby library,listened to Patina, then resumed with Circus but also started reading Will's Red Coat. I try not to do stuff like this, but it just happened.

The Night Circus is beautiful, mysterious, fantastical, magical. Everything, everything is unreal. The characters--with the possible exception of Bailey--are fascinating but unconvincing--actors on a stage or zoo creatures in cages, pacing to and fro but not living a life in a real world.

Contrast that with Army veterans fighting flashbacks and nightmares. With a boy learning to face up to life's challenges, including the biggest challenge of all--controlling his temper. With a girl who loses her father and mother and pressures herself to replace them both. With a man opening up his house and his heart to give an aging dog a safe and happy place to die.

I don't want to admit I've lost my capacity to wonder. Some--nearly all--of the images in The Night Circus will live with me forever. It would make a superb animated movie. All it lacks, to prevent it being a masterpiece, is the human connection.