SUNDAY FUNDAY: WEEK IN REVIEW [17]

Cristina over at Girl in the Pages started Sunday Funday as a way to recap the bookish (and not-so-bookish) things that have happened that week.

October 20 – 26, 2014

Yesterday, I started The Walking Dead TV show. I’ve watched three episodes so far. It’s interesting to see it come to life because I’m used to words with pictures in my head, but this already had pictures. I think I’m going to do a reaction post for each season as I finish. What do you guys think about that?

I don’t have much planned for this week except for the usual: Top Ten Tuesday, Waiting on Wednesday, and maybe a Teaser Tuesday, so this week will be a fly by the seat of my pants kind of week. 🙂

Books read:

This week, I finished and reviewed The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. Today, I started Get Happy by Mary Amato. I also read several issues of comics: TWD, Batman and Robin, Edward Scissorhands (which will be reviewed on WatchPlayRead this week), Batman Eternal, and more. I got to read Once Upon an Alphabet by Oliver Jeffers at work; it was amazing, of course. I’ll probably review that soon! I also finished rereading Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater as an audiobook. It was pretty great. I think I’m going to do a review of that soon as well.

TBR:

Yesterday was Halloween ComicFest. I had a pretty awesome haul from that.

I also bought the latest issues of TWD, Batman and Robin, Bodies, Wild’s End, and Trees and the first issue of Arkham Manor, which I’m looking forward to checking out.

From the library, I checked out Marie Lu’s The Young Elites and Meg Wolitzer’s Belzhar. I’m so excited to read this, especially The Young Elites. I’ve heard such amazing things! Oh yeah, I also checked out Every Day by David Levithan, which I’m reading for the Magnolia Book Award here in Mississippi. I’ve been wanting to read that one for a long time, so yay!

What you might’ve missed:

My first blog tour! I participated in the Mortal Enchantment Blog Tour (Mortal Enchantment is by the lovely Stacey O’Neale)

I reviewed The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

I’ve been reviewing the comic series Bodies by Si Spencer over on WatchPlayRead. Check out my review of Issue #3.

I’ve also been reviewing Gotham over on WPR. My latest review can be found HERE.

Non-bookish things I’m excited about:

Hmmm. I’ve pretty much been in a bookish-only world recently.

I know this is a little early, but I’m going to see The 1975 next month, and I AM REALLY EXCITED. So yeah, definitely looking forward to that.

What about you guys? What’s new with you?

Book Review: The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

Author: Erin Morgenstern

Genre: Fantasy

Publisher: Anchor Books

Publication Date: July 2012 (paperback)

512 pages, paperback

Check out the synopsis on Goodreads.

This book was recommended to me by AT LEAST 10 people. Every one of those people raved about it saying it was amazing, etc. So of course I had to check it out. I don’t think I was a victim of the hype monster. At least, I tried to go into it with no expectations (but I suppose some of them were still there).

Overall, this book was okay. The beginning was really interesting, the middle part dragged, and the end was awesome. I’m finding it difficult to put into words how I felt about this book for that reason.

The beginning: What a COOL idea! A circus that arrives without warning as if it appeared by magic. It only opens at night and closes when the sun rises. Called the Circus of Dreams. There’s going to be a battle of sorts between two magicians/illusionists/enchanters/whatever you want to call them, and the circus will be their arena. This is a seriously interesting premise for a book, and I enjoyed that part quite a bit.

What I was more unsure of in the beginning was the writing. The novel begins in the second person. Yep, second person. I don’t find this very effective in any sort of writing except for an occasional short story. Thankfully, these sections are rare with probably only 15 in the whole novel, each only a couple of pages. Also, the sections that are the actual story are written in the present tense though they are set about a century or more ago. This threw me off too.

The middle: Jesus, the middle. I literally had to take a break from the book and read another book for two days because I honestly didn’t think I was going to be able to do it. I don’t EVER do this. I don’t like leaving one world for another while I’m reading, but I had to. I did want to find out what happened with the battle and what the endgame was and what would happen to each of the characters, but the middle section is practically pointless in my opinion.

The end: The last third of this novel is incredible. Starting with Part IV and continuing until the end of the novel. I was actually really into the novel this whole time and finished the last 120 pages or so in no time. It was exciting and had me on the edge of my seat, flipping pages as quickly as I could to see what happened. Such a difference from the middle when I was flipping pages as quickly as I could to get it over with. So it wasn’t until the last two parts that I found myself actually really like The Night Circus.

We get some beautiful scenes with Celia and Marco, the two illusionists who were supposed to be battling; they were poignant and sad and wonderful, and I just loved all of the little moments when they were together – these were some of my favorite parts. The end is beautifully wrapped up but not too perfect, which I appreciated.

So overall? It was okay. The last third did try to make up for that horrible middle section. This book is 512 pages; it could’ve been AT LEAST 150 pages shorter in my opinion. Most of that middle section could have been shortened to about 50 pages. I really did love that last third though.

This novel is very, very visual. The colors, places, characters, and circus are all easily pictured. To me, a lot of the novel read like a screenplay though; settings and characters described as if setting for a movie or TV show. Actually, this novel would be perfectly suited for either of those. Maybe a Guillermo del Toro movie or something.

The bottom line: This novel was not quite what I was expecting. It’s got a seriously cool concept but fell pretty flat for me, at least in the middle. The last third is awesome though. I do see why some people love this novel so much. Definitely worth a shot.

Rating: 6 – good, but not great

Quote Quoted: The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

I am STILL reading The Night Circus. I had to take a break from it, but now that I’ve picked it back up a few days later, I’m enjoying it more than I was before. So that’s good. I read this quote yesterday and I thought it was just a beautiful visual and really atmospheric. I had to share. 🙂

There is the softest of sobbing as the coffin is lowered into the ground, but it is difficult to pinpoint who it is coming from, or if it is instead a collective sound of mingled sighs and wind and shifting feet.

I just really liked it. So that’s it. I just wanted to share the quote.

Hope everyone has a good day!

Teaser Tuesday [2] – The Night Circus

Teaser Tuesday is a meme hosted by Should Be Reading. It’s super easy: open your current read to a random page and share two sentences from that page – but make sure you don’t spoil the book!

My current read is The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. I opened it to a random page – 273 – and this is the quote I want to tease you with (it continues onto page 274):

“Manipulation. I called it magic when I was younger. It took me quite some time to break the habit, though my father never cared for the term. He’d call it enchanting, or forcibly manipulating the universe when he was not in the mood for brevity.”

I like that, “forcibly manipulating the universe”. That’s an interesting way to phrase that. I’m enjoying this read so far. I’m about 100 pages in, but I’m moving through it pretty quickly.

If you participate in Teaser Tuesday, link me up! Or if you don’t, tease me with your current read in the comments!