#le cirque des reves

[the-angry-acrobat]

Celia Bowen is such an amazing character omg. She’s intelligent, and mysterious, and hilariously funny. She’s theatrical. She has anger issues. She loves tea. She yearns. She’s full of love, and she’s full of trauma. She had a really tough childhood. She carries the anger of the women before her. She is constantly scared of breaking things and not being able to fix them. She’s tragic. She is both disaster and miracle. She’s powerful. She’s exhausted all the time. She is always trying to hold things together and lives with the fear of her world falling apart and losing the people she cares about and the people caught up in the game. She’s stubborn. She loves books. She’s lonely. She is hard to reach. She longs to be free. She suffers because of her parents and their own tragedies. She has a monster of a father. She isn’t used to being loved and doesn’t know what to do when she is loved. She cares so deeply about people. No one knows the extent of which she is trying to keep everything together. She suffers from heartbreak and from lack of sleep. She loves birds, especially doves and ravens. She’s always observing people. She’s always trying her hardest. She’s so complex and interesting. I love her so much <3

[thelastofthebookworms]

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[thelastofthebookworms]

Quotes from The Night Circus :

The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not.

Strange, isn’t it? To love a book. When the words on the pages become so precious that they feel like part of your own history because they are. It’s nice to finally have someone read stories I know so intimately.

'Be brave,’ she says. ‘Be bold. Be loud. Never change for anyone but yourself. Any soul worth their star-stuff will take the whole package as is and however it grows. Don’t waste your time on anyone who doesn’t believe you when you tell them how you feel.'

 "But I remember the people who look at me the way you do." "What way might that be?" "As though they cannot decide if they are afraid of me or they want to kiss me." " I am not afraid of you," Marco says.

Found Family Tournament Round 1 Part 27 Group 135

Propaganda and further images under the cut

Night Circus' Performers: Celia Bowen, Tsukiko, Isobel Martin, Marco Alisdair, Poppet & Widget Murray, Lainie and Tara Burgess, Marco Alisdair

Lockwood & Co.: Anthony Lockwood, Lucy Carlyle, George Careem (& Quill Kiops, Holly Munro, Flo Bones)

Submissions are still open!

Night Circus' Performers:

Sorry, I got no propaganda for them yet :(

Lockwood & Co.:

They are so witty and funny while being incredibly loving and tender with each other!

they are the best because they have all of the tropes the comfort the angst the hurt the drama and the love of a found family and they just AJSHHDHSGSGSHSHSHSJHA yeah.

They're traumatized teenagers who hunt ghosts and randomly proclaim they would die for each other! What could be better?

[tsubasa-seiko]

He wonders if the poem of the circus could possibly be bottled~

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

[quoteablebooks]

Genre: Historical Fiction, Fantasy, Adult

Rating: 5 out of 5

Trigger Warning: Child Abuse, Death, Suicide, Blood, Emotional Abuse, Death of a parent, sexual content

Summary:

The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night. But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway—a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will. Despite themselves, however, Celia and Marco tumble headfirst into love—a deep, magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands. True love or not, the game must play out, and the fates of everyone involved, from the cast of extraordinary circus performers to the patrons, hang in the balance, suspended as precariously as the daring acrobats overhead. Written in rich, seductive prose, this spell-casting novel is a feast for the senses and the heart.

*Opinions*

The Night Circus is one of those books that I have heard about for years, but never really knew what it was about or if I would like it. Now that I have read it, I understand why people have a hard time describing this book to other people in a way that would capture the magic of this novel, no pun intended. As a former skeptic, I would urge anyone looking at the reviews to see if they want to read this book to do it. This was such an engaging book and truly wraps up all your senses as you are pulled into the magical world that is The Night Circus. 

After reading this novel, sitting here trying to describe it to someone without recapping the entire book would be difficult. It isn’t that the writing is difficult or complex, but the world of this novel is so fantastical and dream-like that much like the patrons of Le Cirque des Reves it is hard to capture it into words once you leave it. Even the way that the novel is set up, moving between time, space, and characters, was like walking through the circus and popping into a different tent to see what is happening behind the white and black striped flaps. Morgenstern brings the reader into the novel, not just with the small sections using the second person narration, but also the beautiful descriptions of the smells, textures, and even temperatures of the scenes that made everything so vivid in my mind. I am not usually the type of person that “sees pictures” when I read, but I knew exactly what everything looked like as if I was watching a movie. Tell stories in a way that matters, that touches other people, as the book points out, is a different type of magic. 

The magic system is never explained, which doesn’t bother me, but I can see it being a problem for other people. A lot of this novel is based on atmosphere that the magic creates instead of the inner workings of how that magic works. For me, the fact that Celia uses a more feeling based and internal magic versus Marco who uses a more academic and external based magic was enough of an explanation. I didn’t want to see behind the curtain in to how Celia made the Wishing Tree or Marco created the Ice Garden besides the small glimpses that the two magicians gave each other. I am fine with going on vibes and nothing else with a magic system, but I know that other people would want to dig in and get the specifics of how manipulation on such a large scale was managed. 

In fact, there are only two parts of the novel that bothered me, and both were around the romance. If you really really don’t want spoilers, stop now. Okay, so I hate that the first time that Celia and Marco are intimate is after the death of someone who is important to her. This is a trope that I am finding just doesn’t work for me, having sex for the first time before the big battle or while one or both of the characters are grieving. For me, it just cheapens the moment with the decision being driven by “life is short and I am scared of death” instead of “I am in love with you and want this for no other reason than I love you.” This is just a personal preference, but I hated it after all the beautiful moments at the 13th anniversary party and in the Illusionist tent. The second issue I had is that I wanted a more definitive ending for Marco and Celia. It is clear that they are bound forever to the circus, manipulating it however they wish, but I would have liked one scene in the second person narration where you think you see a couple walking arm and arm, but when you look over they have vanished. I wanted confirmation after the panic of saving the circus, Marco and Celia are together and happy forever. These are small complaints, which is why they stood out so much. 

Usually, I prefer character driven stories instead of plot driven stories, but even though we never got very close to the characters in this novel, I felt for all of them even if I wasn’t attached. When you get to the end of the story and it is framed as a story being told, that made this distance make more sense, but it didn’t bother me while reading it for the first time. I felt for Celia enduring her abusive father all those years and Marco during all of those years of isolation. I like the charismatic Chandresh Lefevre and felt sad for Tara and Herr Theissen, but it was all a step removed. Because of the atmosphere of this novel that wasn’t a detracting factor, but just something I realized while reading. I liked these characters and wanted them to be happy, but wasn’t so emotionally invested that I shed a tear throughout the novel. 

This book is magical to me and I can’t wait to get a copy for myself to return to this world again and again. I am about to buy a red scarf to join the ranks of the reveurs who follow the circus around, so to speak. This is also going to be my answer when people ask me “what fictional world would you want to visit?” I want to see the Ice Garden and get chocolate mice and watch magical acts that make no sense. While there are a few small issues that make this a 4.5 out of 5 stars for me, I have to round it up to a 5 because I just had such a great time reading it. 

[trashland-llamas]

Hedge Witch [webweave]

Fundy-centric webweave revolving around the events of the Red Banquet + a hodgepodge of 3 au's; The Night Circus, Arcana, & Mask of the Red Death made as a part of @mcyt-co-create

Sources;

Le Cirque Des Reves by Adam Sanford on Artstation

The Night Circus Clock by ScarletAlpha on Deviantart

The Night Circus - Erin Morgenstern (pg. 247)

The Fall of the House of Usher Episode 8; The Raven

Extraordinary Tales

The Arcana, Julian's Route - Book 16 - The Tower

The Masque of Red Death, Art by Uka Nagao - Manga Classics: The Stories of Edgar Allan Poe (Pg. 186-187)

The Arcana, Julian's Route - Book 6 - The Lovers

[embroideryobsession]

Introducing Le Cirque des Reves… The Circus of Dream from Mischka Aoki New FW22 Collection

[chiyuki-hiro]

Tsukiko - You may prefer to be solitary, but you will find joy in connection. Do not abandon yourself.

[readingforsanity]

The Night Cirus | Erin Morgenstern | Published 2011 | *SPOILERS*

The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black and white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Reves, and it is only open at night. 

But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway - a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. 

Unbeknownst to them, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will. Despite themselves, however, Celia and Marco tumble headfirst into love - a deep, magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands. 

True love or not, the game must play out, and the fates of everyone involved, from the cast of extraordinary circus performers to the patrons, hang in the balance, suspended as precariously as the daring acrobats overhead. 

Written in rich, seductive prose, this spell-casting novel is a feast for the senses and the heart. 

A game...a competition. It is forced upon two young souls who are destined for such great things. There is Celia Bowen, daughter of Hector Bowen, more prominently known as Prospero the Enchanter. He is spent his entire adult life enchanting those with “magic”. Her competitior? Marco, a young orphan boy who is taken from his orphanage by the man in the grey suit, often known as A.H., only few know him as Alexander. 

For years, they are groomed to become the best of the best. Celia is a clever illusionist, but they’re not simple illusions. They’re real, though she is able to manipulate audiences into believing that what they’re seeing isn’t real at all. Marco is also clever in his own way. And the game they’re playing is a sinister competition brought forth by Hector and Alexander to prove who is the better of the two. 

And thus the venue for their game is created: it is a circus, though not like any circus anyone has ever heard of. It is open only from dusk to dawn, and there are no clowns or anything of the sort. There are acrobats and contortionists, along with Celia as the illusionist, as well as a tarot card reader named Isobel. The circus is created by an eccentric rich man named Chandresh, who is Marco’s employer. When Celia auditons for the circus, he comes to realize that she is his competition. Isobel, who is Marco’s lover, also joins the circus in her attempt to help Marco win the game, though neither Marco or Celia know how this is to be accomplished. 

For years, they create various attractions for the circus as their “play”, much like a game of chess. Oftentimes, Marco will create something he knows would please Celia, and Celia will add onto it, knowing it would please Marco. Though they are not meant to be collaborating on various things, they choose to do so either way. 

The circus continues for many years, and thus the game continues. Celia’s father is found to be only a shadow of himself, no longer the mighty man he once was. He is simply a shadow that shows himself only to those who are deemed worthy. And A.H. is a seemingly ageless man who has no shadow, something the twins, Widget and Poppett have come to gather as their time in the circus. Their parents were in charge of the menagerie tent, and they are taking lessons from Celia herself. Widget is able to see the past, while Poppett is able to see the future, though hers are not in such certain terms as the past. 

Bailey, a young man from Massachusetts, had visited the circus as a child and came into contact with Poppett, and ever since, has been obsessed. When it returns 6 years later, he visits every night, striking up a friendship with Poppett and Widget, who give him access to the circus that no other patron ever has. 

But things are quickly going wrong with the circus. It isn’t apparent to the patrons, but to those who live and breathe the circus, the air feels differently. Marco and Celia, against the odds, have fallen in love with each other. And they learn that the endgame of the circus is that the one deemed the victor will be able to live, while the loser will be dead. Neither wants that for the other, but are willing to do what they can. But without them, there is no circus. 

After Tsukiko, the contortionist and the winner of the previous games held as Alexander’s victor, tries to end one of their lives in order to keep the circus afloat, Celia and Marco end up in some sort of void that keeps them together, bound to the circus forever. Celia is able to give her powers, or whatever you may want to call them, over to Bailey, who then becomes the ageless proprietor of the circus himself, keeping it going for hundreds of years to come. 

Discussion Questions 

1. The novel opens with a quote from Oscar Wilde: “A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world”. How is this sentiment explored in The Night Circus? Who in the novel is a dreamer? And what is their punishment for being so? Bailey is the dreamer of the novel. He has dreams to be more than just a farmer like his father, a dream that is carried on from his grandmother, who wishes him to go on to college. She realizes these dreams are different for everyone, but for Bailey, she simply wants more. But his destiny is Poppett and the circus, something that becomes undoubtedly clear toward the end of the book. 

2. The novel frequently changes narrative perspective. How does this transition shape your reading of the novel and your connection to the characters and the circus? Why do you think the author chose to tell the story from varied perspectives? I found it to be a bit confusing, as sometimes there was no telling who’s perspective you were reading until a few paragraphs in. But, there were many perspectives we needed to know in order to understand the book. 

3. The narrative also follows a non-linear sequence - shifting at times from present to past. How effective was this method in regards to revealing conflict in the novel? We come to see just how the circus functions throughout the different timeframes. Although, I wish it was in linear sequence in order to be less confusing. 

4. There are a number of allusions to Shakespeare throughout the test: Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, The Tempest, and As You Like It. Explain these references - how does each play reveal itself in the novel? Romeo and Juliet is the only Shakespearean play I really know. The others I’ve heard of but have never seen any of their adaptations. Romeo and Juliet is the one most wildly taught in the school system I attended, therefore I know more about it. Henceforth, Marco and Celia are like Romeo and Juliet. They are lovers, but are not supposed to be. 

5. What role does time play in the novel? From Friedric Thiessen’s clock, to the delayed aging of the circus developers, to the birth of the twins - is time manipulated or fated at the circus? The circus allows none of them to age, at least not in a traditional way. Throughout the book, one of the original creators of the circus just remains the same throughout the years. Thieseen eventually does too. But time is neither here nor there. Time means nothing when your at the circus. 

6. How does the following statement apply to both Le Cirque des Reves and the competition? Which audience is more valuable: one that is complicit or one that is unknowing?: “Chandresh relishes reactions. Genuine reactions, not mere polite applause. He often values the reactions over the show itself. A show without an audience is nothing, after all. In the response of the audience, that is where the power of performance lives.” One that is unknowing. A complicit audience means that they’re expecting something to happen. Their reactions therefore are not genuine. But an audience who is unknowing means that their reactions are genuine, that Chandresh is seeing their true delight through what they’re seeing. 

7. Chandresh is portrayed as a brilliant and creative perfectionaist at the beginning of the novel, yet he slowly unravels as the competition matures. Is Chandresh merely a puppet of the competition - solely used for his ability to provide a venue for the competition - or do his contributions run deeper? I think he was only used as a venue for the competition. A.H. was the true contributor, those nobody knew it at the time the circus was in pre-production you could say. Chandresh was able to provide the means for the venue. 

8. Marco asserts that Alexander H. is a father figure to him (though his paternal instincts aren’t readily noticeable). In what ways does Alexander provide for Marco and in what ways has he failed him? A.H. has failed him in so many ways. While I enjoy the fact that he took the boy from an orphanage and uncertain future, his future was never really certain. Either way, he was destined to either kill or be killed. 

9. Celia emphasizes that keeping the circus controlled is a matter of balance. And Marco suggests that the competition is not a chess game, but rather, a balancing of scales. However, both the circus and the competition get disordered at times - leaving both physical and emotional casualties in their wake. Is the circus ever really in “balance”, or is it a pendulum swinging from one extreme to the next? Definitely a pendulum. I enjoyed the scale reference, because it was able to put a visual perspective to what the games truly were. 

10. From the outside, the circus is full of enchantments and delights, but behind the scenes, the delicate push and pull of the competition results in some sinister events: i.e. Tara Burgess and Friedric Thiessen’s deaths. How much is the competition at fault for these losses and how much is it the individuals doing? 100% at fault. Tara knew something was amiss and she went asking questions until it drove her to near insanity, and eventually her death. Thiessen wasn’t losing his mind, but something happened and his life was taken much too soon. 

11. How do you view the morality of the circus in regards to the performers and developers being unknowing pawns in Celia and Marco’s competition? Do Celia and Marco owe an explanation to their peers about their unwitting involvement? I think so. I’d want to know that I was essentially being used for these games, whatever they were. 

12. Friedrick Thiessen asserts that he thinks of himself “not as a writer so much as someone who provides a gateway, a tangential route for readers to the circus.” He is a voice for those unable to attend the circus and suggests that the circus is bigger than itself. What role do the reveurs play in keeping the spirit of the circus alive outside of the confines of the circus tents? Reveurs love the circus, though they can likely never explain why. They enjoy the strangeness of it. What sort of circus is only open at night? It’s odd, considering more modern circuses, even those developed after the night circus. Nothing ever could compare, and he wanted people to know and understand the circus like he did. 

13. What is Hector’s role in determining the final fate of the competition? He lectures Celia about remaining independent and not interfering with her partner, but ultimately, Hector largely influences the outcome of the competition. Explain this influence. I didn’t really garner any influence on him other than the fact that he chose Celia as his pawn. Whatever he and Alexander had between themselves, they used innocent people to manipulate each other. 

14. Poppet and Widget are especially affected by the lighting of the bonfire. How crucial are their specialties to the ongoing success of the circus? It appears that a part of the magic that Celia and Marco were born with or were taught was essentially given to the twins when they were born. 

15. Isobel is a silent, yet integral, partner in both the circus and the competition. She has an ally in Tsukiko, but seemingly no one else, especially not Marco. How much does Marco’s underestimation of Isobel affect the outcome of the competition? Isobel was more capable than Marco ever knew. She was able to completely transport him to another country, sort of like Celia did with the circus, which traveled by train. But what train could move across oceans? Magic is the only way. 

16. How does Isobel serve as a foil to Celia? Who, if anyone, fills that role for Marco? Isobel was essentially used to spy on Celia for Marco, until Marco realized that he no longer needed her to do that because of his deep love for her. 

17. Tsukiko is aware of Isobel’s “tempering of the circus” from the outset and when Isobel worries that it is having no effect, Tsukiko suggests: “perhaps it is controlling the chaos within more than the chaos without.” What, and whose, chaos is Tsukiko alluding to here? Everyoness 

18. Mr. Barris, Friedrick Thiessen, Mme. Padva, and even Bailey are aware that the circus has made a profound, inexplicable, change in their lives, but they each chosoe not to explore the depth of these changes. Friedrick Thieseen confirms that, “I prefer to remain unenlightened, to better appreciate the dark.” Do you agree with this standpoint? What inherent dangers accompany a purposeful ignorance? What dangers present themselves when ignorance is not chosen? Is one choice better/safer than the other or are they equally fraught? No. If I noticed something amiss with myself, i’d definitely want to know. For Mr. Barris, he wasn’t aging, as many of them weren’t. Who wouldn’t want to age? He didn’t question it because it was affecting him positively, not negatively. 

19. Celia tells Bailey that he is not destined or chosen to be the next proprietor of the circus. He is simply in the right place at the right time...and cares enough to do what needs to be done. Sometimes that’s enough. In this situation, is that enough? Can the responsibility of maintaining the circus be trusted to just anyone, or unlike Celia suggests, is Bailey truly special? Bailey was given the option that neither Celia nor Marco ever had: a choice. Bailey loved the circus, and Poppett enough, to keep it alive, but also because nobody was sure what would happen to Celia and Marco if the circus abrutply ended. He cared enough about the circus, and those within it, not to let that happen. Even in modern times, as at the end of the book, the email is provided, you can see that in modern times, he is still keeping the circus alive. 

20. At the closing of the novel, we are left to believe that the circus is still traveling - Bailey’s business card provides an email address as his contact information. How do you think the circus would fare over time? Would the circus need to evolve to suit each generation or is it distinctive enough to transcend time? Yes. Much like everything else, the circus would have to change in order to keep up with the ever changing world around it. Modern technologies would need to be implemented as opposed to in the early 1900s when technology was less likely to be used. 

Questions issued by the publisher. 

[gabrielle-the-writer]

Title: The Night Circus Author: Erin Morgenstern Genre: Fantasy My Rating: 5/5

Erin Morgenstern weaves a captivating story in The Night Circus, in which two magicians engage in a lifelong duel. Trained from youth by their masters, they must continue the game even as they fall in love. Eventually, however, one of them must lose. But losing means dying and, even worse, destroying the entire structure of the game–The Night Circus–and the lives of their found family.

If I had stopped reading this book around page 100, I might have given it three stars. It had gorgeous imagery by an obviously talented writer, but I felt like nothing much had really happened. By the end, I was enthralled. The Night Circus isn’t a book so much as a beautiful, bittersweet dream. An enormous cast of characters enriched the story and raised the stakes. Most people think death is the worst thing that could happen, but Morgenstern convinces the reader that it’s the least of worries. To lose the game is to die, but it also means losing the love of your life and destroying the lives of hundreds of people that have become family. I started The Night Circus at the suggestion of a friend and emerged a different person.

“Someone needs to tell those tales. When the battles are fought and won and lost, when the pirates find their treasures and the dragons eat their foes for breakfast with a nice cup of Lapsang souchong, someone needs to tell their bits of overlapping narrative. There’s magic in that. It’s in the listener, and for each and every ear it will be different, and it will affect them in ways they can never predict. From the mundane to the profound. You may tell a tale that takes up residence in someone’s soul, becomes their blood and self and purpose. That tale will move them and drive them and who knows what they might do because of it, because of your words. That is your role, your gift. Your sister may be able to see the future, but you yourself can shape it, boy. Do not forget that… there are many kinds of magic, after all.”

[caitsbooks]

Goodreads  || Bookstagram || Twitter || Reviews

[the-angry-acrobat]

[confused-tofu]

Le Cirque des Rêves - Chapter 9

My fifth day at the circus, I wake in late afternoon. I barely slept after meeting the dreamer in the garden tent last night. Sighing deeply, I slide out of my bed and prepare to wash and dress.

When I enter the break room, as I usually do before the circus opens, the air feels different, like everyone is preparing for something. Everyone is mobile, pacing or shifting things on desks. Nico gives me a small wave and a large grin when I enter. Byron nods at me and Albert glares. I suppose that’s about the extent of their friendliness. Louis sits at the table, Sid chattering at him from where he leans against the tent wall, his arms crossed before him. Sid gives me a smirk, and Louis grits his teeth, eyes closed, looking for all the world as though he wished to be elsewhere.

Leo and Alyn stand towards the back of the tent, talking to each other heatedly but in hushed voices. I hear Alyn hiss “Don’t do it!” before he sees me and his scowl deepens. He stalks past me out of the tent.

“Don’t worry about him.” Leo rubs his face with his hands. I watch the tent flap flutter, waving as though in surrender.

“You best get ready, sweetness,” Sid says as he approaches me, throwing an arm around my shoulders. I wriggle a little.

Louis sighs. “Must you touch everything pure in the world?” he chides. Sid only grins.

“Well, yeah, it’s my job to make all those things impure,” he snickers.

“Is everything ready to go? We have four minutes until sundown.” Giles ducks into the tent, calling out to us. “Leo, do you need anything? Food, water? Where on earth is Alyn? Oh, never mind, he knows not to be outside tonight.”

I catch his sleeve as he moves, giving it a slight tug. “Um… ready for for what?” He holds my gaze for a moment, and then blinks.

“Yes, of course. We’re preparing to move the circus tonight. You mustn’t leave this tent until we’ve stopped, all right?” I nod, and he turns away. “Whenever you’re ready, Leo.”

Leo nods from his perch on a sofa. He closes his eyes, his fists tight on his knees, and he looks as though he is straining very hard. Beads of sweat form on his forehead and his breathing grows ragged.

A curious floating sensation overcomes me. It feels like the whole tent - no, the whole circus - is flying. I stare at the unmoving ground under my feet, trying to justify what I feel with what I see.

Suddenly, Leo exhales sharply, his whole body relaxing. Nico hops up from his perch and takes my elbow, leading me to the tent entrance.

“You can look now, Katja! Just don’t go outside,” he says, holding the flap for me.

Trees rush by in blurs of green. The night sky behind them is a canvas of stars. We aren’t flying, I realize - the tents have lined up and become a train. Some distance ahead of us, the train’s whistle blows. I find I am gaping.

Nico laughs, pulling me back inside. “Have you been on a train before?”

“Once, when I was very small. I don’t remember it well.” I look at Leo. He isn’t as strained as he was before, but he still looks as though he is exerting some effort. “Will he be all right?”

Nico follows my gaze. “Oh, he’ll be fine. This is his job, moving the circus. He picks our destinations and everything. Well, he’s also circus manager, but it doesn’t need much managing while it’s on the move, does it?” He sits back on the sofa, some distance away from Byron’s left, and I sit across from him.

“How did you join the circus, Nico?” I ask on a whim. He opens his mouth to reply when he is cut off.

“That’s an odd way to phrase that question.” Byron is watching me, too.

“Oh… is it?” I say, my brows knit slightly.

Byron only narrows his eye. “It’s nothing.”

“We joined cause Byron did. Me and Al, I mean,” Nico says with a big grin. “We can’t do magic without being near him, so we have to stick together. Well, Al can sort of do some magic without Byron, but I’m really bad at it.” I perk up.

“So you two are like me? You have to siphon your magic?” He nods brightly. Albert clears his throat.

“What tents have you found to your liking, Miss Katja?” Albert asks. Nico looks at me, excitement in his eyes.

“Yeah, what’s your favorite tent, Katja? There’s this one tent that Louis made that’s a whole forest made of ice! I tried to lick a tree to see if my tongue stuck to it but it didn’t. Isn’t that amazing?” Albert gives him a look. “Oh, but what’s your favorite?”

Smiling, I am about to answer when I falter. My favorite tent… Somehow only one out of the dozens I have visited comes to mind.

“The tent with the garden,” I say. I look at them both and continue. “The flower garden, with all the critters made of flowers. Do you… know who made it?”

Nico stares blankly at me. Albert adjusts his spectacles and pulls a small notebook from his jacket pocket, flipping through it.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen that tent,” Nico says. Albert closes his book with a snap and looks at me.

“I don’t have a record of that tent. Are you sure you weren’t dreaming, Miss Katja?”

I blink. “A dreamer… Yes, I… must have been dreaming…”

Some hours later, Byron sits beside me, well away from the others. “Why did you ask that?” he asks, his eye searching.

“What do you mean?” He squints.

“Wouldn’t one normally ask ‘why did you join the circus?’”

“Oh, I suppose that’s true.” He holds my gaze, silently asking for an answer. “I guess I don’t really care about the reason why. I mean, not that I don’t care, but… well…”

“What we are running from doesn’t matter to you as much as what brings us together.” I look at him, surprised. He doesn’t move, understanding in his eye.

“Yes.”

The corners of his mouth twitch upwards. His smile is fleeting, but it’s there.

“That’s a very profound thought, Miss Katja,” he says as he rises and gives me a gentle bow. I return his smile and bow my head, and he turns away with a swish of his cape.

[cindersmagazine]

Le Cirque Des Reves

Books can have an incredible impact on our lives, for Amy Clarkin @erinmorgenstern‘s The Night Circus was a true revelation that took her out of a tough time and helped her to dream once again.

Read Amy’s moving piece in our latest issue on pg.32  X

[hittintheroad]

The Night Circus Dreamcast

“The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not.” Erin Morgenstern

Celia Bowen - Lily James Marco Alisdair - Douglas Booth Hector Bowen - Jeremy Piven Alexander A.H. - Liam Neeson Isobel Martin - Lily Colins Chandresh Christophe Lefevre - Irrfan Khan Tsukiko - Rinko Kikuchi Ethan Barris - Hugh Bonneville Widget Murray - Cameron Monaghan Poppet Murray - Georgie Henley Bailey Clarke - Chris O’Neal Madame Padva - Hellen Mirren Tara Burgess - Keira Knightley Lianie Burgess - Natalie Portman Herr Friedrick Thiessen - Christoph Waltz

[paperbackrainbow-blog]

"𝚆𝚎 𝚕𝚎𝚊𝚍 𝚜𝚝𝚛𝚊𝚗𝚐𝚎 𝚕𝚒𝚟𝚎𝚜, 𝚌𝚑𝚊𝚜𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚍𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚖𝚜 𝚊𝚛𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚍 𝚏𝚛𝚘𝚖 𝚙𝚕𝚊𝚌𝚎 𝚝𝚘 𝚙𝚕𝚊𝚌𝚎."

- The Night Circus 🎪