The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern was a breath of fresh air. For once, I was not hit over the head with romance, but was led into a beautifully crafted world with multiple layers of plot. However, the layers are the novel's strength and it's weakness. Some times it works well, with the reader speeding through the chapter to find out what is going on. Other time, the layers can get confusing, since there are a lot of characters that get talked about and the novel spans many years. I had to slow down from time to time and go back in order to get a sense of the characters and what was really going on.
The magic aspect was really cool, but it was never fully explained. I got the sense that I was supposed to just accept that the magic was not explainable, but that's not me. I need to know the rules of the game, or else I am going to walk away from the novel dissatisfied. And, in a way, I did walk away unsatisfied. I loved the book, overall, but I was left scratching my head at certain aspects of the story.
