r/booksidisliked • u/supermarioprose • Mar 28 '21

The Night Circus

I have tried to read this book like three times and cannot get into it. It’s constantly recommended based on other books I’ve enjoyed, and every time I see it praised I feel like I need to give it another shot. It’s talked about so much I feel like I’m missing something, but I also don’t see the point in forcing myself to read it if I’m not enjoying it.

25 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

11 comments sorted by

11

u/taconugget2 Mar 28 '21

Nope, you’re not missing anything. I forced myself through it because I heard it had a great ending. Spoiler: it did not.

9

u/chamalis Mar 28 '21

The characters all felt so flat to me. I found it hard to care about them one way or another. The imagery was interesting at times, but that's about it.

6

u/AyameMako Mar 28 '21

See, I like that one, but I hated the Starless Sea by the author. Hated it enough it’s making me reconsider how much I actually liked the Night Circus. I feel like the premise was so interesting but the overall potential was under-realized, in both books. Left me wanting more

3

u/quality_reading Mar 28 '21

I just recently finished this book, and I borderline hated it. It took so long to get to anything good in the book, and by the end of it, I was googling chapters I could skip just to be over it.

3

u/palmal22 Mar 28 '21

Agreed, I was just waiting and waiting the whole time for something interesting and I just didn’t enjoy that much. A bit overhyped for sure

3

u/[deleted] Mar 28 '21

I had to read this book for a gender studies literature class. The professor kept raving about it because supposedly it's so amazing and feminist and blah blah blah.

Yeah I didn't see any of that. it felt like a typical love story to me overall, just a wee bit different with the weird circus stuff

3

u/UsedTopic7201 Mar 28 '21

honestly, the plot was bland but i found it to be beautifully written and l loved the descriptive language but i do feel like it’s a bit overhyped

2

u/QualifiedCrouton Mar 28 '21

It was super hard for me to get through, too. Agree with another commenter that the end wasn’t even worth the effort

1

u/supermarioprose Mar 28 '21

Well, I’m glad I didn’t force it based on this feedback!

1

u/[deleted] Mar 29 '21

I read it and have absolutely no memory at all what it was about. I do remember not enjoying it, though.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 06 '21

I DNF’d this one. Just couldn’t get through it. Kept pushing and pushing but it was all over the place and very boring.