The Transcendental Power of "The Night Circus" by Aaron Morgenstern

As I delved into the world of "The Night Circus", I couldn't help but feel that it didn't really have a thesis. Instead, I felt like the overall moral of the story was that it is a story and a story can mean whatever it means to whoever is reading it. This openness, this freedom from concrete interpretation, is deeply satisfying for me. It's what makes "The Night Circus" so special, leaving me wanting more, like I want a second story about Cate and the other door.

This openness is precisely what I love most about books like "The Night Circus". The transportative powers of this book are unmatched. It's not just a story, it's an experience. It's a journey into the heart of magic, mystery, and fantasy. The layers and depth to this book are brilliant, with puzzle pieces that you have to put together while you're reading it. It's mysterious, enchanting, haunting, heartbreaking, realistic, and completely fantastical – all at the same time.

One of the things I love most about "The Night Circus" is its ability to evoke a sense of wonder and curiosity in the reader. The writing is evocative, allowing you to see and smell and feel everything that Cate and Le Cirque des Rêves have to offer. It's like stepping into a world that's full of life, magic, and possibility.

I think what really draws me to "The Night Circus" is its themes of storytelling and the power of words. The book itself is so beautifully written, it makes me want to write more. I find myself pondering the art of storytelling, how it can transport us to other worlds, evoke emotions, and challenge our perspectives.

For me, "The Night Circus" represents everything I love about reading. It's a reminder that books have the power to transform us, to take us on journeys we'll never forget. And it's precisely this sense of wonder, this feeling of being transported to another world, that makes me so grateful for books like "The Night Circus".

I don't think "The Night Circus" is for everyone, though. I think you have to be a specific type of reader who appreciates a book with layers and depth. But if you're open-minded and willing to let the story unfold in its own way, then this book is a must-read.

As I finished reading "The Night Circus", I felt like it was a reminder that some things are just meant to be special. Some stories are just meant to be told, and when they are, they can leave us changed forever. And that's what "The Night Circus" has done for me – it's left me feeling inspired, uplifted, and eager for more.

In the end, I think "The Night Circus" is a testament to the power of storytelling. It's a reminder that words have the ability to transport us, to heal us, and to inspire us. And it's precisely this sense of wonder, this feeling of being transported to another world, that makes me so grateful for books like "The Night Circus".

A Personal Connection: My Bee Earrings

I'm still in awe of how my bee earrings came into play here. I was at the bookstore, and I decided on these bee earrings by pure chance or maybe it wasn't just a coincidence – maybe Mirabelle had something to do with it. When I got my ears pierced, the girl who worked there had pink hair that terrified me if I remember right. But as soon as I saw those bee earrings, I knew they were meant to be.

This experience has made me think about writing and storytelling in a way that I hadn't thought of before. It's like the universe was trying to tell me something – that sometimes, things are meant to happen when we least expect them. And it's this sense of connection, this feeling that we're all part of something bigger than ourselves, that makes me want to write.

As for writing, I've been inspired by "The Night Circus". The way Aaron Morgenstern wove together multiple storylines, created complex characters, and transported us to another world is truly masterful. And it's this skill, this ability to create a world that feels real, that makes me want to write more.

A Final Reminder

Before I go, I just wanted to remind you all about my reading journal, The Clockwork Reader. It's releasing on December 7th, and I'm super excited about it. You can pre-order it now, and the links are in the description box below. If you'd like to follow me on any of my social media platforms, the links are also there.

And finally, thank you all so much for watching this video. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. Until next time, stay curious, keep reading, and let the magic of "The Night Circus" transport you to another world.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: eni should probably go back to therapywe're finally doing it after nearly two full years of saying that i will read this book i am finally  going to read the starless c by aaron morgenstern you might be wondering hannah why did you put this  book off for so long it came out in 2019 it was your most anticipated release of the year your  favorite book of all time pretty much is the night circus by erin morgenstern and this is her second  book like you were so excited to read it why didn't you read it i don't have an answer for you  i don't know i just didn't feel like reading it anyway uh we're finally here and i'm finally going  to read the starless c i know you've all been begging me for so long and the day has finally  come we're gonna spend the whole day reading this book i'm also probably gonna switch between this  and the audiobook because i have other things to do today so we'll go back and forth between the  physical and the audio since i have both but yeah i'm so excited also side note i recently  got my ears pierced and i don't know if you can see them but do you see that they're little bees  and i did not mean to match the cover of this book was this some weird subconscious thing that  like my brain was trying to tell me give me some subliminal messaging to like finally read this  book maybe who knows that's possible hopefully i love it hopefully i like the b motif and um this  was not a bad decision i literally still to this day don't know anything about what this book is  about i have no clue i have no clue whatsoever i just know it has something to do with a library  i know bees and swords and keys are like three significant motifs in here i'm so excited i really  hope that i love it if i don't love this i think i'm gonna like be a little bit hard i'm gonna be  really heartbroken actually we'll see we'll see how it goes it's a journey let's get startedi swear every time you see me in this video i'm gonna be eating something new  but um i made just a little bit of progress i'm like still on part one let's see i'm still in  book one about like i wanna say 45 minutes or so into this audiobook which is like 18 hours long  it's really long but i got to a part and they mentioned the shadow of the wind like one of the  characters was reading the book the shadow of the wind and i was gonna say this book is kind  of giving me shadow of the wind vibes so that's really cool i love that um that's super exciting  because that is one of my all-time favorite books yeah anyway that's the only thing that's  really happened so far the writing is lyrical and beautiful as expected from erin morgenstern so i'm  having a great time with it i'll come back with some updates um once more happens and once i have  some more thoughts back to eating my bagel okay hi update i painted my nails for a little while while  i was listening to some more of the audiobook but quickly look at my nails you see the little flower  design i did on my nails it's not perfect but i think it's cute and i'm happy with it  anyway floral nails aside um i changed into like comfy clothes and stuff i'm probably gonna change  like 50 times throughout this video but is it a hannah vlog if i don't change a million times no  i've gotten to part two of the book i'm actually really enjoying the audiobook i didn't think i  would like the narrator very much and i'm not the biggest fan of the narrator but there is a cast  so some different characters have different voice actors as well so that makes it a lot nicer to  listen to but after my nails dry i'm probably just gonna pick up the physical book and read  the rest of it um with the physical book because i i need to like mark things up and stuff because  oh my god oh my god i should have known that if i'm gonna read anything that makes me want to keep  reading it's gonna be a book by erin morgenstern how dare i but i forgot how much i love  her writing it's just it's unlike anyone else's there is something about the way she writes and  specifically the stories she writes that make me feel like i've read them before and i exist within  this world entirely like it is so immersive for me in a way that almost nobody else's writing is it's  so good right now i've gotten to the part where zachary is at some harbor for the starless sea um  he's met dorian but he went to that party in the city and then he went into the elevator and now  he's at some harbor and he's like yo is this the starless sea and they're like no it's a harbor  i don't really know what that means um but we're we're getting like into the real story now and i'm  really really excited to see where it goes like i said it's so good i'm loving it it is immersive in  a way that i'm always craving when i'm trying to read a book like i want to be removed from this  reality and placed into a different reality and her books are the only books right now that like  truly do that for me there are other books that definitely do as well but like nothing nothing  gets me out of this life and this existence and puts me into a different world like an aaron  morgenstern book nothing doesn't nothing else does it for me why did i put this off for so long i  here's my thing with aaron morgenstern books you know like i understand if people don't like her  writing or don't like her stories because i think you have to like a very specific  type of story and a very specific type of writing to really love her books and obviously they're  really popular like she's a very popular author her books are very popular very well known but  when people like criticize her writing like i understand it like it's just it's just not your  thing it's not for you that makes sense to me but like i feel like it was made for me okay like her  writing is like nothing else for me nothing else feels this way nothing else makes me feel this way  i'm having a great time i'm gonna go back to reading and i will check in  once i have some more updates and once i've made some more progress hello it is much later i went  back and started rereading parts i've already read because that's how much i'm liking this  i'm literally 150 pages into this book and i'm already going back and rereading parts of it  it's like one of those books where you just like need to put it off because you know that it's  going to be such a favorite that like you just don't want it to end like i don't want this to end  i want to live in this forever and i don't even know where it's going i don't ever want to know  where it's going because then that means that it ends at some point and i don't want it to end  it's so good oh my god i literally don't even know how to talk about this  it's a story about stories like that's the best way i can describe this book  i'm such trash for stories about stories like that's why i love the shadow of the wind so much  too i always describe that book as a book for people who love reading not because like it's  just a really good reading experience obviously that's part of it but it's a book about books  and that's why i think it's a book for people who love books and this book specifically i  would describe as a story about stories and it feels so nostalgic as if i've heard these stories  before like they were stories i grew up listening to even though they weren't because they didn't  exist prior to 2019 or whenever aaron morgenstern conceptualized this book nobody here is surprised  literally nobody here is surprised especially none of you because you've been telling me to  read this for like two years i'm not surprised the night circus is like my favorite book aaron  morgenstern is like my favorite author why am i surprised that i like this so much i don't know  but i think i'm going to like this more than a night circus like i don't want to say that i don't  want to say it because i don't know i'm 150 pages in it's like 500 pages we've got a long way to go  but like i'm gonna love this i'm already obsessed with it and we've barely even made a dent iall right hello it's a new day i fell asleep last night didn't get to read that much more  but i am about halfway through a little bit more than halfway through right now i'm in love in  love with this i haven't felt this way about a book in so long all i want to do is live in this  and once it ends i can no longer live in this and then what will be the point what am i to do then i  explained this briefly yesterday i think but like i was talking about how this book is a story about  stories and how much stories mean to us and how they affect us and how they can change  our lives and how they can be so important to one person but mean nothing to another  and how they're so personal and i just this has reignited my love of reading in a way that i  was not anticipating like i literally i don't know if you can see it behind me but i literally  as i was reading this created an entire stack of books that i was like i need to read these  right now i've been meaning to read these all for so long i just impromptu made a tbr for myself  everything i plan to read right after i finish this book that is how much it has motivated me  to keep reading and i'm just in love i just got to the part where we find out about um mirabelle  but now i'm very curious to know who dorian is exactly because i'm very confused about him but  i love the whole simon and eleanor thing i love zachary as a main character i literally love every  single character they all have such distinctive personalities and you actually care about them um  in the same way that i felt about the night circus like we just had this full cast of characters and  i ended up caring about every single character very deeply and that's how i feel about these two  they just feel so familiar to me which is like the only way that i can seem to describe this  book is that it just feels like nostalgic it feels like i've read it before in the best way possible  not because it's predictable but because it feels like a fairy tale that was told to me when i was a  child even though it wasn't it just feels that way and i i'm in love i'm in love i'm very curious to  find out who the owl king is i'm really curious to find out how all of these other stories connect to  each other the story of the pirate and the girl and the story about time and fate but we'll see  we'll see where it goes but yeah i i'm loving it i'm loving it so much i have like all these  theories and like i already know i'm gonna reread this immediately once i finish it like forget my  tbr that i just told you i made i'm literally just gonna reread this book because i need to  i already started rereading parts of it which is why it's also taking me longer to get through it i  have about 200 ish pages left i'm so so excited to see where it goes i'll update along the waythis passage chapter whatever you want to call it page 279 a paper star with a single bent corner  nightmare number 113 i am sitting in a very big chair and i cannot get out of it  my arms are tied to the chair arms but my hands are gone there are people without faces standing  around me feeding me pieces of paper that all have things that i am supposed to be written on  them but they never ask me what i am she didn't have to do that she did not have to do that ii did not ask to be called out in this way in the middle of this fantasy book  why is that quite literally almost exactly a nightmare i've had no people were not feeding me  pieces of paper and i think i still had my hands um but like i've had variations of that nightmare  i should probably go back to therapy it's beautiful okay it's so well written it's so good  i did not need to be called out like that today i didn't need that i didn't need that  anyway why why does aaron morgenstern do this to me it's fine you know it's not  it's not but like i'm still gonna keep reading what's new also unrelated but i would just like  to point out that today is friday the 13th and it just feels really appropriate that i'm reading  this book on friday the 13th feels like the stars really did align the stars really did a line for  me today they were like fate and time y'all can be together today we're not breaking you up the  moon intervened and y'all will be together so that hannah can read this book on friday the 13th and  fully immerse herself in to this world i'm about to get on a ship and sail off to the  starless sea i still don't even know where it is zachary also doesn't know where it is but i'm  about to go out and try and find it didn't need that call out though did not need that call outit is once again another day today we are finishing the starless seat also if you're  wondering why sometimes i have the cover on sometimes i don't i have like three copies  of this book uh even though i still hadn't read it but today we're finishing the book  i am currently on page 419 so i have 70-ish 80-ish pages left  something like that can i do math like 70 pages left so very very close to the end now i i know  i've said this a million times i literally am obsessed i love it so much dorian and zachary  so good the way all of the stories have like come together finding out who fate and time really are  finding out who the pirate and the girl really are i just i don't know how to explain this book and  like i don't even want to spoil it in this video like i was gonna actually talk about spoilers  in this video but i don't think that i will maybe a little bit at the end when i finish it  but like i want you to read this and i want you to know nothing about it and i want you to let  it unfold and i want you to experience everything without knowing anything that's going on in here  like let it not make sense and let it start to make sense as it goes on that's like the point  of the book anyway that's kind of what zachary is going through like he has no idea what's going on  he is quite literally thrown into this world of the starless sea and trying to figure out  what it is and where it is and he has so many questions that are just mostly left unanswered  and you're discovering everything along with him and you're just as confused as he is the entire  time but in the best way possible i know a lot of people talk about like books being confusing and  they don't like that in some fantasy books because it just makes it kind of like hard to follow and  like i fully understand that but i think this book like leans into that intentionally like zachary is  also really confused because he literally falls down a rabbit hole and he's like what am i doing  here what's going on who are any of you and all of them just keep replying to him with more questions  like not who how or not where but why and like stuff like that and like i don't know i don't  know how to explain it like you just need to read it anyway every single time i have like a clip to  include in here it's literally just me saying like the same thing in different ways because i  i genuinely don't know how else to talk about this book i don't know how to explain like how this  book is affecting me because it feels very subtle like i don't feel outwardly super super excited  like i just feel like screaming about it non-stop like it feels very personal for some reason like  i want it to be my own the way that zachary feels about um sweet sorrows in this like he doesn't  want to talk to anybody about it he kind of just wants to keep it to himself like that's how i feel  about this book like maybe i'm having a little gaslight gatekeep girl boss moment but like i  i want to keep it to myself you know i mean not really i want like literally everybody to read it  and like so many people have read this before me i'm like the last person to read this book  literally even though i feel like i should have been one of the first people to read this book but  that's on me but my point is that like i love this in such a personal way and i don't know how to  describe that like i feel like it's supposed to be kept private and i don't know i don't think i've  ever had like a reading experience like this one before i'm so close to saying that this is like my  favorite book i've ever read because definitely one of my favorite reading experiences i've  ever had i don't know i don't know we'll see you when i get to the end but this might just become  my new all-time favorite book if anyone could have done it it would have been aaron morgenstern you  know but like oh my god i don't know i don't know we'll see we'll see i don't want to say  anything yet we'll wait until i get to the very end because endings of books really like  make it for me anyway let's get back to reading i will update as i finishwhy are you making me cry stop it i'm not even finished  oh my god oh my god oh my god i need to i need to calm downi swear to god this book is like aaron morgenstern took my favorite quote from the night circus  the one that i put on this bookmark that i made circa 2016 or 15. and there are never  really endings happy or otherwise literally my favorite quote from that entire book it's like  she took and they're never really endings happy or otherwise and wrote an entire book about thati i can't do this i'm not okay and no story ever truly ends as long as it is toldshut up this book is literally why i love readingthis is the best thing i've ever read i i need i need i need time hold on i got time  okay i did not expect this to make me cry um but it did in fact make me cry i literally can't do  anything but like clutch this to my chest i don't know how to explain the way that this book makes  me feel how much it weirdly meant to me i've never read something that like felt so much like it  belonged to me the entire time i was reading it i sound so gatekeepy and that's not what i mean  like i said before like i think everyone should read this because it's so good as i was reading  this like it felt like the story was mine like it was for me to read and me alone and i don't  know if other people felt that way while they were reading it like i don't know if that was  aaron morgenstern's intent but like she made this feel like such a personal story that belongs to  the person reading it and as she describes in this book multiple times like each person who  reads a story is going to get something completely different out of it it's going to mean something  very different to each person who reads it they have a very different interpretation based on  who they are where they are in life so i think that there was probably some intent there and it  definitely worked for me it felt like while i was reading this all that existed was what was inside  of these pages i wanted to live in this story and i did i did live in this story i lived in sweet  sorrows i lived in the ballad of simon and eleanor like i lived in these stories they feel like they  are a part of me what did she do what magic did she write i don't have the words i don't have  the word to describe it i feel so inarticulate right now because i quite literally like am i  just i don't i'm speechless i'm speechless i can't believe it took me so long to read this but if we  take any lesson from this we can also take that there is a specific time when you are meant to  find things and i think i was meant to read this book now not back in 2019 when it first came out  and i first got it i think i was meant to wait to read it now when i needed it the most when it  would impact me the most i don't think i've ever read anything that made me actually believe in  like magic more i'm not a religious person i'm not very like spiritual or anything at all but  you know there's always that like child that lives in you that wants to believe that magic exists and  this book honestly kind of made me believe that magic could exist that these fairy tales could  exist that the starless sea is real and maybe one day i can sail it and oh my god i just help  read it please read it oh my god i think i can definitively say this is my favorite book of  all time i don't think i've read anything i like more than this i don't think i've read anything  that feels more like i want to read it again and again like i want to just be like trapped inside  of these pages forever and never leave like it was genuinely so hard for me to finish because i just  knew that it was going to end and i didn't want it to end it was so hard to get through the end  of it i would just close it like every five pages and be like no like we can't because it's going to  end and i don't want it to end and i want to live in here forever but oh my god but i think i can  say that i think i can actually say that i like this more than the night circus i like actually  like it more than the night circus which i didn't think i could say like i still love that book  with my whole heart i love it so much but there is something about this story that i don't even think  i've fully processed yet since i just finished it like i'm gonna need a few days to like sit with it  think about it some more and like let it stew and read it again and again and again there's just  something so purely magical about this purely magical i listened to the audiobook for a good  portion of the beginning of it um but then i just read the physical book i would say i definitely  prefer reading the physical book to the audiobook the audiobook's not bad by any means there's just  something about aaron morgenstern books where i think like an audiobook just can't do it justice  like i need to physically read the words on the page because i need to like imagine the way the  characters speak and stuff for myself i don't know there's something about her writing that  like i need to do that with it so the audiobooks never like hit right for me but it was definitely  not bad by any means i don't like the night circus audiobook at all like i would just never recommend  it personally but i do like the starla c one so if you do want to listen to it it's definitely worth  listening to so while i physically read the rest of it i did tab some of the pages as you might  be able to see they're like really light so you can't tell for like some of my favorite sections  there's the whole section where zachary is talking to death essentially and there's like that whole  back and forth that they're having and it it took me out i was like you don't need to call me out  like this like i don't need to hear all of this or death is telling him that like you exist in  these fantasy worlds and put yourself into these fairy tales because you're trying to avoid like  real life and you're trying to avoid um everything you're afraid of and you feel like you're not good  enough and you aren't good enough and like all of this stuff i was like okay death can you just not  be my internal monologue for a minute i'm not i'm i'm not having a good time i think this book is  so hard for me to describe because it doesn't really have a thesis i would say i feel like  the overall moral of the story is that it is a story and a story can mean whatever it means  to whomever is reading it and i think that's the moral of the story if that makes sense so  it's so open-ended in a way that is deeply deeply satisfying in my opinion at least and leaves you  wanting more obviously like i want a second story about cat and the other door like i need it i need  it so bad but at the same time i'm so happy with just this the transportative powers of this book  are unmatched unmatched i don't know how else to describe it this is why i love to read this book  is the epitome of why i love to read i don't think it's for everyone is the thing like i don't think  everyone will like this i think you have to like a specific type of book which is fine if you don't  like it but i think you should give it a chance i think you should go in open-minded i think you  should go in knowing absolutely nothing about it thanks to aaron morgenstern for once again writing  another masterpiece i have my b cover again and i'm genuinely so happy that i decided on these  bee earrings on pure chance pure coincidence or maybe it wasn't maybe it was mirabelle maybe it  was her intervening telling me giving me some kind of sign to choose the bees actually you know what  when i got my ears pierced the girl who worked there i think she had pink hair that's terrifying  if i remember right i feel like one of them had pink hair fate i'm telling you it's fate  it makes me think about writing and storytelling in a way that i haven't thought about them before  but also in a way that feels so familiar and feels so right to me and it makes me want  to write it makes me want to read more it's so beautifully written completely immersive evocative  you can see and smell and feel everything she describes just like in the night circus  and it's brilliant like honestly just brilliant masterful storytelling the layers and depth  to this the puzzle pieces that you have to put together while you're reading it it's mysterious  and enchanting and haunting and heartbreaking and realistic and completely fantastical  all at the same time and that is why i love it so much and that is what i love about books and this  book is all of it all of it wrapped up into one and it's perfect it's perfect oh my god anyway  i'm just repeating myself again and again but please read the style of c if you have any book  recommendations that are even somewhat similar to this one please leave them in the comments below  um i need to read more things that you think i would like based on this based on all the other  books you know i deeply love but yes that is it for this video i hope you all enjoyed watching  i hope it was fun for you i hope it was worth the wait the two-year wait of me putting this book off  um but it was worth it for me had a great time i hope you had a great time as well also a quick  reminder my reading journal the clockwork reader reading journal if you did not watch my last video  i am releasing a reading journal i'm super super excited about it it comes out december 7th it is  available for pre-order so the links are in the description box if you would like to pre-order my  reading journal don't forget to check that out in the description box as well but yes if you'd like  to follow me on any of my social media all the links are in the description box as well but thank  you all so much for watching this video i hope you enjoyed and i will see you in my next video byeyou\n"