“The Night Circus” by Erin Morgenstern

“The Night Circus” by Erin Morgenstern is way outside my usual inspirational Christian romance genre, but I downloaded it on Kindle at my daughter’s persistent urging – I mean, her years of urging me to read this book.

“These two magicians fall in love, but they don’t know that they have been forced into a competition to death,” she told me. “You will love it.”

Dark fantasy and magic in chapters that were not chronological. I could not see loving it, but I wanted my daughter to read my debut novel, so we made a deal. If she read “Plans of the Heart,” I would read “The Night Circus.”

She was right. I loved it. Not so much for the story, but for the writer’s perspective and ability.

I was blown away with Morgenstern’s vocabulary and writing method. She introduced me to well-developed characters and guided them through a maze of chaos, fear and treachery in pursuit of what happiness they might find together. Through a constantly changing set and bizarre players that seemingly darted in and out without rhyme or reason, the author never let me get lost. Though her characters fought through the mire of malevolence, vileness and betrayal, their competitions were designed to delight and entertain in a dance of self-sacrifice and love.

An accomplished multimedia artist, Morgenstern employed a sophisticated, elaborate command of language to paint a vivid, visual picture in compelling story.

I could not help but admire Morgenstern’s artful storytelling. She inspired me to better telling of my own works.

And my daughter cried buckets of happy tears when she read my book, which was the point of it all.