"The Night Circus"

I don't go much for contemporary fiction and I really don't read the Latest Hyped Literary Fad, but I picked up Erin Morgenstern's The Night Circus and I enjoyed it. Though it's by no means perfect, it does have a several awesome things going for it:

- Morgenstern is a very visual writer, wonderful at describing the details and atmosphere of the circus. The production designer for the inevitable film adaptation is not going to have a hard time with concept art. The costumes will also be beautiful.

- The physical tension between the protagonists, Marco and Celia, is palpable but Morgenstern never writes anything explicit. I was really impressed with how she handled their intimacy.

- The supporting characters are all pretty great, each having their own thing going on that intersects with Marco and Celia's plot, but not always neatly. There is a lot of agency spread around, particularly amongst the female characters. The novel is also gay-friendly and inclusive of minorities. I initially had a little trouble with a mysterious and inscrutable Asian, but then all the characters are mysterious and inscrutable so it's not like Morgenstern was leaning too heavily on that trope.

- The setting: late Victorian London for the most part. THIS IS LIKE CATNIP TO ME.

- Machinery + Magic = FTW.


So, yeah, definitely give it a try if you like stories about people who should be enemies but instead fall in love and also magic and integral-to-the-plot-bowler hats.

Come on sucker, lick my battery

Did you know that if have a gmail account and you write the words "are attached" somewhere in an email but you don't actually attach anything and then press send, a little box will appear to warn you about what you've done?

I mean, on the one hand that's really convenient for those times you forget, but on the other...

...SKYNET.