I am about to confess one of the greatest literati sins, so brace yourselves friends.
I bought this book after having seen the BBC's adaptation of William Boyd's Restless.
Yes, that's right, I saw something on the telly and only then bought the book.
Feel free to stop reading now if this is too big a crime for you to forgive.
I'm sorry, but sometimes that's just the way it happens! Something catches your eye in non literary form and you like it so you explore the author. Obviously I didn't pick up Restless as I knew all the spoilers. I was tempted by Any Human Heart, Boyds best known but it was also made into a TV adaptation that I missed, but had seen trailers for - I like to be able to imagine characters from my own mind so prefer not to have seen one else's projections on screen.
Incidentally one of the only books I've ever read after having 'seen the movie' was The Hunger Games but the books are not exactly Shakespeare and I very much enjoy Jennifer Lawrence so it didn't ruin them at all. ANYWAY, I digress.
So, no matter how I got there I settled on this. A story of an actor with unexpected sexual difficulties escaping his life in Vienna and then half way through it turns into a WW2 spy drama.
This book has to be reviewed in two parts because that it what it is, its like two separate books pushed into one.
The first half, is notably not as interesting but very well written, we explore Lysander Rief's character, his troubles as his sits through therapy and a doomed from the start relationship with an unpredictable femme fetal but actually not a huge amount happens. The character of Hettie Bull, the doomed lover, is excellently played out. Its clear from the start you are not supposed to like her but you are intrigued by her.
She is not remotely likeable but Boyd captures Lysander's feelings well and even though as reader you dislike her you understand why he wants her.
The second half of this book is where all the action happens. Finding refuge back in England after a dramatic exit from Vienna Lysander becomes a soldier and the war breaks out. The book becomes a classic 'spy thriller' and is very engaging as he hunts out a mole in the war office. You find yourself second guessing all the characters you've met so far finally turning this book into the page turner it should have been from the beginning.
To add to Boyd's praises, it ends fantastically. Very dramatic and satisfying, just what is needed after a fast paced tension building hunt for an informant.
It is just such a shame the beginning half of this book is so slow. Its not that's its boring, its an interesting character development but it would have been a much better book if that part were cut in half and the second half were longer. I felt as thought I spent most of the book waiting for the big thing to happen, I knew it was coming but the story was just taking ages to get there.
In review, Waiting For Sunrise is good. Its very well written as you would expect and by the end its captivating but it falls short of great purely for frustratingly slow beginning.
The End.
End Notes:
For fans of: William Boyd, Alan Furst.
Do keep in mind, reviews are subjective. Different opinions are cool friends, so feel free to share.
I have an unwritten rule when it comes to my addiction to fiction. I'll try anything, anything at all that anyone recommends, but if the story hasn't sucked me in by 100 pages i give up.If you're not connected with a book by then, you never will be. Put that book down, it is not for you.
Sometimes they get you on the 99th page, usually its about 40 pages in. You settled into the characters and you think, yep i'm going to enjoy this, I've stepped into this world and i am invested in it, take me away.
The Night Circus however, had me at the first sentence .."The circus arrives without warning. it is simply there, when yesterday it was not." The adventurer in me knew this was going to be quite a ride and after 20 pages i was completely hooked.Everything about this book is right up my street. I love a strong female character, a bit of magic and mystery, a doomed love story and this book delivers on all fronts beautiful wrapped up in a world so vivid i found it hard to believe it wasn't real - which is exactly what a good book should do.
The Night Circus is an absolute assault on the emotions and senses from start to finish. Every sight, sound and taste happens in your mind too. Morgenstern is an expert in painting the clearest of pictures and as your progress through the book you find yourself walking with the characters. I was left with an absolute longing to attend Le Cirque des Rêves and explore.
As a girl who grew up down the road from Glastonbury festival this kind of circus frivolity is not only close to my heart, but also very real to me and this novel captures the essence of that perfectly. An adult entering a circus should feel like a child bowled over with awe and excitement and with in the pages of the Night Circus you find that exact feeling, particularly as we follow young bailey around on his first ever trip and in the occasional pages written in a second person narrative.
Aside from the childlike joy you can find in the imagination of this book there is also a darker story, each character essentially being used as puppets by two aged rivals who bound the two central characters together for life in a sinister game. This plot line gives the book the dramatic edge that it needs. From the start of their meeting you are aware some impending sadness and bad omens leak into the story as warnings that something terrible will happen. Rather than this making the book seem predictable it actually makes it thrilling and suspense filled as central story flits around the different characters dragging your attention away and then back again, it makes it all the more page turning.
In my, oh so humble, opinion a great book should wash over you like a tidal wave, take a real impact on you and leave you standing on the beach stunned at what just happened. I have read a great many books like that in my life, and read them again and again because of it. But The Night Circus is more than that. Its like the deadly undercurrent that sucks you back into the swell over and over you can not escape the world Morgenstern has created whilst you are reading it and I personally loved every second of it. So, in review, in case you hadn't guessed - its utterly wonderful.
The End.
End notes:
* For fans of: Audrey Niffenegger, Joanne Harris, Neil Gaimen
** Do keep in mind, if you only like sci-fi or crime novels you probably won't enjoy this. The excellence of this book is subjective, obviously.
***Different opinions are cool friends, so feel free to share.
