This book could have been so good. 
 It was recommended to me, and I read the back, and the reviews, and I was so excited for it! But no. I hated it. 
 The best thing about the book was probably the description, but it was layered on so much it covered what little plot there actually was. It was nice, a bit over the top, but nice nonetheless. 
 The idea was excellent. 
 A circus that opens at night and shuts at dawn where everything is black and white? Amazing! Fucking give it to me now! Except for the fact that is was repeatedly violently rammed down my throat that everything was black and white. BLACK AND WHITE, THIS: WHITE! THIS: BLACK! Like okay, I get it. 
 A tense contest between two magical competitors, only one can survive, and they fall in love? Oh shit, bit cliche sounding but okay! Wait, what's happening again? I got lost between the time jumping, tonnes of description and 5000000 seemingly unimportant characters (like okay, Barley or whatever was important, but why were Chandresh and the man in the grey suit still involved? Seemed utterly pointless and time consuming.) 
 Also, the characters. I can't even remember their names. For the first half, I was calling Chandresh Chandler, and then I was getting distracted like, wait? Isn't he from Friends? Yet Chandresh was probably one of the characters I actually liked in some way. (view spoiler)[And it didn't help that he fucking died like come on? (hide spoiler)] 
 The Man In The Grey Suit. Oh shit, that irritated the hell out of me. Are your characters so flat that the only way you can define them is by the colour of their suit? Yes. I read a three page chapter and counted the amount of times it said "man in the grey suit". NINE TIMES. P l e a s e come up with another way to describe your characters, for the love of god. We know his name is Mr A. H___, or he is described as such, why not use that? Using "the man in the grey suit" doesn't make it any more mysterious, it just makes it repetitive and dull. Does this author get paid by the word? 
 I don't really remember anyone else, except for Marco and the father figures. Celie was utterly boring and flat. All of the characters were flat. Run them over with a monster truck or a jeep or something and they would not be any flatter. They couldn't get any flatter. The father figures that both abused "their" children and used them for some seemingly pointless contest never got any real repercussions for what they had done. 
 Another thing I hated about the characters in this book was that they were all pretty much the same. They all liked books and reading and they were all smart being the main part of this: Mr A. H____ liked reading and taught his students through this, he was also intelligent, as was Prospero though there was not evidence he liked reading, he must have to have done so much research I guess. Celie loved reading and had an excellent memory and was clever and Marco loved reading and was clever, the red haired twins loved reading and were also clever, and Barley had the option to go to Harvard! Tsukiko must like reading and be clever in order to be raised by Mr A. H___ as his contestant and win. So it's a book full of boring intellectuals who are so flat they don't even have difference of interest or intelligence to set them apart from each other. 
 I hated Marco. This also goes with the romance that sprung up out of nowhere, like? Where did this even come from? What a shitty way to treat someone too, Marco avoiding Isobel, you know, his girlfriend for however many years, and then kissing another girl and dancing with her before erasing Isobel's memory. Like, ok asshole. (Also, deciding he loved Celie when they had spoken like four times including when he declared his love, two of which showed no signs of anything, ok ok ok, guess no book is complete without a seemingly doomed romance!) 
 Whenever I thought this book was okay, either Marco, the romance plot, or the man in the grey suit popped up again and made me hate it all over again. 
 This book, without the description, could have been about fifty pages long tops. 
 Saying this, I am actually glad for this book. Before this, I was reading and rating every book I read as 4/5 stars, and I was beginning to think that I was just easily pleased and didn't actually like anything of my own accord. Now I can see that this is not true, and that I have actually been reading the right books. Thank you Night Circus.