I mean, I get it. I get the appeal, and I understand why this book will appeal to a lot of people. It's beautifully written and mysterious, but for me the actual story was pretty boring and fell kind of flat after all the hype. I thought this was going to be an adventure book, with a magical battle waged to the death...but nothing ever really happens. The pacing is so slow that the "battle" that is the premise of the whole book takes place over more than 40 years. I'm a pretty fast reader and it took me over a month to power through it. 
 While I really enjoyed the world building and I'd love to visit the Night Circus, I think it says something when the setting is the most interesting part of the book. Some of the characters are intriguing(though the protagonists are pretty boring) , but most of the story is spent making them intriguing and not answering the bigger questions presented by the plot and premise of the novel. When it ended I felt cheated, like I'd just slugged through 400 plus pages of flowery writing with no real pay off. But maybe that's just me.