expectations WERE high , but the book met them
How is the quality of the book?
I loved this book. LOVED.I went into it a bit wary because of the hype - I'd heard so much about it, so many GOOD things, that I was afraid my expectations were too high. In the end, my expectations WERE high, but the book met them, if not quite in the ways I thought.I saw Erin Morgenstern say on Twitter and in interviews many times (to the point where she started to sound annoyed, but I don't blame her) that the book is neither YA nor a series, despite how it has been portrayed in some reviews/stories. Both of these things is true. It is not YA, though a teen would certainly enjoy it since it's not like teens read nothing but YA (or that adults DON'T read YA). And to me, it utterly stands alone. I can't even see where a sequel would go, with the caveat that there is such a beautiful world here that it could be explored in perhaps entirely different stories. What I would like to see more than a sequel would be short stories, honestly.Because it is truly the world in this book that is magnificent - not the &#34;world&#34; at large as in Harry Potter or Dresden Files or other books with complicated mechanics of magic, but instead the microcosm of the circus that is painted so beautiful. In all honesty the characters fell much flatter for me than I would typically tolerate in my fiction, but I came to realize that they were really playing second fiddle to the setting as the protagonist.My one serious complaint would be that the time jumping makes it difficult to follow - a problem that was exacerbated by the fact that I was listening to the book on audio and couldn't flip back to see how much time had passed, what time period I was in, etc. For that reason, even though the narration is beautifully done by Jim Dale, I might recommend reading it in hardcopy.Though reviews liked to compare the book to Harry Potter, it reminds me much more in feel if to anything, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. It's very adult (in terms of maturity, not theme) and very Victorian. The book picks up momentum as it goes along, not unlike a train, and all of the loose ends begin to tie together at the end masterfully.Don't get scared away by the hype - read this because it's gorgeous. 