It oughta be a movie: The Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern
The circus arrives without warning...It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. The towering tents are striped in white and black, no golds or crimsons to be seen...When the tents are all aglow, sparkling against the night sky, the sign appears...Le Cirque de Rêves (The Circus of Dreams).
The name of the titular circus in this tale is appropriate, as the whole book has a magical, dreamlike quality. The story probably counts as "magical realism" since it takes place in our world in the late 19th and early 20th century, and only a few characters have magical abilities, but as a reader you spend so much time in the spaces influenced by the magical characters that it can feel like a separate fantasy world.
The circus is the venue for a competition between Marco and Celia, two young magicians. They are pitted against one another by their mentors, who have differing philosophies of magic. Celia's father favors 'natural talent', physicality, and public displays of real magic disguised as sleight of hand. Marco's mentor favors learning, writing-based charms, and secrecy. The circus is created, with Marco positioned behind the scenes and Celia hired as the circus's illusionist. What their mentors did not foresee - or, rather, cared too little about their protégées to be concerned with - is that as the contest progresses and Marco and Celia respond to each other's enchantments, a bond grows between them. At first this is expressed in a collaboration, of sorts, but then it grows into something deeper. This is unfortunate, as unbeknownst to them the contest will be fatal to one or the other.
Erin Morgenstern's writing is very sensory and it would be amazing to see all her gorgeous imagery come to life in a visual medium:
Mme Padva wears a dress of black silk, hand embroidered with intricate patterns of cherry blossoms, something like a kimono reincarnated as a gown...a choker of perfectly cut scarlet rubies circles her neck, putting forth a vague impression of her throat having been slit.
...everything is sparkling and white...Curious, Celia picks a frosted peony from its branch...the layered petals shatter...When she looks back at the branch, an identical bloom has already appeared.
Celia reaches out her hand to him and he takes it to help her up. It is the first time he has touched her bare skin. The reaction in the air is immediate. A sudden charge ripples through the room, crisp and bright. The chandelier begins to shake...."My apologies," Marco says, his heartbeat pounding so loudly in his ears that he can barely hear her. "Though I cannot say I'm entirely sure what happened." "I tend to be particularly sensitive to energy," Celia says.
The immersive nature of the physical descriptions are what have led me to re-read this book at least four times. The characters are not quite as well-developed as the setting, but it works; they feel more like fairytale characters than people in a normal novel. Besides Marco and Celia and the older magicians, key figures include Isobel (Marco's girlfriend who serves as the circus fortune teller), the contortionist Tsukiko, and the redheaded twins Poppet and Widget whose birth on the night of the circus' opening seems to have given them unusual powers of perception.
If you are fond of stories with a gentle, fairytale-like quality, vivid descriptions of fantastical things, and magic with unintended consequences, you would probably enjoy this book. Despite the existence of a contest, do not expect much action here, however.
Adaptation issues: The book chapters are in a somewhat non-linear order, and it might be necessary to rearrange the episodes a bit, given that viewers couldn't flip back to check the timestamps as readers can. I would probably start somewhere in the middle, where the circus is fully functional but things are starting to go a bit wobbly, and then circle back to the senior magicians' wager and proceed forward in time from there.
It might also be necessary to delve a bit more into the feelings of the characters involved. I almost labeled this a "female protagonist" story, but while Celia and Marco are the main characters they are both so passive for most of the story that it is hard to call either of them the protagonist. They come up with their enchantments, and they very slightly defy their mentors in getting to know one another, but they are not interacting with one another through their own choice, they did not come up with the circus idea, they can't declare the contest over, etc. That isn't necessarily a bad thing - not being in charge of your own life is quite a relatable experience. But in a movie or mini-series there should be more scenes of them actually creating their enchantments and reacting to each other's work1, and expressing frustration at their situation. They show more agency at the end, however, and make themselves a happy ending of sorts.
Similarly, though it is clear enough in the book that Isobel knows Marco is drifting away from her and toward Celia, it would be nice to see her have an obviously sad or jealous reaction...or at least an earlier indication of her magical plan to protect the circus; in the book, we only find out about that when she decides to stop. Tsukiko is more important than she initially seems, so getting to know her better would be good, and actually hearing the ongoing conversations between the older magicians would help maintain tension by reminding viewers of the stakes. Finally, although it is stated that the circus has acts from all over the world and travels from Morocco to Tokyo to Sydney, we only see it stop in places like Concord Massachusetts, London, and Vienna, and there are only two non-white characters: Tsukiko, and Chandresh Lefévre, the event producer2. That isn't necessarily a huge problem, as greater diversity is not necessary to the core story and themes. But, particularly if the story were adapted in a mini-series format, it would be cool to see a bit more of how visitors from different parts of the world respond to the circus, and how elements from different cultures are incorporated in the acts. Such a format would also give more time to develop the characters and show off the different enchantments.
1. In the book it isn't often clear who made what...though of course that is part of the point, that they are two halves of a whole.
2. Actually, they pull double-duty on the diversity front, being the only not-straight characters as well.
