"The Night Circus" by Erin Morgenstern

Synopsis:  Here is a synopsis courtesy of Goodreads.com, "The circus arrives without warning.  No announcements precede it.  It is simply there, when yesterday it was not.  Within the lack-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements.  It is called Le Cirque des Reves, and it is only open at night.
   But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway: a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors.  Unbeknownst to them both, this is a game in which only one can be left standing.  Despite the high stakes, Celia and Marco soon tumble headfirst into love, setting off a domino effect of dangerous consequences, and leaving the lives of everyone, from the performers to the patrons, hanging in the balance."

Review:  I was unable to write my own synopsis for this book because, well, nothing happened and the plot is bare-boned at best.  The Goodreads.com review is beautifully written, but unfortunately for readers, whoever wrote it clearly hasn't read Morgenstern's book.  The titular circus is spectacular as promised, but is described in such belabored detail that it's tiresome.  The fierce competition, however, is barely a competition at all and couldn't be less exciting.  The main characters, Celia and Marco, are taught magic, yes...real magic, by their sociopathic fathers (or in Marco's case, a father figure) in preparation for a challenge, the rules of which are kept secret from the competitors and the readers.  The Goodreads synopsis purports that the game has high stakes which means it will result in the death of the loser, but the so-called challenge seems to consist of nothing more than Celia and Marco creating unique circus exhibits (an ice garden, for example) to impress the other....not exactly a "fierce competition" if you ask me.  In addition to a threadbare and mostly uninteresting plot, the characters fall flat, so much so that they are almost unlikeable.  The cast of the circus is kooky and odd, but none of the characters are developed enough for the reader to feel attached or invested.  Furthermore, there's definitely no love between Marco and Celia, and their phony romance (which came way too late in the book's 516 descriptive pages) turned me off to the story entirely.  I hope whoever wrote the book's jacket synopsis was paid well because it is better written than the entire book it advertises.
Spoilers:  I can almost picture Morgenstern, holed away in her office, writing detail after detail, and then...whoops, realizing the book needs an ending.  The ending came rather abruptly (although I was ready for the book to be finished much, much earlier) and was a bit confusing at that.  Are Marco and Celia better off living forever in the in-between?  Would their challenge really have ended in one's death?  I sure didn't feel like Celia's merry-go-round or Marco's ice garden was going to end in the other's demise, but I suppose I've been wrong before.  I was willing to like this book until I was asked to believe that Marco and Celia, both the most "blah" characters I've read in a while, fall madly in love. This book might make for a visually-stunning movie one day, but the book put me to sleep for two weeks straight.  I wouldn't recommend it...unless I had a friend who happened to love descriptions and circuses.