The 2011 novel, “The Night Circus,” raises the time-old question: Do you judge a book by its cover?
By BELLA PETERSON — arts@theaggie.org
The classic dilemma of judging a book by its cover — a tale as old as time. Although the saying as it stands isn’t always targeted toward books, it still can be applicable to just about any book you come across. In today’s age, there are a multitude of cover designs that decorate the shelves of your local bookstore, whether it be a cartoon-style romance novel or a collage of flowers, snakes and other things surrounding the title of a fantasy novel.
It’s something readers can’t really help. When looking for a fresh new novel to crack open, the first thing that’s usually considered is its appearance. With a pretty title and an even prettier cover it’s hard to say no to a book. But sometimes, or maybe even most times, looks can be deceiving.
With the uproar of BookTok constantly throwing suggestions at you, it can be difficult to decipher what books are actually as good as they say. One such novel is called “The Night Circus” by Erin Morgenstern.
Described as being a novel that employs the genres of fantasy, romance and historical fantasy set against the backdrop of a Victorian era London, it definitely seemed like this novel had everything going for it. And yet, by the time the last page was read, all that was left was a feeling of dissatisfaction and disbelief that this novel was so highly praised.
Now, of course, everyone has their preferences when it comes to reading. So, naturally, if someone recommends a book, there isn’t a surefire chance that it’s going to meet the same standards that you hold. That’s the beauty of books after all; being able to find something that meets exactly what you’re looking for as a reader.
However, the reasoning for the dissatisfaction found with “The Night Circus” wasn’t because it was a bad novel. If it were that simple, one could simply say, “It just wasn’t my cup of tea,” and move on. The issue with this novel goes far deeper than just preferences. The book itself had some very decorated writing, if the title and the cover weren’t enough, then the writing itself was certainly aesthetically convincing.
The content itself just felt hollow in comparison to the pretty forefront it held. Deeper and deeper into the novel it became glaringly obvious that there wasn’t much substance to this story — the characters not really showing anything to be impressed by and simply just going through the motions as any other easy read. It’s a hard thing to admit a novel is just a pretty face, because who’s allowed to even declare such a thing?
Some negative reviews of the novel found on Goodreads had similar things to say: Sunny said, “NOTHING HAPPENED,” and Dana said, “Did not finish. I tried. Too much pretty writing and too little actual plot.”
Now this may not be the majority opinion, but finding that others agreed with the impression that this novel only left its reader with beautiful writing and no substance, then maybe it isn’t totally outlandish to think there may be a bigger issue at hand.
This isn’t meant to be a critique of “The Night Circus” alone, but rather a better look at what books are starting to evolve into as a whole. If a book sounds good, looks good and even reads good, then what’s the issue? Supposedly, it might all actually dilute down into a preference thing, but how can a reader actually tell? When looking for a good book to read, you don’t want to have to worry about being fooled into reading something that isn’t simply bad, but empty, too.
If this was an individual event for this one novel, then this issue would be localized and easily forgettable — sadly, that’s just not the case. It feels as if more and more books that are popping out either feel like empty carbon copies of the overdone tropes we have had for so long.
Now, when looking through the shelves of these bookstores and a nice title and cover catches your eye, you might have to question what actually lies between those pages deep within the deceiving cover.
No one is the ultimate judge of whether this can be applied, because maybe it does come down to personal preference. At the end of the day, everyone should consider the total application of what issues may come with books being diluted down to an aesthetic first, rather than content being the priority.
The overconsumption of books through the lens of social media is a whole other can of worms that doesn’t need opening just yet, but there’s something to be said for the constant flow of recommendations not really having a solid filter. There’s no actual way for audiences to sniff out when a book is more than a good-looking cover. Maybe now’s the time to start deconstructing what books readers are actually looking for rather than just the nicest looking cover of the bunch.
Written by: Bella Peterson — arts@theaggie.org
