Interesting enough fairytale about a mysterious circus that arrives and disappears without warning and opens only between sunset and sunrise, oh and only in dry weather (problematic if ever visiting the west coast of Ireland)
Two rival magicians bestow their respective charges with the magical skills necessary to manipulate the world and themselves, in some kind of phantasmagorical battle of endurance (not too different to reading this book actually). The descriptions of the characters, the circus, the amazing wonders such as the ice garden, cloud maze etc are stunning but tedious. I found myself zoning out quite a bit. It's a long-winded slow-burner. It's confusing. The character who turns out to be the Mesiah of the story doesn't feature until midway through and even then doesn't do much until the very end. I also didn't buy Celia and Marco's (the charges) love story and found there incorporeal demise rather unsatisfactory given the investment this very long book demands. Some magic lovers, circus lovers, fantasy lovers will enjoy this book, others will be disappointed. However it is worth a speed read, not worth the hype.
By the way - What happened to the kid who ran away with the circus? The cops made him bring it back!