Conceived and written - in its embryonic form at least - during NaNoWriMo (or National Novel-Writing Month, to the uninitiated), the Night Circus is a novel that probably should have been brilliant. The ideas behind the story are clever, the characters promising and the tone wonderfully mysterious and seductive ... but it never quite comes together.

Adorned with a quote from Audrey Niffenegger, the novel does bear comparison with The Time Traveller's Wife - the star-crossed lovers, the slightly magical twists that cleave the book's world from ours, the faintly epic span (can an epic be faint?) Unfortunately the concept doesn't match up with the storytelling. Celia and Marco are both inextricably bound to the titular circus, which springs up without warning and is comprised of rings of tents full of curiousities and wonders.

The circus opens from midnight to dawn, and is followed around the country by a band of devoted fans called reveurs, or dreamers. Celia and Marco are central to the operation of the circus, and to a larger, darker purpose - but are largely unaware of their full, true destinies, and instead play out their own, intimate love story.

The atmosphere created is beguiling .. almost. You feel like something's always just about to happen, that you're always just about to find out how good the story is, and how much you like it. It never happens, though. It's all somehow unsatisfying. You're constantly told how magical and ethereal the circus is, but you never quite believe it ... there's heaps of mystery here, but it's never resolved and it just ends up feeling like the story's being vague because it doesn't know any of the answers. It's smoke and mirrors with nothing behind it.

It's not a bad book, though - it keeps you engaged, and at least has you curious. But it's not quite as effective as it could, or should be.