#140 in Romance
Water for Elephants
- 355
- Pages
- about 7 h
- Reading time
- NYT bestseller · 34 weeks on the list, peaked at #1
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Our view
“Water for Elephants” sets a love story inside a twentieth-century circus, and its assured, easy-reading prose is the quality readers agree on most. Some find few surprises in the romance and prefer the passages that show the hero in old age. Opinions split on its harshness, too gritty for some and not dark enough for others, so it best suits readers who want a warm, straightforward period tale.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
Water for Elephants is a 2006 historical romance novel by Canadian–American author Sara Gruen. The novel is set in a 20th-century circus. Gruen wrote the book as part of the National Novel Writing Month.
Where the score comes from
The sources average 7.8 across 968 ratings. With that many, the reader vote carries 87% of the weight and the score stays at 7.7 — the Romance average of 7.6 barely moves it.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 7.1 | 48 | 5% |
| Google Books | 8.0 | 71 | 7% |
| Hardcover | 7.8 | 849 | 88% |
Frequently asked
How long is Water for Elephants?
It has 355 pages — shorter than 70% of the ranked books in Romance.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
Same shelf — Romance — with scores between 7.7 and 7.8, closest to this book.
