Circus Circus...
/A Backstage Pass To A World Of Wonders…
Come one, come all! Step right up and see what’s under the big top! Try your luck at a game of chance!
There's one fantasy that doesn't get old even as we do: running away with the circus. Escaping to a place where you can inhale the mouthwatering scent of cotton candy and fresh popcorn, behold dazzling lights that turn night into day, be held captive by impossible feats of magic, and surrender yourself to a place of vast spectacle.
Circuses and carnivals are populated with lost souls and nameless strangers. Grifters and drifters. Dreamers and romantics. Thieves and marks. Misfits and eccentrics. These places of whimsy and wonder linger in the recollections of even the tamest of childhoods. Doggedly refusing to permit the nostalgia to wane, despite any sense of the shadowy elements that may lie dormant on the periphery.
Bring a spark of extraordinary into your everyday life with these incredible books that will sweep you away to the dark and glamourous world of carnivals and circuses, where nothing is as it seems. A setting ripe for literature as any I can imagine.
Behind The Curtain
…revel in the secrets of the greatest show on earth
The Night Circus – Erin Morgenstern
The circus arrives at night, without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within its nocturnal tents awaits a unique experience, a feast for the senses, where one can get lost in a maze of clouds, meander through a lush garden made of ice, stand awestruck as a contortionist folds herself into a small box and gaze in wonderment at performances of impossible feats of magic. But beyond your eyes, a fierce competition is underway, a contest between two magicians in which they must, unbeknownst to them, duel to the death.
Circus Of Wonders – Elizabeth MacNeal
In 1860’s England, circus mania is sweeping the nation. Crowds jostle for a glimpse of the lion tamers, the dazzling trapeze artists and most thrilling of all, the so-called “human wonders”. When the Circus of Wonder’s pitches its tent in a poor coastal town, the life of one young girl changes forever. Sold to the ringmaster as a leopard girl because of the markings that cover her body, Nell is devasted. But as she grows closer to the other performers, she becomes enchanted by the new family, freedom, and power she has found. Macabre and magical in equal measure.
Ladies Of The Secret Circus – Constance Sayers
To enter the Secret Circus is to enter a world of wonder, where women weave illusions of magnificent beasts, carousels take you back in time and trapeze artists float across the sky. It’s the only world Cecile has ever known until she meets a charismatic young painter and embarks on an affair that could cost her everything. Almost a century later Lara is swept into a story of a dark circus and an ill-fated love affair when she desperately begins to search for the finance who disappeared on their wedding day. Filled with glitter and shadow, a circus story that spans worlds and decades.
Bones Of Ruin – Sarah Raughley
As an African tightrope dancer in Victorian London, Iris is used to being strange, even for audiences eager to see a spectacle. But that is not the strangest thing about Iris. She cannot die. Haunted by her unnatural gift and with no memories of her past, she is obsessed with discovering who she is. An obsession that becomes complicated when she meets the dark and alluring Adam. The author confesses in her note to the reader that she grew up writing stories about freakish girls with powers she secretly wanted to have. Love that!
Circus Mirandus – Cassie Beasley
Micah believes in the stories his dying Grandpa tells him of the magical Circus Mirandus; the invisible tiger guarding the gates, the beautiful flying birdwoman and a magician more powerful than any other. The one who bends the light. One who owes his grandpa a miracle. When he and his friend Jenny set out to find the Lightbender, turns out he’s not interested in keeping his promise. A marvelous story of magic and love.
Circus Train – Amita Parikh
Lena has never quite found her place within the circus, even as the daughter of the brilliant headlining illusionist, Theo. She yearns for the real-world magic of science and medicine, despite her father’s overprotectiveness and the limitations of her wheelchair. Her life takes an unexpected turn when she rescues Alexandre, an orphan with a mysterious past. As he trains as an illusionist’s apprentice, their friendship flourishes. When she is torn from everything she knows with the onset of War, she must find her way back. A gripping story of unlikely friendships and powerful connections.
Water For Elephants – Sara Gruen
Orphaned and penniless at the height of the Depression, Jacob escapes everything he knows by jumping on a passing train, inadvertently running away with the circus. He finds a place tending the animals, including a seemingly untrainable elephant named Rosie. Soon he is battling his love for Marlena, the wife of the cruel animal trainer, and a murderous secret that will threaten his newfound family of performers. A story that haunts even as it enchants.
Church Of Marvels – Leslie Parry
A tale filled with misfits and outcasts, set in the turn of the century New York where the fates of four characters will become entwined over the course of one fateful night. Sylvan, who discovers a newborn baby abandoned in a tenement house he cleans; Odlie, the girl on the wheel of a famed knife thrower in a show that has long since lost its magic; Alphie, who wakes up groggy and confused in a Lunatic Asylum and the woman committed alongside him who hatches a plan to save them both. A vibrant and unique story.
Harley In The Sky – Akemi Dawn Bowman
Harley has dreamed of becoming a trapeze artist for as long as she can remember. With parents that run a famous circus in Las Vegas, she spends almost every night in the big top watching the lead aerialist perform, waiting for the day it’s her up there. After a huge fight with her parents who insist she go to school instead, she joins a rival traveling circus. There she is thrust into a world that is both brutal and beautiful. A heart wrenching and engaging story.
Pantomime – Laura Lam
Gene’s life resembles a debutante’s dream. But she hides a secret that would see her shunned by nobility. Gene is both male and female. When she displays unwanted magical abilities, her parents plan a devasting betrayal. So, dressed as a boy she flees home and joins the circus. As an aerialist, she discovers the joys of flight, even as she is plagued by dark visions. A vividly imagined coming of age story that is utterly unique.
The Ringmasters Wife – Kristy Cambron
A young girl seeks the marvels of the Chicago World’s Fair, where a chance encounter triggers her destiny, a life with a famed showman by the name of John Ringling. A quarter of a century later, Lady Rosamund boards a ship, bound for where the twenties are roaring, and the golden age of the circus has arrived. When she crosses paths with the glittering world of the Ringling’s, she chooses the nomadic life of a performer. A vivid and compelling tale.
The Greatest Shows On Earth: A History Of The Circus – Linda Simon
Dazzling and exotic, the circus is a theatre of the improbable and the impossible. From the days of traveling troupes of acrobats and jugglers to the grand spectacle of Cirque du Soleil, we have been endlessly fascinating by the circus. This author delves into the reasons for our long-held allure. A rich and vibrant history of what we behold as magical.
Step Right Up
…behold the wonders and the horrors of the spectacle before you.
The First Bright Thing – J.R. Dawson
Rin can jump to different moments in time as easily as her wife, Odette, soars from bar to bar on the trapeze. The circus they lead is a safe haven for other magical misfits and outcasts. The Circus of the Fantastical travels across the country, offering a night of enchantment to all those that dare to step into their Big Top. But when another Circus, one with tents as black as midnight and a Ringmaster with a dangerous power, pops up they must fight against the darkness. A wonderful and magical tale with so much heart!
Wonder Show - Hannah Barnaby
Inside Mosco’s Traveling Wonder Show, a menagerie of human curiosities and misfits are guaranteed to astound and amaze! But perhaps the strangest act is Portia, a normal among the freaks, on the run from a home for wayward girls. As she seeks answers to her father’s disappearance, a malevolent man is hunting her down. A book sure to cast its spell on you.
Joyland – Stephen King
Who better to terrify you with an amusement park story than Stephen King? Set in 1973, Joyland tells the tale of the summer in which college student Devin comes to work as a carny and confronts the legacy of a vicious murder, the fate of a dying child and how both will change his life forever. A coming-of-age tale with a smidge of the supernatural written with King’s signature heart! He’s really at his best when writing younger characters.
Wonderland – Jennifer Hillier
Welcome to Wonderland. By day, it’s a magical place boasting retro charm; children bursting with excitement, carnival music blasting and the Ferris Wheel endlessly spinning. But at night, an eerie feeling descends. Maybe it’s the clown museum, full of creepy wax replicas of movie stars and porcelain dolls. Or maybe it’s the terrifying House Of Horrors. Or maybe it’s the dead and decomposing body left in the midway. A wild and scary ride of a read!
Hide – Kiersten White
The challenge: spend a week hiding in an abandoned amusement park and not get caught. The prize: enough money to change everything. Fourteen competitors. Seven days. Everywhere to hide but nowhere to run. Even though everyone is desperate to win, to escape a haunting past or grasp at a future dream, Mack is sure she is going to triumph. All she has to do is hide, and she’s an expert at that.
Nightmare Alley – William Lindsay Gresham
The book opens with the description of a carnival show geek, the object of the voyeuristic crowd’s gleeful disgust and derision. Young Stan is working as a carny and vows he will never allow himself to fall so low. Soon enough he’s onstage as a mentalist and going places. A delirious and unstoppable novel! To say anymore would risk spoiling your fun.
Freeks – Amanda Hocking
Mara is used to the extraordinary. Roaming from place to place with a traveling carnival, she longs for a normal life where no one has the ability to levitate or predict the future. She gets her chance when she meets Gabe on a stop in a small town. But before long she realizes there is a dark presence lurking there. When a power she didn’t know she had takes over, she has only a few days to save everyone she cares about. A unique spin on a carnival freak show setting!
Full Tilt – Neal Shusterman
Sixteen-year-old Blake and his younger brother Quinn are exact opposites. Blake is the responsible one, Quinn the fearless one. Everything changes when Quinn’s thrill seeking leads them into a bizarre phantom carnival that traps its customers forever. The only way to escape? Blake must survive seven deadly rides by dawn, each of which represents a deep personal fear. A roller coaster ride of a read. Pun intended.
The Book Of Speculation – Erika Swyler
Simon, a young librarian, lives alone in a slowly crumbling house. His parents are long dead. His sister, Enola, ran off years ago and now read tarot cards for a traveling carnival. One day, a book arrives on his doorstep. A log from the owner of a traveling carnival in the 1700s, full of reports of strange and magical things, including the drowning death of a circus mermaid. A mermaid like Simon’s mother. As he dives into the connection, he becomes desperately afraid his sister may meet the same fate. A novel that is sure to sweep you away!
Bacchanal – Veronica G. Henry
Eliza’s gift for communicating with animals may be her ticket out of swampy Baton Rouge. Having drawn the attention of a talent scout, she swiftly finds herself among fortune tellers, carnies, barkers, and others even stranger than herself. But the Bacchanal is no ordinary carnival, an ancient demon makes its home there. And that demon may have finally met its match in Eliza.
Battle For The Big Top: PT. Barnum, James Bailey, John Ringling & The Death Defying Saga Of The Circus – Les Standford
Millions of us have sat under the big top, gazing transfixed as trapeze artists glide and clowns entertain, but not many know the captivating stories and scandals behind the men whose creativity and ingenuity created one of the most beloved pastimes. Ultimately a rivalry surfaced as they all vied for control of this vastly profitable enterprise. A behind the curtain look that will have you riveted to the page!
