Circus Books
It’s like a circus in my head …
There is something about books set at the circus. Circuses are both fascinating and terrifying. I always feel I’m on the edge between consciousness and dreaming in a circus. Everything is a little loopy, and a little off-centre. I just had the pleasure of seeing Cirque de Soleil and it was, as always, breathtaking. I actually was screaming out loud while watching some of the acts! But there is a dreamlike magic there that takes you out of your regular existence.
Circus as a setting makes for such a perfect background for a book, especially because the author can juxtapose the glittering spectacle with the gritty reality of those working backstage that spectators do not see. My son asked me how some performers were able to do death-defying acts, and I told him it was years and years of extremely hard work. He found my answer disappointing because I think he wanted me to tell him it was all magic. But that’s why the circus is so fascinating.
I have a list of some of my favourite books set at the circus. Many take place during the very gritty days of the 1930s, the heyday of the travelling circus during the droughts and the Great Depression. People were all looking for a little bit of magic back then. Whether they found it or not, it’s not entirely certain. But everyone went to the circus looking for something. What do you look to find in a book set in the magic of the circus?
And if you’re feeling a little bit fall, a little bit spooky, don’t forget to grab a copy of my spooky short story collection Then She Said Hush!
The Circus Train, by Amita ParikhThere is always something a little dark and mysterious about a circus – in particular the nomadic existence. Like gypsies from the old stories, a carnival is there one day and gone the next, packed up in a caravan that travels under the stars – or a train under the stars.
The Circus Train delves deep into the lives of those performers who live and work for The World of Wonders, Europe’s most magnificent circus experience, in the 1920s and 30s. The world is a tumultuous place, but World of Wonders does well. Everything stops when the circus comes to town. Watching death-defying acts perhaps helps to forget you might be defying death the next day.
Lena Papadopoulous is the one person on the train who feels out of place, as the daughter of the famous illusionist, she is carted to one city after the other, unable to walk due to illness that disabled her. But her life becomes unimaginably better when French runaway Alexandre stows away on their train, and she helps nurse him back to health. She thinks everything will be good now she has a friend, but the dark times ahead hold terrible danger for her, her illusionist father, and the boy who’s become his apprentice.
Breathtaking and romantic and moving, I loved getting lost in the sweeping drama of this circus train.
The Night Circus, by Erin MorgensternThe Night Circus is my go-to recommendation when it comes to circus books, although in this case the book is entirely magical. It is about two characters, Celia and Marcus, who have been raised by magicians and have always known they would have to duel to the death at some point in their life. But sometimes love is stronger than anything … and a dream-like circus that transforms with their magic is the perfect backdrop for their fight.
I think the best way to describe this book is that it was beautiful. Visually, I mean. The details and the intricacies of the setting are so embroidered into the text that you can see it, hear it, taste it. I wish that Night Circus was a real thing, I think I’d be a devotee as well. I have stated before this book would be an amazing movie, and it looks like there is something in pre-productions works. I would see it in a heartbeat.
The plot wasn’t as well fleshed out as I thought it could be, but that wasn’t really the point. When you read this book, you enter into this dark world, entirely magical, and don’t want to leave.
Water for Elephants, by Sara GruenWater for Elephants shows the grittier side of the circus, as orphaned Jacob finds his only option to survive in Depression-era Dustbowl is to join a second-rate circus. He is an almost-veterinarian, having not earned his degree, so he cares for the menagerie. There he meets Rosie the elephant, who seems to be absolutely untrainable until Jacob figures out how to communicate with her.
He also meets Marlena, the enchanting and disenchanted star of the equestrian show. Though she is married to the cruel animal trainer, the love that sparks between them is something that lives on against all odds.
The book deals with issues many people faced in the 1930s, including coming up against Prohibition and being red-lighted if they become inconvenient (thrown from the train in the middle of the night, usually resulting in death). Horrible, dark and intensely romantic, I thoroughly enjoyed this book.
Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Ray BradburyA dark and mysterious carnival rolls into town in the deep of the night. The calliope music from Cooger & Dark’s Pandemonium Shadow Show trickles into the air, making dangerous promises.
One of Ray Bradbury’s best-known novels, the horror show of “autumn people” prey on those whose dreams outsize their lives, and the carousel that runs not through space but time is a heady temptation to many. Two boys and one aging man must face their darkest nightmares and leave some of their dreams behind.
The language is poetic and evocative, a perfect read for a fall day as the night edges out the day. Beautiful, gorgeous, haunting. Bradbury deals less in monsters than in our own fears of aging, dying and rotting. And he does a spectacular job of shaking you to your soul.
The Ladies of the Secret Circus, by Constance SayersA luscious magical tale that swings back and forth between 1920s Paris and the contemporary American South, and follows a line of women who have all been entangled with the Secret Circus, otherwise known as the Devil’s Circus.
A place as gruesome as it is enthralling, it comes and goes as it pleases, and if you don’t have a ticket, you’ll never find it. Not that Lara Barnes cares about any of this until her fiancé fails to show up to their wedding. Desperate to find him, she follows a trail of clues that leads back generations to her great-grandmother’s journals from another era. She realizes how her family is connected to such a diabolical place, and must battle to free her own soul.
Decadent and magical, I liked both the mystery and the paranormal world in this lush novel.
The Museum of Extraordinary Things, by Alice HoffmanAlice Hoffman has always been one of my automatic to-read authors. She has this ability to create stories like dreamscapes, and you just want to explore them.
The Museum of Extraordinary Things takes place in turn of the 20th century New York, which I’ve written about before is one of my favourite time periods because it was such a transition time. On Coney Island, amusement parks are being built to excite the masses. Coralie the mermaid girl lives in a freak show, dreaming of a wider world, while Eddie the photographer has seen too much.
Hoffman’s romances always have an epic, do-or-die quality, and Extraordinary Things doesn’t fail to live up to this. I’ll confess it took me a while to fall into the lyrical flow of the language, but I will blame my distracted summer brain for that rather than the writing, which is superb as always.
The Circus of Wonders, by Elizabeth MacNeilElizabeth Macneal’s Circus of Wonders offers a great deal of the gritty underbelly of the circus. Nell is a flower picker, set apart from others by birthmarks that speckle her skin. Her life is legit terrible, abused and forgotten and pretty much set out to be the help for her brother forever. But when Jasper Jupiter’s circus rolls into town, Nell finds herself sold and kidnapped. Though forced into a performer’s life, she soon begins to question if it wasn’t the best thing for her to begin with.
The language is lovely and the themes haunting. Set in 1860’s, it’s not a good time to be poor and different, and those who make the life of a performer work must come up through a wash of moral greys. Nell both embraces and is disgusted by what her life has become, even as she understands that there in the limelight might be the only place she ever belongs. More the depressing side than the glitter, Circus of Wonders doesn’t glamorize a performer’s life, but does show small moments of strength and humanity, very beautiful.
The Life She Was Given, by Ellen Marie WisemanI read this book for a book club, and had never heard of it before. Somebody let me know if you’ve read this one, as I think it’s pretty obscure. It follows Lilly, an albino girl sold to the circus by her ultra-religious mother, and Julia, a girl raised by the same mother twenty years ago who had no idea who Lilly was.
The two timelines were equally compelling. Lilly’s experience at first as a sideshow freak is horrifying and humiliating. However, as she meets the performers and workers at the circus, she begins to see how her life had been opened up. Her natural empathy with animals allows her to become the star of the show with the company’s elephants. She finds love and a place in the world.
Twenty years later, Julie, who had ran away from home years ago and lived on the streets rather than stay with her overbearing conservative mother, now finds herself the inheritor of the family manor. As she tries to figure out the family’s horse breeding business, she also discovers secrets behind every door of the manor she promised she’d never return to. And she learns about an albino girl …
I found the book riveting, but I am unsure whether the hopefulness in one of the timelines balances out the horror in the other. I was blown away by how horrifying things turned out for one of them. It was a gripping read and I’m still thinking about it now, though, so if you’re looking for something dark, this could be for you.
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