Wicked, solemn, and chilling, the circus is ready for your visit - just don’t arrive late.
I enjoy a good collection of short stories, be they by the same author or in an anthology form by an array of authors. These sort of books, are great to read in a lunch/coffee break or on a journey.
This book begins with an introduction to The Midnight Circus
by Theodora Goss saying Jane Yolen weaves beauty and darkness, reality and the
fantastic, imagination and the ordinary, as only she can. Theodora says - Jane knows more about fairy tales and
fantasy than most professors in the field. She is formidably intelligent and
articulate, unafraid to challenge viewpoints that are not historically sound or
backed up by solid evidence. She goes on to compare Jane Yolen to Hans
Christian Anderson, though saying that for her a Jane Yolen story is
fundamentally different from one of Andersen’s tales in two ways. First, Jane is never sanctimonious. With
characters that are sometimes good, sometimes bad, sometimes broken, but always
treated as people, not just to deliver a message. And secondly, she informs
Jane Yolen’s stories contain a strong dose of common sense and pragmatism.
After that fantastic introduction expectations were high. I was expecting short stories about the wonderful circus world and those that perform there. Perhaps something like Rachel Vincent’s Menageries series but short individual tales. This was not the case but I ploughed on with reading the book, enjoying some of the stories such as The Weaver Of Tomorrow and The White Seal Maid, though I thought I had somehow read these stories before somewhere else, something felt really familiar about them.
My two favourite short stories were Wilding and
The Snatchers. The Snatchers is actually about the Holocaust and that awful
time in history. I found it cleverly written and an interesting read. To be
honest if I had to choose just one favourite from the book it would have to be
The Snatchers. The stories I did read were scary, aesop fable-esque type
tales so I guess that makes the book a good "Halloween" or "scary" read!
I did honestly struggle to keep on the reading momentum for this book, I felt it didn’t pull me in and hold my interest. I did try putting the book to one side and starting something else then coming back to it but still found it a struggle. In the end I had to abandon the book, giving it a Did Not Finish label and leaving the book. It’s rare I don’t finish a book, but sadly I just couldn’t continue to the end with this one.
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