Books with a Difference #4: Circuses

Both these books are about circuses.  I am not a huge fan of circuses, but they can certainly lend an air of the whimsical and outlandish to a story that wants to be a bit different.  Which is precisely what is achieved in these two interesting books.

Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

This book was discovered by my New Zealand friend, who gave it to me for Christmas one year, knowing full well what I would think of it.  She was right.  I loved it. However, I do feel this is a book you will either love or hate.  Rather like marmite.


A circus that appears only at night, with no forewarning, and moves on as abruptly as it arrives. No ordinary circus, either. Each tent contains its own world, a blend of the real and surreal, a kind of magic realism combined with Victorian England.  A love story and a mystery at the centre of the story, and two magicians fighting each other for the last word, with only one of their two star-crossed lovers permitted to survive.

Beautifully written, with evocative descriptions and a strong sense of place, and peopled with distinctive characters who gradually reveal their own mysterious tragic pasts.  It is true, the characters are lightly drawn and not developed as much as they could have been, and the narrative pace could have been more varied to enliven the action sequences.  But if you like grown-up fairytales, and mysteries that remain mysteries, you will love this circus of dreams.

The Gracekeepers by Kirsty Logan

This one took me a little longer to get into.  The writing style is somewhat unusual, lyrical and full of unexpected word combinations such as 'fishgut-speckled silk' and 'meat-rot breath' and 'sweat-damp' which both slows down the reading experience and enriches it at the same time.

Also, this circus floats upon the sea.  (And we all know how I feel about the sea.) But in spite of the sea, and boats, and a bear (I detest animals being kept in circuses) - and dying birds - and funerals - this story held a strange enchantment that grew the further I read.  The unique merman angle had something to do with it, and glimpses into the drowned world of the past, but mostly I think it worked because of the convincing depiction of a surreal world set in a semi-plausible future, which is all too real for the characters unfortunate enough to live in it.  Colourful and eccentric characters, including North, the sympathetic main character and the bear she loves. Truly original, and unlike anything else I've read.