The Midnight Circus
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- $4.99
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
2021 Locus Award Finalist
In the newest volume of her World Fantasy Award-winning short story collections, beloved author Jane Yolen’s dark side has fully emerged. Her vivid, startling, and thrilling tales and poems of the supernatural—from icy-hearted witches to sometimes-innocent shapeshifters—reveal a classic storyteller at the height of her powers.
“Look this way, look that; blazing her consummate imagination against the shadows of human sorrow, Jane Yolen has done it again.”—Gregory Maguire, author of Wicked
Jane Yolen is the Hans Christian Andersen of America” —The New York Times
Welcome to the Midnight Circus—and watch your step. The dark imaginings of fantasy icon Jane Yolen are not for the faint of heart. In these sixteen brilliantly unnerving tales and poems, Central Park becomes a carnival where you can—but probably shouldn’t—transform into a wild beast. The Red Sea will be deadly to cross due to a plague of voracious angels. Meanwhile, the South Pole is no place for even a good man, regardless of whether he is living or dead.
Wicked, solemn, and chilling, the circus is ready for your visit—just don't arrive late.
Other Jane Yolen short story collections in this series
The Emerald Circus: 2018 World Fantasy Award winner
How to Fracture a Fairy Tale: 2019 Anne Izard Storytellers’ Choice Award
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Nebula Award winner Yolen follows How to Fracture a Fairy Tale with another, slightly more sinister collection of delightfully dark fairy tales. Each of the 16 stories is coupled with a companion poem and fascinating story notes that allow readers to delve into Yolen's magical worlds. Yolen puts her own spin on the motif of fate weaving at a loom in the "The Weaver of Tomorrow," an eerie tale about a young girl desperate to know the future, which stands out for its brilliantly deployed circular structure. Among the more chilling is "The Snatchers," based on the history of bounty hunters conscripting Jewish men into the Russian military. The powerful final story, "Names," also draws from Jewish history and is narrated by the daughter of a Holocaust survivor. The only entry that feels out of place is "Wilding," which, with its focus on shape-shifting and murder, has a science fiction feeling and doesn't quite mesh with the rest of the collection. Despite this blip, Yolen's many fans will be thrilled to find her largely true to form. This collection is a gift for fairy tale lovers.
