Jane Yolen

In her newest collection of fantasy stories, 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 short story collections by Jane Yolen in this series The Emerald Circus: 2018 World Fantasy Award winner How to Fracture a Fairy Tale: 2019 Anne Izard Storytellers' Choice Award

The Midnight Circus

Jennifer

While this is not set in the circus in a literal sense, Jane Yolen's spooky short story collection The Midnight Circus definitely gave me the adrenaline & haunted feeling of watching sinister acts in a circus show. This is also somehow my very first encounter of Jane Yolen's writing and I'm not disappointed! The Midnight Circus is a versatile collection of short stories. These stories and the accompanying poems incorporate dark / horror elements without sacrificing the storytelling techniques that made fairytales so memorable.

I really liked the subtle dark elements where Yolen incorporate supernatural elements in her entries. Through her short stories she demonstrated that dark fantasy doesn't need to be gory or graphical to be dark. That the darkness of these stories are accomplished through the emotional impacts they have onto the readers: that there are subtleties that redeem these entries sinister in one aspect or another.

On the other hand, I think there's the usual short story collection pitfall seen in The Midnight Circus that didn't entirely work for me. Even though a number of short story entries & poems are really good (for example the story set in Antarctica), my main qualm lays upon the slight inconsistency within the collection. Some of the shorter entries, while concise and packed with a solid messaging, felt less memorable as I didn't have a lot of chance to connect to the characters & their secondary world. So I think that's the main drawback and the reason why this didn't end up being a 4 star read (it came close though).

Despite my concerns, I'm nevertheless pleasantly surprised by The Midnight Circus and it als oserved as a pretty positive first impression of what Jane Yolen is like as an author. Normally dark / horror stories don't work for me but it didn't bother me that much here. And I certainly appreciate Yolen's storytelling style in this collection: the stories are haunting but it doesn't sacrifice the substantial materials such as the human themes. If you're looking for a spooky collection of short stories without too much gory stuff, this collection is certainly worth looking out for!

N.B. This collection contain following content warnings: death, grief / loss of loved ones, violence, and a small amount of blood mention / gore

(3.5 stars out of 5)

Paola C

I want to give a huge thanks to NetGalley and Tachyon Publications for gifting be an advanced copy of this book. 
I'm not going to lie, the cover of this book sold me, and I hadn't quite read the description for it, so when I got the copy and realized that it was a collection of short stories, I was surprised. That was on me, that being said I really enjoyed pretty much all of the stories that were written. All of the stories have fairy tail like themes, which I liked. My personal favorite being The White Seal Maid because it reminded me of one of my favorite movies, Song of the Sea.
Overall, I give this book a 3.5 and I can see myself picking it up to read certain stories when I want to read something specific, it would also make a nice Halloween read.

Heather Harrington

**I received a copy of this via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review**

The Midnight Circus is an anthology chock full of dark twisted fairy tales. It's more Grimm than Disney, full of monsters, both man and beast. These sixteen stories have something for everyone: from people turning into wild animals and running free in Central Park, a seal maiden falling in love with a fisherman, and even a dark secret below the snow in the South Pole. 

Anthology stories tend to be very hit or miss for me, and unfortunately, this one missed the mark. As with these types of books, there are always stories that are better than others. I did enjoy one or two, namely "The White Seal Maid", but most of the others just didn't capture my attention. Some felt like they dragged on a little too long, and I ended up finding myself wander and I had to force myself to finish. I think the majority had a lot of promise, but in the end, just fell flat. I also was a bit confused because, from the title, I expected the stories to have a circus element or something that ultimately tied them all together, but that wasn't the case. Sadly, this isn't going to a memorable one for me.

The Midnight Circus

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