Step Right Up: 5 Fabulous Fantasy Circus Novels

Recently, Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus celebrated its 15th anniversary. (Say it with me now: Whaaaaaat?) The debut fantasy novel about a magical circus is one of the biggest novels of the 21st century, and in celebration of it and its fifteen years of magic, I thought I’d recommend five more excellent fantasy novels also set at circuses or carnivals. Now, I’m not saying that they’re Night Circus read-alikes, despite some of the publisher descriptions, and I would be hard-pressed to recommend one more than slightly similar. (Your best bet is to read Morgenstern’s second novel, The Starless Sea.) Because pretty much any novel set at a circus is compared to The Night Circus these days, like any thriller with a big twist is compared to Gone Girl. No, the books below are just great novels on their own. So grab some cotton candy and a seat and get ready for the fun!(Plus, scroll to the end to find a sneak peek at the biggest SFF books out this week!) Get 15% off annual All Access memberships for a limited time in celebration of Book Riot’s 15th anniversary! Savings amount to more than 3 months of free unlimited access to our entire content archive, plus features like Collections a...