Some Circus Fiction Recommendations

I was recently asked about Circus Fiction, so I thought I’d give a couple of recommendations. Feel free to add suggestions in the comments field below!

Amanda Davis’s Wonder When You’ll Miss Me
Amazon Link
Amanda toured with the Bindlestiff’s when I toured with them (in 1998)
She wrote this novel (her first, and sadly her last) after that. It’s about a young troubled girl who runs away to join the circus.

Amanda was killed in a tragic plane crash along with her parents on the way to a book signing in North Carolina in 2003.
She was an up and coming young writer, and showed amazing promise. It’s a real tragedy.

Katherine Dunn’s Geek Love
Amazon Link
Great and classic book about a touring sideshow of self-made freaks and the religion/cult that develops about one of the performers. This is a book that consistently gets very high praise, and is consistently on the list of “Best Books About the Sideshow.” HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Angela Carter’s Nights At the Circus
Amazon Link
A book about turn of the century London turns into an epic love story between a cockney trapeze artist who may or may not have wings and the hotshot journalist that is set to debunk her as they tour the frozen steppes of Siberia. I was in a recent stage production of this, and the story and novel twist of this is astonishing and beautiful. It’s a slightly long read and very narrative, but oh so worth it.


Search out More Books on Amazon that are circus fiction
Search out books on Amazon that are about clowns

And as I said above, feel free to add recommendations below.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.