Genre

Books Set in a Circus or Carnival

Travelling circuses and night carnivals make perfect fictional worlds: closed communities, secrets, performers with strange gifts, and a ringmaster who knows more than he says. Magical-circus novels like The Night Circus and Something Wicked This Way Comes are perennial favourites.

This list collects 1,052 books tagged Circus & Carnival by 795 authors, published between 1800 and 2025. 78 are free to read and 9 have a free audiobook. Books are ranked by how many readers have shelved, rated or downloaded them.

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Common tropes in Circus & Carnival

From Wikipedia

A circus is a company of performers who put on diverse entertainment shows that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, dancers, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, magicians, ventriloquists, and unicyclists as well as other object manipulation and stunt-oriented artists. The term "circus" also describes the field of performance, training, and community which has followed various formats through its 250-year modern history.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

1,052 Circus & Carnival books · page 1 of 22

Top Circus & Carnival authors

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Frequently asked questions

What are the most popular Circus & Carnival books?

By reader shelving on Open Library and downloads, the most popular include The Night Circus (2011), The Dead Zone (1979), The Works of Edgar Allan Poe in Five Volumes (1903), The One and Only Ivan (2011) and The Cask of Amontillado (1846).

Are there free Circus & Carnival books?

Yes — 78 circus & carnival titles are in the public domain and free to read, including The Works of Edgar Allan Poe in Five Volumes (1903), The Cask of Amontillado (1846) and Joe Strong and his wings of steel.