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.

The Weaver of Tomorrow: 3 stars
The White Seal Maid: 2 stars
The Snatchers: 2.5
Wilding: 2.75
Requiem Antarctica: 4
Night Wolves: 4
The House of Seven Angels: 3
Great Gray: 1.5
Little Red: 2
Winter’s King: 3
Inscription: 1.5
Dog Boy Remembers: 1
The Fisherman’s Wife: 2
Become a Warrior: 4.25
An Infestation of Angels: 2
Names: 3
All together: 2.5
I wish I liked this, but I really didn't. Besides three stories, they were all immediately forgettable, or ones that I really didn't like. I'm sick of stories that are just of women's pain. Almost none of them had plots, and it was just about how the main character (a girl) who has been abused/raped/killed. It seems to be appealing to an audience I do not want to be associated with.

Short stories are can be a mixed bag especially when they are all done by the same person. While this collection did introduce me to Yolen's work and I may pick up something by her in the future, overall, this was a miss for me.

Jane Yolen's a great writer. There is no doubt about that.
The Midnight Circus collects her stories: fairy tales, stories with a dark twist, confusing tales someplace between science fiction and fantasy. With anthologies, it's usually the case that some stories are very good but most are just pkay. Here, most of the stories were very imaginative and good. It's been a long time since I read something so dark and yet so enjoyable.
There were some stories, like The Snatchers, which made me put down my tablet and ask "what?" out loud, because they were so confusing yet so good at the same time.
Yolen finds inspiration everywhere, in old stories her family told her, in classical fairy tales, and in classic horror books like Dracula or Frankenstein (my favorite book of all time). What resonated with me the most where the stories rooted in her European Jewish background, because they had the exact terrifying and dark vibe as the urban legends and stories I heard growing up. Imagine "The Golem" but clearer and with more sense.
This is not a book you can read quickly. Each story requires full focus. Fortunately, they are all bite-sized and can be read within 20 minutes.
This is a book I would recommend to people who enjoy dark fantasy and have already read a number of anthologies. I actually have some friends I would consider buying this book for.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of 'The Midnight Circus'.

I've read LOTS of Jane Yolen's work, both short stories and novels over the years so I knew going in that there was going to be lyrical turns of phrase, serious matters handled in subtle ways and magic! I was not disappointed.

Short stories are not generally my cup of tea, but with so much going on in life and the world at the moment they're about all I can handle. This book is great for reading one or two stories a night and then fishing for the hidden depths and secret eddies of the story.

Some stories are stronger, or hit harder with me than others. This is to be expected in an anthology. Stories that
didn't resonate with me may sing for the next reader.

I would heartily recommend this book to anyone with a dark fantasy and 'get-what's-coming-to-you' lean.

A true spectacle of stories, Jane Yolen’s The Midnight Circus treats readers to a wide variety of acts, from the not-so-familiar-anymore Central Park to the desert of Antarctica. Toss in a few mermaids, wicked beasts, and questionable heroes, and it’s the perfect combination of magical and grim.

My favorite aspect of fairy tales and folktales is that more traditional versions of these stories do not shy away from the gruesome parts of living. Neither do Yolen’s. In these tales, familiar characters find themselves reinvented into more twisted versions that cause the reader to question just how chilling life can be, and even the happiest stories have a tinge of warning laced throughout. Regardless of the story, each of the pieces included in this book draw the reader right in with Yolen’s vivid depictions and sense of character.

One of the most impressive facets of this book is the wide range of the stories within. Yolen has crafted a collection that spans a vast variety of folktale roots, real life inspiration, and settings. Because of this, I particularly liked the Notes section at the end of the collection, which detailed the writing journey behind each tale and a poem. I really enjoyed this book, and it was the perfect read for when I needed a touch of something short and enthralling.

***ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for my review.

Jane Yolen is such a fantastic author and has such a way with words. In this collection of short stories she weaves re-imagined tales into gorgeously captivating stories. Some were dark, some were playful, but they are all unique..

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

If you love short stories, this book is for you. These are very quick fairy tales with a Twilight Zone feel.

I wish the stories were just a little longer since they are so well written and intriguing. This book definitely made we want to read more of her longer books.

Thanks Netgalley for the eARC in exchange for my honest review!

Jane Yolen’s world of tales based on fairytales, folklore and actual events takes place in the darker part of the forest. This is the realm where terrible things can occur and perhaps the best way out is for the protagonist to exert some type of control. Whether this control augers well or not, is another matter.

The stories take the reader into the heart of the conflict with stunning imagery that is both comforting in its familiarity but also somewhat disquieting and threatening. With each story’s ending, the reader can envision what the main character would next contemplate. At the end of the book, each story has a brief poem and notes about how the tale was crafted. Readers should be advised to skip ahead after reading each tale to read that section. It gives deeper meaning and nuances to each story.

The book title seemed a bit off. Maybe it was just meant to portray an event that is unexpected and possibly showing the underbelly of what is usually considered a benign experience. After all, what does occur at midnight in a circus? Eerie, at best. And the cover art is great!

The standout stories are the ones that linger after the book is read. These include “The White Seal Maid,” an interpretation of selkie lore; “Wilding,” where Central Park events morph into the sinister; and “Dog Boy,” which tracks the worst case of like father like son. Read this book and marvel at Jane Yolen’s imagination and craft. Recommended. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing a review copy.

This collection of short stories is a welcome addition to any library. The stories are simple, in the way that Grimm's Brothers stories are, but haunting, in the way only the best Gothic horror stories are. Each story has its own pacing, its own ideas, and at the end of the book you can read the original poems that inspired them. The author does not waste words, but uses every one to capture the life of the story in a familiar and personal way. Sit back and enjoy these lovely horror stories, and dream about them when you sleep...

Thank you to Netgalley for this ARC! I really enjoyed these stories. Most of the time, for a short story collection, I take my individual ratings for each story, and average them out to get the total rating for the book. For this collection, the average was 3.75, so I’m rounding up to four! I loved the individual fairy-tale vibe each of these had, it’s like something out of a legitimate book of fairy tales, and I think that’s just something that people don’t do very often anymore, so it was refreshing to see! Some of my personal favorites included The Snatchers and Become A Warrior. I will say though, some of the stories did fall flat for me, mostly because I didn’t have any context, or simply couldn’t catch on to what the story was trying to do. I did rate each story individually though, and there were some 4.5s in there along with the lower rated ones. Over all, an enjoyable collection that I was glad to read.

Jane Yolen’s new short story collection is nothing short of magical. Here she brings together tales and poems that were either published elsewhere previously or written for the dark fairy-tale collection.

The Plot in a Nutshell

As this is a short story collection, I will try to summarise each story in a sentence or two, so you can get an idea of Yolen’s wonderful mind.

The Weaver of Tomorrow
A young girl wants to know the future and becomes apprenticed to a weaver who can teach her how to know, but it comes at a price.
The White Seal Maid
A lonely fisherman meets a seal who turns into a woman, but will a marriage to her ease his loneliness or end in woe?
The Snatchers
A sixteen-year-old boy keeps seeing a mysterious man in black, who is he and how does he connect to the boy’s religious history?
Wilding
A New York teen spends her evenings “wilding”, changing her DNA to an animals for five hours. But what will happen if she, and others, loose control?
Requiem Antarctica (with Robert J Harris)
A clergyman is called upon in the middle of the night to attending a dying man who tells a story of the famous north pole expedition by R. F. Scott and his real fate.
Night Wolves
Ten-year-old Pete has a lot to deal with: wolves under his bed and a bear in his closers, but at his new house he knows he has to deal with a new problem: a crying ghost.
The House of Seven Angels
A wandering Rabbi comes to a sleepy town near Kiev and a small boy’s life is forever changed.
Great Gray
A young, troubled man watches and worships the owls he sees in his town, but has his obsession caused a madness?
Little Red (with Adam Stemple)
Little Red uses her wild imagination to escape her hellish reality. (A re-telling of Little Red Riding Hood.)
Winter’s King
A boy who can her the wind must endure losses to find his real family.
Inscription
Set in the 1500s, a young woman falls in love with a traveller and employs the help of a witch to bring him back to her.
Dog Boy Remembers
A young man learns an acute sends of smell as a child, which is used in cruel ways by his horrible father.
The Fisherman’s Wife
A fisherman’s wife is deaf and mute, but when he disappears she vows to find him and in doing so discovers secrets of the sea.
Become a Warrior
A girl flees her home so she isn’t taken by the soldiers who had killed the men in her town, she lives her life hoping she will avenger her father.
An Infestation of Angels
As the leader of the “people”, a woman must convince the gluttonous overlord that he is in danger in order to save her own people.
Names
A girls’ mother remembers the death roll call names she heard growing in a concentration camp, hearing this over and over has a heart breaking impact on the girl.

My Review

Jane Yolen is such an important author. I started reading her when I was studying the holocaust and got interested in how to teach children about the history. Yolen has a number of fiction books that turn the holocaust into accessible fiction stories for children and teenagers. So when I saw this coming I was very excited to read it.

As a collection, The Midnight Circus is brilliantly constructed, each story paired with a poem and an explanation about where it was first published and where Yolen had the idea.

Even though I loved every story, I had my favourites. The White Seal Maid was haunting and affecting; Wilding read like a classic YA novel and could easily be turned into a book; Become a Warrior is a bit like a mixture of Mulan and the Hunger Games. I also have a soft spot for Requiem Antarctica which takes the story of R. F. Scott and turns it into a dark fantasy, as one of the longer stories I can see how Yolen thought it might even become a novella, but I liked the length, it was long enough to read before bed but not too long that it took more than one sitting.

What I really love is Yolen’s imagery. Wether she talks about sea towns or forests, London or New York, the 1500s or the near future, she has his ability to transport you there in an instant.

Yolen is undoubtably a “dark” author. In her introduction she speaks about this herself and her views about what it means. In The Midnight Circus she deals with issues such as the Holocaust, eating disorders, abuse, obsession, revenge and (perhaps darkest of all) love. Although these stories are “fairytales” they are not children’s stories, they are fairytales for grown ups, or mature teens, and I can’t wait to rave about it to anyone who will listen.

Thank you to Tachyon Publications and NetGalley for the eARC of this brilliant book in return for an honest review.

Do you like ghost stories? Sci-Fi stories? Do you like spooky campfire stories? Stories that give you goosebumps? Fables that teach important lessons? Then you need to get your hands on The Midnight Circus.

Short description from the publisher: "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."

This is exactly the kind of book I hope for and so seldom find. Jane Yolen's short story collection is like if Shirley Jackson, Aesop and Mother Goose had a baby and gave you all the dark fairytales you can handle. Highlights for me were:
• Little Red - a re-imagining of Little Red Riding Hood but way, way darker.
• Wilding - a futuristic Twilight Zone style story with both Sci-Fi and thriller elements.
• The Fisherman’s Wife – mermaids, skeletons and TRUE LOVE..oh my!
• Become a Warrior – revenge is a dish best served with blood and lust.

The story notes and poetry at the end of the book really enhance the experience and I highly recommend reading them. This collection of stories ranges from legends to folklore, mythological to biblical. Yolen’s descriptive writing transports you straight into each tale like it is being told to you in front of a fireplace, cup of cocoa in hand.

I cannot wait to get my hands on a physical copy of this book. The cover is perfection! I will be recommending this book to anyone who loves dark fairytales and beautiful writing.

There were a couple of stories that I loved, but the ones about the Holocaust and religion were not my thing. I unfortunately skipped over a few stories because they didn't keep my interest. Also due to it being an ARC there was a problem where several stories had the same lines from the second or third story somewhere in the middle. It was trippy and disconcerting. (I didn't dock points because of this, just thought to mention it). Overall, this was not the collection for me, but I know Jane Yolen is such a big author in Fantasy that I wanted to read something from her.

The Midnight Circus is an anthology full of magical and mystical fairy-tale-like short stories and poems.
They are dark, creative and even educational, but I was tricked into believing these stories would have been somewhat related to the circus or at least have a dark and carnivalesque atmosphere.
But none of them were like that and I still don't know why calling this anthology The Midnight Circus, then.

This book have a pretty wide variety of magical creatures and genres. Vampires, werewolves, fairytale retellings, historical fiction, Nazis and even a reimagining of one chapter of the Bible with carnivorous angels.
The writing is captivating but there are several filler stories that turn down the overall mood; at least they were really short.
Overall I think this would be an interesting choice to read on Halloween, but please don't pick this book if you're expecting something related to circuses.

This is a book that one should sit down on a bench in a park, with a nice pumpkin spice latte, and read while gold, red, and green leaves fall gently around you. It has major Halloween feels, but the book isn’t scary. It just gives you that festive thrill that fall-time holidays seem to give you.

It’s also not the easiest book to review, because this book consists of many short stories, each one magical, but independent of each other. But I’m definitely going to give it a try, because this book is a quality book, even as I had some minor gripes.

Some of these short stories are better than others. That’s the name of the game when books are collections of stories, but it was very apparent which stories the author delighted in writing and the ones that she was less interested in developing fully. The ones that were my favorite were atmospheric, romantic, spooky, and alive. And the ones that I didn’t like were flat. It was a 75-25 mix of good vs. bad, which is a good fraction to have, but I truly believe that every short story included in anthologies like this, the author should be passionate about. And I didn’t get that with every story.

I will give props to the cohesiveness of the book. Every story did have the underlying theme of magic and mystics and I did wholly believe that I existed in one fantastical world where all of these universes and stories could be possible.

The lengths of most of the stories were good, enough to get you captivated, but then ended just as your imagination would be able to take over.

Imagination is the key word for this novel. It takes you imagination and imbues it with a sense of spook and thrill and despite not loving some of the stories, you finish the book with a pleasant sense of wonderment.

3.5/5

**Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review,

This collection of short stories is rather peculiar and they are very dark stories that are thoroughly enjoyable. If you love Black Mirror, this book will be for you.
I think that it has some stories that feel very unique and others that seem like a retelling of something familiar. I thought the writing style was excellent and I would love to read more by Jane Yolen.

The Midnight Circus is a spooky and charming collection of short stories by Jane Yolen. Jane Yolen is such an incredible and prolific writer, especially when it comes to tales that we assume we already know. Drawing upon familiar elements in fantasy, Yolen presents a collection of short stories that are unique and encompassing. The collection is well-balanced, featuring themes of fantasy and horror. There is something in this collection for everyone, from selkies, shapeshifters, red caps, and vampires.

I love stories that relate to mythological sea creatures, so my favorite stories were about the selkies and mermaids. I did find myself completely engrossed by the story of legendary explorer Robert Scott. The story questions- what if Scott had a secret reason for adventuring to Antarctica? With poems and additional information provided about the creation process, the collection is very satisfying. I would highly recommend it for anyone who is a fan of short stories or fantasy. The Midnight Circus releases October 1, 2020. Thank you to Jane Yolen, Tachyon Publications, and Netgalley for a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this collection of short stories by Jane Yolen. My favorite stories were probably:

- The White Seal Maid - a fisherman snatches the white seal maid's seal skin and makes her his wife. They have seven boys, and there's a twist at the end.

- The Snatchers - a young Jewish boy is being tracked by a man in shadow - who is he and what does he want?

- Little Red - a fun retelling of the classic Little Red Riding Hood tale

- Become a Warrior - a bit Joseph from the Bible, a bit Mulan, I really liked this story about a young girl who disguises herself as a boy to enter the Army, and then kill the King who killed her father


If you like short stories, horror, sci-fi, etc. then give this book a try!

Never read a collection of short stories before, other than Edgar Allan Poe & the complete collection of Grimm a fairytales. I read this during a 25 hour road trip, so it was a good 'no commitment to an entire story' type book. It was fun to read while on the road. I enjoyed a lot of the stories in this collection! I wish it were darker though.