Fantasy author Jane Yolen's new book The Scarlet Circus is a collection of short stories. These include a fairy meeting the real-life Juliet from the famous play. There are tales of traveling to the past, mercreatures, and princesses.

For fans of short works of fiction and fairy tales, Janet Yolen delivers.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me access to the free advanced digital copy of this book.

This series sounds fun but I just wasn't interested in continuing. I have picked up most of them but they may just be to young for me. I could see these appealing to a middle grade child or young teen but they are often only reading what their older friends and siblings are reading.

Book Summary:

The Scarlet Circus is the fourth anthology collection of some of Jane Yolen's greatest works. She's an award-winner who writes short fiction, most famously fractured fairy tales, and fables. If this is your cup of tea, dive in and enjoy!

The Scarlet Circus has an introduction by Brandon Sanderson. It also collects ten of Jane Yolen's stories: Sans Soleil, Dusty Loves, Unicorn Tapestry, A Ghost of an Affair, Dark Seed Dark Stone, Dragonfield, The Sword in the Stone, The Sea Man, Memoirs of a Bottle Djinn, Peter in Wonderland, and The Erotic in Faerie: The Footnotes. As always, it also contains a bunch of Jane Yolen's notes about the creation and intent behind these stories.


My Review:

Jane Yolen is SUCH a talented author. I just can't get over that fact. I will read every anthology that comes my way. I don't care if it's eight hundred pages long – it'll be worth every minute/hour I spend reading it.

Moving on. The Scarlet Circus is a fantastic read, especially for those that love fractured fairy tales and romantic fantasy. As always, Jane Yolen adds her unique twist to these stories, breaking them apart and showing us a new side. It's perfection.

The forward by Brandon Sanderson was a surprise but a pleasant one. It's always interesting to see the professional relationships that pop up.

Highlights:
Short Stories
Anthology
Fantasy/Romance
Fractured Fairy Tales

Trigger Warnings:
Persecution
Antisemitism

I enjoyed this short story collection! The stories were all interesting and fun and quite different from each other. I would recommend it for sure! This is not the first Jane Yolan book I've read but I enjoy the fact that they are just as much fun as I remember the last one I read being.

A Little bit of loving
The Author’s note about her writing was entertaining to read by itself, and since it is not exactly the introduction, I thought to include it here.

Sans Soleil
The Prince was asked to avoid the sun, but his new bride thought she knew better. It is a simple account of belief and lack of control over one’s life. (3 stars)

Dusty Loves
A twist on Romeo and Juliet – if Juliet was contacted after her death. I liked the more realistic aspects of the sequence of events, and the turn of phrases. (4 stars)

Unicorn tapestry
A powerful wish alters an otherwise ordinary princess’ skill and seals her happily ever after. The women in the story are simple but still stand out – despite similar names (4 stars)

A Ghost of an Affair
This was fun, a twist on the time travel trope, one that makes more sense than some of the others I have read! (4 stars)

Dark Seed, Dark Stone
A Scottish woman who wants to help her king and keep the place her father once held. I liked the overall narrative tone of this story. (3 stars)

Dragonfield
The return of a dragon followed by the rise of an unlikely hero who rallies support in order to keep everyone safe was quick and adventurous. (3 stars)

The Sword and the Stone
King Arthur and the Sword in the Stone takes a whole new direction here. the conversations between the wizard and the king were the best part of this tale. (4 stars)

Memoirs of a Bottle Djinn
A slave who has lived a hard life chances upon a Djinn and that meeting and the wish itself is what the chapter is all about.

Peter in Wonderland
An Alice in Wonderland twist which involves life both inside and outside the wonderland. (3 stars)

The Erotic in Faerie
Random pieces of information about the Fey which is supposed to make a complete narrative, but not one I enjoyed.

Story Notes
These were noted the author took short (and slightly longer) poems the author wrote under the different chapters. I would have probably liked them all to be with the stories themselves but they were actually even stronger than some of the original stories.

This collection begins with the author talking of her new marriage, and this has coloured her writing significantly (as the book testifies). It is the romance in all the chapters, some more realistic than others written in a style that particularly appealed to me that made this a satisfying read. They were surprisingly quick to read.

I highly recommend this to fans of different fairy tales, and romance.

I received an ARC thanks to NetGalley and the publishers. The review is entirely based on my own reading experience.

I haven’t read any of Jane Yolen’s books before, and this is a really good introduction to her work.

The collection contains eleven short fantasy stories, not themes particularly around circuses or the colour scarlet, but around elements of love and romance within other genres.

Most of the stories feel like traditional fairy tales, folk tales or ghost stories. I loved the first six (Sans Soleil; Dusty Loves; Unicorn Tapestry; A Ghost of an Affair; Dark Seed, Dark Stone; Dragonfield) which deal with dragons and unicorns, fae and ghosts, magic and curses. I enjoyed the next three stories too, featuring a retelling of an Arthurian legend, a merman and a djinn respectively (The Sword in the Stone; The Sea Man; Memoirs of a Bottle Djinn). Finally, I was less fond of the last two stories – Peter in Wonderland and The Erotic in Faeries: The Footnotes, which I found a little bit too chaotic and disjointed compared to the earlier standard. (I guess that is the problem with setting the bar so high earlier in the book!)

All of the stories are well-written and the whole collection makes a lovely taster for newcomers to this author’s work. While I hadn’t read any of her stories before, I certainly will be in future!

The Scarlet Circus is a beautifully curated thematic collection of short fiction, poetry, and ruminations on love in all its iterations by Jane Yolen. Released 14th Feb (of course) 2023 by Tachyon, it's 256 pages and is available in paperback and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately

This is a nicely varied and wide ranging collection. Most of the material here is previously published, but there are several in each category which are original to this collection. Many of the stories are quite difficult to find and many were new to me in any form. One reason I prefer collections and anthologies is that short fiction is really challenging. It's spare and the author doesn't have a wealth of wordage to develop characters or the plotting. Well written short fiction is a delight. I also love collections because if one story doesn't really grab me, there's another story just a few pages away. I can only recall a few times where I've read a collection (or anthology) straight through from cover to cover. This one I did. I even re-read the stories which I had read before.

I'm not normally a huge reader of poetry but the included poems (they're interspersed with the story notes) were lyrical and beautifully written and engaging and so precisely put together that it was a pleasure.

The collection also includes an erudite and interesting introduction by Brandon Sanderson, which is worth a look.

A worthwhile collection for Yolen fans, readers of fantasy and speculative fiction, and folks who just appreciate well written prose. She's a master writer with a prodigious oeuvre and these are some of her best.

Five stars. Just gorgeous.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

This was my first Jane Yolen, and I have to say that I'm shocked I never picked any up before, and I'm so glad I got to read this one, which has me rushing to her back list. I loved this collection of short stories, each of the eleven stories was beautifully written and sucked me in entirely to where the world around me melted away, and that's how I know it was a good book. Some stories held my interest more than others, some felt too light, and I felt those ones were the few I didn't exactly connect with and find myself completely immersed in.

All in all, definitely one I would recommend if you're looking for a quick, but really good read.

Is Jane Yolen losing her touch? I grew up in love with her writing, but this collection of poetry and short fiction was mediocre for the most part.

I did thoroughly enjoy a handful of stories (I'm always a sucker for "girl in disguise as a boy" esp in Arthurian tales, and "the Sea Man" story was a nice mer tale), but a lot of the others felt.. flat and trying too hard and missing the magic I was looking for. Not terrible but not wonderful either.

This is an absolutely gorgeous collection of stories that touch the heart. Jane Yolen's talent blows me away. Longer review to follow later so I can do justice to this work.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley. My review is voluntary and the opinions expressed are my own.

Sigh, I wanted so much more.

I had such high hopes for this anthology as whole. I went into this with high expectation primarily based on Jane Yolen's reputation, and a little bit from the premise. Overall, the stories all fall short of the mark.

For an anthology marked as having romance, so many of these stories barely even contain romance. Quite a few were just complete misses for me, and then there were others that had potential but felt flat at the same time.

What I will say is that there is enough to catch a glimpse of why others are fans of Yolen's other works.

The Scarlet Circus by Jane Yolen is a short collection of some of short stories all focusing in on the idea of ‘romance’. She explains in the introduction to the collection that her idea of ‘romance’ in these stories may be more of the classical sense than the modern but all the stories have some sort of romantic bent to them.

Each story does feel classical and like a sort of whimsical fairy tale. Mrs. Yolen’s writing style has always been that sort of classic fantasy style, and she leans into poetry as well as several poems fill the back of this book. The style is wonderful and I love the cadence and lyricism in each story. However, I do struggle to remember much of the book and I finished it two days ago? They are short, very short and it does the stories a disservice in the long run for me.

I did very much enjoy the different representations of romance, mainly because they felt like stories I would have read 10 or 15 years ago as a kid digging through the back of the library. Whimsical, with profound meanings buried in casual conversations. I will also say that there were a few parts I found… off-putting in tone or representation? I was unsure where to put my finger on it exactly but it did make me squint my eyes a few times and pull me away from the stories.

Overall this was a very short collection of whimsical, romantic tales. I’d recommend this one if you love quick and bite sized stories that won’t take long to consume and won’t linger afterwards. I would especially recommend this for fans of Jane Yolen. New fans might be better suited to another collection, as this might not be a great introduction, but it’s definitely one to watch for if you like the sound of it.

I have been a fan of Jane Yolen's for many years, and I was so excited to read this book. I'm normally not a huge fan of anthologies/short stories, but she's one of the few that manages to both satisfy and leave the reader wanting more with her stories, and I've always been a fan of fairytales. Throw in an introduction by Brandon Sanderson, another one of my favorite writers, and I was sold. This collection, connected by themes of love and romance, are like fairytales updated for the modern age. Yolen's writing is just so beautiful and lyrical and always a pleasure to read.

First, there is no physical circus in this book. I was really looking forward to this book of shorts when I realized it was more on the romance/love side of things. I expected a lot of sweet stories. While some were sweet, others weren't as sweet. It's hard to give a ratings to a book of short stories as each story would have it's own rating...so, I rated each and took the average.

1) "Sans Soleil" 3 Stars
- Ok start to the book but wasn't necessarily the outcome I had hoped for. The FMC in this one rubbed me the wrong way.
2) "Dusty Loves" 3 Stars
- I liked the oddness of this and sort of a weird Romeo and Juliet telling.
3) "Unicorn Tapestry" 4.5 Stars
- This was probably my favorite. I liked the magic tapestry and where this story went.
4) "A Ghost of an Affair" 4.25 Stars
- I really enjoyed the unexplained in this one. I kind of wish it ended differently but overall, I enjoyed the story as a whole. I would have read a full length novel about this.
5) "Dark Seed, Dark Stone" 4 Stars
- The outcome of this one, I thought, was beautifully told.
6) "Dragonfield" 3.75 Stars
- I felt bad for the dragon but overall a clever story.
7) "The Sword and the Stone" 3.75 Stars
- Interesting take on Arthurian legend...It was a fun little twist at the end and some interesting humor in this one.
8) "The Sea Man" - 3.5 Stars
9) "Memoirs of a Bottle Dinn" 3.5 Stars
10) "Peter in Wonderland" 3 Stars
- I liked the concept of this.
11) "The Erotic in Faerie: The Footnotes" 2.5 Stars

What can I say other than that Jane Yolen is a master of her genres? This anthology is perfect for fans and newcomers alike, offering glimpses of her clever twists and beautiful writing that are impossible not to love.

This ended up being my Valentine’s Day review because, to paraphrase the author’s forward just a bit, while the stories contained within are not “Romances” with a capital R, each story does contain a romantic element – even if that element is not the center of the story and seldom results in anything like a happy ever after.

Then again, one does have to kiss a fair number of frogs – and a few outright toads – in order to find the person they’ve been looking for all along.

Many of the stories in this collection are twists on familiar themes – or at least they sound familiar upon reading. “San Soleil” is one of those. It sounds just like the kind of fairy tale we all used to read – with the same kind of sting in its tail about listening to warnings provided by witches and sorceresses. It starts as a love story but is also a bit of a ‘just desserts’ kind of story. Not that anyone is evil. A bit TSTL but not evil.

As the opening story in the collection, it certainly sets the tone for the many and varied ways that love can go off the rails.

I had a sneaking bit of admiration for “Dusty Loves” in the way it takes off on Romeo & Juliet. This is one where the ‘heroine’ really is Too Stupid To Live, and consequently doesn’t. Which is pretty much what happens in Romeo & Juliet which is, after all, a TRAGEDY and not a romance. That the teller of this particular version of the tale has their tongue very firmly in cheek as they relate it makes the whole thing work a bit better than it would on its own.

On that favorite other hand, in “Unicorn Tapestry” the heroine is really a heroine, and most definitely not TSTL. If you like stories where the underdog wins the day, then this one will be right up your reading alley. It certainly left me with a smile at the end.

My least favorite stories in the collection were “A Ghost of an Affair”, “The Sea Man” and “The Erotic Faerie”. “Ghost” because it had so much promise but ended a bit ‘meh’. I felt like I was set up for a better and happier ending than I got. “Sea Man” felt like it didn’t belong here, it gave me vibes of other, more horrific tales than fit in this collection. And “Erotic Faerie” was an interesting concept rather than an actual story, a concept I’ve seen done better in Kenneth Schneyer’s “Selected Program Notes from the Retrospective Exhibition of Theresa Rosenberg Latimer” in his Anthems Outside Time collection.

Those initial stories were interesting and fun but didn’t quite touch my heart – although “Dusty Loves” certainly tickled my funny bone a bit. These next ones, however, got a bit closer to the heart of the matter – or at least my heart.

“Dark Seed, Dark Stone” takes the idea of a warrior’s child picking up their weapons to defend their king and country and changes that child from the usual son to a daughter who uses more smarts than skills to defend her homeland. This one isn’t so much a romance as it is a story about duty and purpose – and I liked it better for that. It’s more a romance in the older meaning of the word than the current commercial definition, and I liked it all the better for it.

“Memoirs of a Bottle Djinn” takes the usual Aladdin-type story and gives it a twist that’s been seen before – but does it well. In this case, the savvy but desperate discoverer of the bottle is wary about spending his wish foolishly and without thought. At the same time, as a slave he’s all too able to empathize with the djinn’s plight. So he makes a wish they can both live with, happily ever after.

“Peter in Wonderland” was a delightful surprise. It’s clearly a takeoff on Alice in Wonderland, but shows that the real Alice Liddell still travels to Wonderland even in adulthood, and gives her a fellow-adventurer on her trip that leads to a happy ever after a bit different from the one she experienced in real life.

As much as I enjoyed the above stories, my two favorite entries in this Scarlet Circus were wonderfully entertaining indeed.

“Dragonfield” was wonderful because all of its characters are so very flawed in such human ways, and yet they manage to pull each other up and together to defeat the all too real dragon that is terrorizing the town and achieve a happy ever after that neither of them expected or thought they could ever deserve. It’s a romance and an adventure wrapped into one shiny, magical ball of a story and it’s just lovely.

Last, but not least, because the Matter of Britain can never be least of anything, is “The Sword and the Stone”, a much different story than The Sword in the Stone that you may remember from either the novel by T.H. White (part of The Once and Future King), or the Disney movie or even the episode of the British TV series Merlin. For an inanimate object, Excalibur sure does manage to get around.

This version of the tale is told from Merlin’s point of view, and he’s getting pretty jaded at this point in his long life of meddling with Britain. Arthur himself is also a bit older in this version than the more traditional versions of the tale. While he’s trying his best, he’s clearly better, and happier, at some things than others. To the point where he’d much rather fight the wars than wrangle the peace that he needs to secure and maintain. Merlin cooks up the idea of the sword in the stone to give Arthur’s rule the final stamp of popularity and legitimacy it needs. Arthur thinks it’s all mummery, magic and cheating, which it most definitely is. Until it isn’t.

Which makes the ending just that bit more magical.

Escape Rating A-: Like most collections, the stories are a bit all over the map. I adored a couple, liked quite a few more, and a small number just missed the mark for me in one way or another – as the above descriptions show. But overall I’m very glad I picked this up, and enjoyed the ways that it played with romances of many types and stripes and definitions. That “love is all there is is all we know of love” doesn’t have to mean that all loves are exactly the same type.

The author has published three previous collections in a similar vein to this one, not necessarily romances but rather whole entire circuses of fractured and reinterpreted fairy tales like How to Fracture a Fairy Tale, The Midnight Circus and The Emerald Circus. I’m sure I’ll be visiting those circuses the next time I’m looking for familiar tales with just a bit of a twist in their tails.

The Scarlet Circus is the third volume in Jane Yolen's circus series of short story collections, with an introduction from Brandon Sanderson and Jane Yolen herself. Here, the focus is on romance, love, and connecting with others. Previous volumes include The Midnight Circus and the related How To Fracture A Fairy Tale.

This collection has poems and short stories with ghosts, fey, and ordinary humans caught up in the extraordinary. As much as curses are thought to be foolish, there can still be a grain of truth in them.

I laughed at the end of "Dusty Loves," once I realized who the characters were about to become. "Unicorn Tapestry" stars a middle princess with average skills who wishes for a place to belong as herself, a feeling we can all commiserate with. "Dragonfield" feels like a fairy tale that I would have read as a child in Andrew Lang's color fairy books, and I loved it to pieces. No collection of romantic stories will be complete without an Arthurian tale, and the one here was very cleverly done, with a historical air to it.

If you've never taken a look at any of Jane Yolen's novels, take a look at these short stories. Her work spans multiple genres, so there might be something for you even if high fantasy isn't your thing.

"The Scarlet Circus" by Jane Yolen is a beautiful collection of short stories. Each story is a unique and captivating experience, filled with richly drawn characters and vivid imagery. Yolen's skill at storytelling makes this collection a must-read for anyone who enjoys fantasy tales that leave a lasting impression. The blend of unique plots and memorable characters make this collection a highly recommended pick.

The Scarlet Circus is part of Yolen’s fractured fairy tale series of short stories. I have read one other in this series and found her fresh adaptations of well-known stories interesting and particularly enjoyed her story notes about how she changed the stories and why. Shockingly, I think I actually want to own a copy of this collection for the poems in the story notes as much as for the stories.

Brandon Sanderson’s introduction talks about how Yolen’s Dragon’s Blood was one of the books that turned him into a reader, and about Yolen’s versatility as a writer, which is hardly surprising - with more than 400 publications to her name, she would have to be versatile to stay in the game. Yolen’s preface, “A Little Bit of Loving,” delves more deeply into the variety of genres she has published in, seemingly with an eye toward preparing the reader for a collection with an emphasis on love in its myriad forms.

“Falling in Love with the Other” - A poem that serves as an introduction. It talks about the many forms love and relationship can take nonjudgmentally and with hope.

“Sans Soleil” - A prince is prophesied to grow up to be so handsome he’ll outshine the sun and so he’s kept in the dark, away from the rays of the jealous star. In his bride’s determination to prove to him that he’s in no danger from the sun, to stop him fleeing to his cave at cock’s crow, one sees shades of Sleeping Beauty’s spindle and the tale of Eros and Psyche. It turns out, science is not always correct.

“Dusty Loves” - Opens with a tree on which is carved “Dusty loves ___” and there follow the names of the many beings the narrator’s brother Dusty has loved. This story is about the time Dusty fell in love with the ghost of a suicide whose tale is rather similar to that of Romeo and Juliet. He is not a particularly romantic paramour, even though he is one of the fey, and he falls out of love quickly, but agrees to help the lovers reunite - by convincing Roman to die. The narrator’s dry tone really does make the story seem like something a sister would tell. I particularly liked the line, “Humor is difficult enough between consenting adults.”

“Unicorn Tapestry” - I know I have read this story elsewhere (perhaps in Here Be Unicorns?), and I remember enjoying it the first time around, too. It’s about a middling, muddling princess named Marian who cannot marry because there are no more eligible princes and prefers not to be shut away in a convent. Her indifferent embroidery skills see her assigned to stitch unicorn hunt seat covers for her father’s unicorn hunt and on the final one she stitches a brown-eyed, uncollared unicorn that is both mundane and magical.

“A Ghost of an Affair” - Told in numbered sections, the first section has some excellent lines: “The heart need not be beating to entertain the idea of romance. To think otherwise is to misunderstand the nature of the universe. To think otherwise is to miscalculate the odds of love.” It tells the story of Andrea Crow, a rockhound and jeweler who sells her wares at renfaires and large stores and falls in love with a ghost, Simon Morrison, and then with his great-great-grandson, whom she marries eventually. Nobody dies who wasn’t already dead at the beginning of the story and it’s nice.

“Dark Seed, Dark Stone” - Bears some resemblance to Cinderella with a good, dead father and a less-than-heartbroken stepmother, but the stepmother is secondary. Bryony makes a future for herself and her people by defending her king and demanding a boon that sees them allied to another kingdom.

“Dragonfield” - This is the story of the end of the last dragon, Aredd, and of a maiden once called Tansy who, together with a man who is not a hero, pits her courage and her wits against fire and fury. The Italics bracketing the story, making it into a legend and not just a short story, could be shorter. Apparently it was made into a graphic novel with Rebecca Guay that I have read and really enjoyed, though I had to be reminded of this by the story notes.

“The Sword and the Stone” - This is probably the longest story and it is an Arthurian tale. Sort of. The king in question is a nominal Christian who still swears by Mithras. Merlinnus, a Christian Druid, is doing his best to prod him into actions that will lead to greatness, having failed with Uther and Morgana and dismissed Mordred as not worth the effort, but Arthur’s interest in a sword in the stone to declare him king over all Britain when he already holds that title is minimal. Eventually, a strange boy called Gawen (not Gawain, who is already one of the Three Fearless Men) appears. He has a mighty part to play in Arthur’s life, but not what one might expect.

“The Sea Man” - A lieutenant’s sea voyage is disrupted when a merman is brought aboard and most are mistrustful, and so it is soon thrown back to its wife and daughter, setting the lieutenant’s heart at ease. As thanks, the sea man later warns the crew of a storm ahead that they ride out in safety, allowing the lieutenant to return home to his own wife and daughter.

“Memoirs of a Bottle Djinn” - Another story about seamen, this one a Greek slave who has discovered a promising bottle. He sees no point in wishing for his own freedom, and the djinn does not want hers. Eventually, he wishes himself into her bottle as well.

“Peter in Wonderland” - An adult Alice Liddell visiting Wonderland meets an unprepared Peter Wallace and the eccentricities of Wonderland force them into a farcical marriage that will eventually become real in the world outside. One of the only truly new stories in the anthology.

“The Erotic in Faerie: The Footnotes” - The footnotes to a scholarly paper supposedly based on a presentation given by Jane Yolen at the Hundredth Anniversary of the International Society to Preserve the Fey. I do enjoy a good pseudo-scholarly presentation in my fiction. It reads almost like a poem.

Of course, one of the things that makes collections like this one so worthwhile are the story notes. For Yolen's fractured fairytale books, each story's note includes a poem about the story as well as the story’s provenance. Many of these poems were written during 2020 as part of her efforts to write a poem a day. My particular favorites were "Chaucer's Nightmare," a humorous poem about how horrified Chaucer would by by his scholarly legacy, and "The Girl Speaks to the Mage," which accompanied "The Sword and the Stone" and which I would love to see illustrated and on a wall.

Overall, I enjoyed this collection quite a lot, and I think that other readers will, too, whether for the fun of playing Spot the Storybones (or whatever you call it when you try to figure out what classic tale served as inspiration for the work you're currently reading), or for actually accessible poetry on fantastic themes (I do appreciate how accessible Yolen's poetry is, compared to many writers'), or simply for the craft that goes into them. Many are reprints, it's true, but they're strong enough to read again, I feel. At any rate, I like this book enough that I have added a print copy to my wedding registry.