The Chaos Circus

By: R. Dugan

Narrated by: Cynthia Espinoza-Smith

All Tessa LaRoche wants is to be the most ordinary person on Barrow Island. After a stint in a mental asylum, she's had quite enough of being anything else, thank you very much. But when a commission at her new reporting job forces her into the path of a not-quite-human murder suspect, Tessa finds that the unordinary is not through with her yet. Spirited away by a devilishly charming Nicolai to the Mirror Lands - a parallel reality manipulated by the immortal Deathless - Tessa loses one of the most precious tethers to her sanity. In order to reclaim it, she must risk entering The Chaos Circus: a citywide fair where mortals trade years for prizes in vicious attractions from which the Deathless draw their power. But there's a catch: If Tessa can't defeat the Deathless at their own freakish carnival games, she will lose her mind...and Nicolai will lose his life.

Forced to rely on one another despite the secrets that come between them, Tessa and Nicolai embark on a dangerous adventure through the deceptively beautiful life of the Circus, where little is as it seems - even the games, their pasts, and the strange whirlwind of memories that Tessa can no longer recall.

©2020 Renee Dugan (P)2021 Renee Dugan

A fresh fantasy with intertwining storylines

This book kept me listening to just one more chapter until the author masterfully finished the book in such a satisfying way. I don't read many single standing fantasy books but this one was well worth it. The world was wonderfully rich is detail, and the main character has you rooting for her from the very beginning.

Couldn't stop listening !

if you like mystery and fantasy, this is the book for you! The narrarator, Cynthia Espinoza Smith, is excellent! Easy to listen to and understand. Enthusiastic about what she was reading. I hope to listen to more books narrarated by her.

Intriguing, addictive, otherworldly, mystery

An amazing story, Cynthia's narration teleported me to the chaos circus and enthralled me.
Perfectly blending fantasy and mystery the story hooked me and Cynthia's embodiment of the characters made me fall in love. I dont just want more, I need more!!

Fun Twists. A Better Circus than Caraval

Twisty and turny and fun and spooky. Some of the twists I saw, some of them I definitely did not.

SPOILERS: Two things happen toward the end that I have mixed feelings about. First, I never believed that she might actually be mad, so the mirror sequence where she "kills Nicolai" didn't have a lot of weight to me. House of Salt and Sorrows is my top tier madness plotline, and I hold that as the standard, I guess, and this wasn't there. Tessa's too with it for the whole book, and aside from her missing memories there never feels like there's anything actually mad about her, so why would she actually be mad now? Second, when it was all a dream vision of the future, I wasn't sure if that was cool or if it cheapened the rest of the story. I'm still undecided.

But overall an enjoyable, short read. Made me want to watch Mirror Mask again. Definitely recommend over other popular chaotic circus novel Caraval, which I did not enjoy.