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Short Fiction Friday: When the Circus Lights Down

When the Circus Lights Down by Sarah Pinsker

[no synopsis supplied]

Just a few weeks ago I read The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern and since I have been looking out for such stories, as a circus in my opinion holds a magical sway. So when I came across When the Circus Lights Down I had nothing other to do then to read it. I have read some thought provoking stories lately and with When the Circus Lights Down the streak is continued. Sarah Pinsker has written a very clever story.

The first sentence of the story is "The circus landed late October", it landed! Ok. It landed. This is just the first as the next descriptions as the tents fall like sattilites out of the sky. After the landing of the circus, the focus is placed on the protagonists of the story a young mother Haley and her daughter Annie,. This is the first time that Annie sees the circus, for her mother it has dropped down occasionally but each time with the same time frame. It also becomes notable that this circus isn't your ordinary one, as you might have guessed because for starters, which circus falls from the sky? An early reference says that people forget to do their jobs when the circus is in town. It holds a definite spell for the people, and not only people though, water and electricity are also influenced by the circus. So precautions have to be made. Annie in the meantime wants to desperately visit the circus as she has heard amazing stories about it. Haley over the years has come to realize what dangers the circus really also that is doesn't leave without a trace... The mother of Haley also knows this and together they try to resist the circus but it proves to be difficult. Will they be able to resist the circus or will they cave?

However the story intentions extend far than just a story about a circus and its creatures and other amazes, it's also a story about human emotion and how to go about with you feelings of doing the right thing, going along with the masses or sort of "fight the system". Haley lost a lot of people to the circus the parents and also her husband, she can't get her head around how people can just stand up and abandon everything without a moments notice and commit theirselves to the circus. For me Sarah Pinsker has really captured the emotion of Haley very nicely. 

don't miss out read the full story here

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