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Author: Barker, Hayley

General fiction (Children’s/YA)

Published on 1 June 2017 by Scholastic in the United Kingdom.

Paperback | 400 pages
199 x 144 | 300g

A dazzling, high-octane read filled with death-defying

acrobatics, circus crowds with an appetite for disaster, and two

forbidden teenage lovers trying to escape the shackles of their

very different lives.

Set in a near-future England where the poorest people in the land

must watch their children be taken by a travelling circus – to

perform at the mercy of hungry lions, sabotaged high wires and

a demonic ringmaster.

The ruling class visit the circus as an escape from their structured,

high-achieving lives – pure entertainment with a bloodthirsty

edge.

Ben, the teenage son of a draconian government minister, visits

the circus for the first time and falls instantly in love

with Hoshiko, a young performer.

They come from harshly different worlds – but must join together

to escape the circus and put an end to its brutal sport.

All the pace, action and danger of The Hunger Games

all the star-crossed romance of Noughts and Crosses

this book packs some powerful political punches which never compromise

the moving, brave and dramatic story.

The mesmerising, heart-in-mouth action set pieces in the circus

are breathtakingly tense