The Ringmaster's Twisted Circus. The Ringmaster's Quartet: Book One (en Inglés) - Celiel Dreadmyre

A haunted circus. A vanished line of victims. A Ringmaster who turns survival into performance.

Eighteen-year-old Desmond King does not believe in grand destinies. He believes in keeping his head down, noticing too much, and getting through the day without being noticed in return. Then a seam opens in a forgotten alley, and Desmond is pulled into a circus realm where every attraction is beautiful, impossible, and wrong.

At first, the park feels empty. Then it starts teaching him its rules.

Do not trust the smiles in Evergreen Glade. Do not stare too long at the white hares in the Crimson Meadow. Do not believe every reflection in the mirror maze. Do not trigger the clockwork menagerie. Do not give the marionettes your voice. And never, ever assume the Ringmaster is not watching.

The deeper Desmond goes, the more he finds proof that others came before him. Etta Vance. Malcolm. Names filed, hidden, preserved, and nearly erased. Their clues may be the only reason he has a chance, but the circus is not just a prison. It is a machine built to study want, loneliness, fear, and the private ache of wanting to matter.

The Ringmaster does not need Desmond to die.

He needs Desmond to agree.

For readers who enjoy dark fantasy, surreal horror, haunted attractions, psychological labyrinths, and stories where beautiful places have teeth, The Ringmaster's Twisted Circus is the first book in the Ringmaster Quartet.