I’ve noticed that circuses have become a bit of a thing in YA fiction lately (two of the seven Cybils finalists feature a circus). While I was never one of those kids who dreamed about running away to the circus, I get the appeal for characters (and readers) who feel like they’ve never quite fit in the “normal” world. Perhaps the circus, traditionally seem as a place that showcases outcasts, would provide a more welcoming home.

It’s possible that the Night Circus is the forerunner to this trend, though I didn’t include it here on this list. Darren Shan’s Cirque du Freak may also be a predecessor. All descriptions are from Worldcat. What other recent or upcoming YA titles feature circuses heavily?

Conjured by Sarah Beth Durst
Haunted by disturbing dreams and terrifying visions, a teenaged girl in a
paranormal witness protection program must remember her past and why
she has strange abilities before a magic-wielding serial killer hunts
her down. [This description is no good for this post, so I’ll elaborate: the terrifying visions are of a circus.]

Pantomime by Laura Lam (plus its sequel, Shadowplay)
Gene, the daughter of a noble family, runs away from the decadence of
court to R.H. Ragona’s circus of magic, where she meets runaway Micah,
whose blood could unlock the mysteries of the world of Ellada. [This description is terrible in general. I’ll talk more about this book in a week or so.]

That Time I Joined the Circus by J. J. Howard
After her father’s sudden death and a break-up with her best friends,
seventeen-year-old Lexi has no choice but to leave New York City seeking
her long-absent mother, rumored to be in Florida with a traveling
circus, where she just may discover her destiny.

Fever by Lauren DeStefano
In a future where genetic engineering has cured humanity of all diseases
and defects but has also produced a virus that kills all females by age
twenty and all males by the age twenty-five, teenaged Rhine escapes her
forced marriage and journeys back to New York to find her twin brother. [Another description that’s not particularly useful for this post. On her journey, Rhine is captured by the head of a sinister circus/carnival.]

 
Wonder Show by Hannah Barnaby
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, step inside Mosco’s Traveling
Wonder Show, a menagerie of human curiosities and misfits guaranteed to
astound and amaze! But perhaps the strangest act of Mosco’s display is
Portia Remini, a normal among the freaks, on the run from McGreavy’s
Home for Wayward Girls, where Mister watches and waits. He said he would
always find Portia, that she could never leave. Free at last,
Portia begins a new life on the bally, seeking answers about her
father’s disappearance. Will she find him before Mister finds her? It’s a
story for the ages, and like everyone who enters the Wonder Show,
Portia will never be the same.

Tiger’s Curse by Colleen Houck
Seventeen-year-old Oregon teenager Kelsey forms a bond with a circus
tiger who is actually one of two brothers, Indian princes Ren and
Kishan, who were cursed to live as tigers for eternity, and she travels
with him to India where the tiger’s curse may be broken once and for
all.

Middle grade is also experiencing the trend: 

 
Circus Galacticus by Deva Fagan