Book Reviews

In this category, find our book reviews, with a strong focus on fantasy, sci-fi, and horror genres, as well as some movies, comics, or superhero-based stories.

Take a look through the Recommended Reading tag for some great stories to add to your TBR!


If you visit Bookshop.org via the linked banner below, you can purchase many of the books reviewed here and help support independent bookstores at the same time. Cosmic Circus may receive a small commission for purchases you make from the shop via this link.Purple Bookshop.org support indie book stores button


Book ReviewsBooksReviews

Review: ‘Star Wars: Outbound Flight’ Joins the Essential Legends Collection

Star Wars: Outbound Flight has been released with a new cover and audiobook as part of the new Essential Legends collection. This novel, written by Timothy Zahn, is somewhat of an origin story for Thrawn during his final days as a commander in the Chiss Ascendancy.    Taking place five years after the events of The Phantom Menace, Star Wars: Outbound Flight

Read More
Book ReviewsBooksReviewsStellar Picks

Book Review: ‘The Color Purple’ by Alice Walker

Come meet Celie. She shares her life with us in Alice Walker’s The Color Purple. Through letters from her to first God, and later her sister Nettie, we learn all about the lows and highs Celie experiences. Through love and loss, hope and devastation, The Color Purple gives us a look into life in the early 1900s in rural Georgia. It’s

Read More
Book ReviewsBooksReviews

‘Star Wars: The High Republic Character Encyclopedia’ Book Review

The High Republic has exploded its way into all corners of Star Wars since its inception back in 2021. Mainly keeping to books and comics, it has since ventured into animation, video games, and soon-to-be television with the release of The Acolyte in 2024. If you know me and my reviews by now, you know how much I love this new

Read More
Book ReviewsBooksReviews

Book Review: ‘Doctor Who: The Ruby’s Curse’ by Alex Kingston

Get ready for a very meta experience. Doctor Who: The Ruby’s Curse by Alex Kingston is a book written by River Song, a character in Doctor Who played by the author of this very book, about Melody Malone. In the book, Melody and River influence each other to the point that River isn’t sure where Melody stops, and she begins, or

Read More
Book ReviewsBooksGamingReviews

Book Review: ‘What Board Games Mean to Me: Tales from the Tabletop’ Edited by Donna Gregory

We all have cherished memories around games. Maybe it was beating the pants off your sibling as kids. Maybe it’s Friday night poker with your buddies. Or maybe it’s learning chess from your Grandpa. Or maybe it’s completely different. But I guarantee there’s something. And that’s what What Board Games Mean to Me: Tales from the Tabletop is all about. This

Read More
Book ReviewsBooksReviews

‘Dawn Of Rebellion The Visual Guide’ Book Review

Star Wars is expansive, so expansive that there are dedicated teams of people that keep the lore coherent and fitting together. Occasionally, some of them work together and bring us what is known as a visual guide. These books help expand and teach us the lore and interconnectedness of its shows and films, showing off objects and characters of interest and

Read More
Book ReviewsBooksReviewsStellar Picks

Book Review: ‘The Bootlegger’s Dance: An Arkham Horror Novel’ by Rosemary Jones

Just in time for Christmas, Aconyte is releasing an Arkham Horror novel set in the Christmas season: The Bootlegger’s Dance by Rosemary Jones. Raquel Gutierrez is hiding from life. She doesn’t want her family to know what’s going on and doesn’t even want to admit it to herself, so she’s staying with her Aunt Nova until she can accept her situation.

Read More
Book ReviewsBooksReviews

Book Review: ‘Doctor Who: Revelation of the Daleks’ by Eric Saward

The planet of Necros, as the name implies, is a pretty quiet place. This is because it’s one giant cemetery. Aside from the few people who maintain the structures and oversee the funerals (I’m sorry, the “Posture for Perpetual Instatement”), all the “residents” of Necros are either dead or cryogenically frozen to be reanimated once cures are found. However, things aren’t

Read More
Book ReviewsBooksReviews

Book Review: ‘Shield Maiden’ by Sharon Emmerichs

We’ve all heard of “Beowulf.” Some of us may even remember Grendel or his much scarier mother. While Beowulf is considered one of the first heroes, most people don’t realize that we don’t even know his whole story. Everything we know of Beowulf comes from a few small scraps of his story that have been found. Most of his tale is

Read More
Book ReviewsBooksReviews

Wonka Book Review: Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator

What kid wouldn’t love to visit a chocolate factory? Especially one as fantastic as Willy Wonka’s eccentric factory? But be careful what you wish for because things aren’t always what they seem. What starts as a benign tour of a candy factory quickly starts to look like something else. Kids are dropping like flies, and it’s not quite clear if they’ll

Read More
Book ReviewsBooksReviews

Book Review: ‘Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Sea of Monsters’ by Rick Riordan

Percy Jackson & The Sea of Monsters is the sequel to the fantastic novel Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan. The first book was an undeniable success amongst readers when it originally hit shelves. Its captivating exploration of the world of Greek mythology mixed with the modern-day stories had a big impact on the future of

Read More