"You" and your friend did so well at Circus Camp, you're being allowed to join a real circus for a week. But the ringmistress and her crew are wicked beings who want you either dead or as a permanent addition to the sideshow. Now you must figure out how to break her evil power and save the circus freaks... and get out alive in the process.
Trapped in the Circus of Fear provides examples of:
- 13 Is Unlucky: If you have your lucky baseball cap with you, you have a chance to partake in a Tightrope Walking performance, the narration saying you feel lucky... unfortunately, the tightrope scene happens to land on page 13. The book then says you're on an unlucky page, at which point you fall off the ropes and to your death.
- All Just a Dream: One of the "good" endings uses this trope, where you're about to be captured by Madam Barabara's freaks... only to wake up in your bed all of a sudden, your mom shaking you after hearing you screaming in the middle of the night. The next morning you decide to sit out of the circus trip and spend your holidays going elsewhere. note
- And I Must Scream: Where to start? Permanently turning into a sideshow freak? Becoming a clown under Madam Barbara's service? Trapped in a jar of goop? Dancing forever? This book notably has some of the darker endings compared to other Special Edition entries.
- Banana Peel: In one scenario Mr. Peepers will try to help you escape Geyorg the clown by slipping banana peels. Unfortunately, depending on your choices, you might end up having Geyorg falling on you and crushing you to death.
- Cain and Abel: Among the circus' staff are a pair of twin sisters, the acrobats Sara and Susan, who serve the evil Madam Barbara. But while Susan voluntarily assists the villainous ringleader in capturing you and your friend Richie, Sara on the other hand is on your side, helping you escape in one ending.
- Cassandra Truth: If you have a polaroid camera with you, one of the good endings have you taking pictures of Madam Barbara's activities and escaping the circus, and then trying to report her to the police. Unfortunately, your film ends up ruined (Note that this book happens in the 90s, where cameras use films) and nobody believes you. It's also a Bittersweet Ending because you may have escaped the circus, your best friend Richie and the rest of the kids in the freakshow will remain there forever.
- Circus of Fear: Just as the title says, it's a circus of fear... since the owner is trying to either kill you or turn you into a sideshow attraction.
- Clownification: Various bad endings involve you getting turned into a clown slave.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: The best ending of the book has you destroying or stealing Madam Barbara's jade amulet, rendering the evil ringmistress dead, banished or transformed into a monkey, at which point you free all the circus kids in the freakshow, all of them turning back to humans en masse. You are then made the new ringleader and hold a massive show in front of a cheering crowd, among them your proud parents, and your show becomes the biggest success in circus history.
- Food as Bribe: How you obtained Mr. Peepers' trust. Unfortunately, if he doesn't like your food, you're on your own and absolutely screwed.
- Forced Transformation: The Circus' sideshow freaks used to be kids like yourself, who won the prize to join the circus and ends up falling under the evil ringleader's spell. Your bestie, Richie, gets separated early from you in the adventure and in one bad ending you realize Richie is now a Blob Monster in a bucket, while another — a Lizard Boy named Danny who was the previous year's winner — actively helps you escape from falling to the same fate. Of course, it goes without saying that in more than one bad ending, this can happen to you.
- Harmless Liquefaction: While you spend the entire story avoiding Madam Barbara and her clown minions who intend to turn you into a circus freak, your friend Richie isn't as lucky, getting turned into a "bucket of human vomit with two eyes". In the good ending, you change Richie and the rest of the circus freaks back to normal children like yourself.
- I Am a Humanitarian: As it turns out, many of the circus' staff are cannibals, including Bostini the strongman (who turns out to be a werebeast), Geyorg the clown, and Madam Barbara herself.
- Inventory Management Puzzle: This book makes the reader choose three items out of a possible twelve. It doesn't punish you too severely for picking a bad item or two though.
- Involuntary Dance: You might end up getting trapped by a musician's enchanted violin, whose music will force you to dance. If you didn't have a bullwhip with you, you'll be forced to dance for an eternity. Sweet dreams!
- Karmic Transformation: The villainous Madam Barbara delights in having children who fell under her power transformed into sideshow freaks. In one of the good endings, you hijacked her amulet and transforms her into a chimpanzee, and then have her locked in a cage forever.
- Knife-Throwing Act: One of Madam Barbara's henchmen is Morton, the knife thrower, who will make you his assistant in one performance. Whatever you do, don't accept his offer, he'll miss the board and his knife will end up in your guts.
- Meaningful Name: The circus' evil ringleader and Big Bad of this story, Madam Barbara, whose real name is Madam Barbarous.
- Monster Clown: One of Madam Barbara's henchmen is the hulking clown, Geyorg, who either hunts you down for his boss or eats you.
- No Ending: This book requires you to choose three items from a list to use at different points in the book. If you make a wrong choice, the book will sometimes allow you to avoid a bad ending, but then send you back to the first page to start the story again with a different inventory. In one case, information gained from one such wrong ending is necessary to survive the final confrontation, so it's justified in this case.
- Off with His Head!: One of the bad endings have you losing your head... but Madam Barbara managed to salvage your ears. She then resurrects you as a headless freak with two ears growing from that stump your head used to be, dubbing you the "Eerie Ear-ie Kid".
- Red Herring: At least two of the eleven objects you start off with (you're allowed a maximum of three) turn out to be utterly useless. Namely, your lucky baseball cap which the book claims can make you feel lucky (both occasions you get to use it turns out badly for you) and the packet of peanuts that the narration states can help you if you get caught by rampaging elephants (no such thing occurs in the book). The twine and talcum powder also never help you; each can be used on only one page, and in both cases, they only lead to bad endings anyway.
- Snakes Are Sinister: Played with the trapeze sisters, Susan and Sara. They are both as nimble as snakes and wear a symbol of a black cobra on their leotards, but while Susan is genuinely evil and wants to hunt you down, Sara is on your side, having grown to despise Madam Barbara's evil ways, and intends to save you from becoming another freakshow.
- Token Heroic Orc: Mr. Peepers is the only clown in the circus who's on the side of good. While you can only obtain his help by bribing him with the proper items, at least he doesn't hunt you down like the rest of Madam Barbara's clown mooks.
- Utility Weapon: One of the default items in this adventure is your bullwhip, which can come in handy if you're cornered by lions, or if you're trapped by the musician's spell.
