A Living Nightmare (Cirque Du Freak, #1)
By Darren Shan
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company, 2000
257 pages, Library book (hardcover)
Date Finished: 3/10/2011
Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy, Coming of Age
In the tradition of Stephen King's 'Salem's Lot,' Cirque Du Freak is the frightening saga of a young boy whose visit to a mysterious freak show leads him on a journey into a dark world of vampires. Filled with grotesque creatures, murderous vampires, and a petrifying ending, Cirque Du Freak will chill, thrill, and leave readers begging for more.~First Line: "I've always been fascinated by spiders."
~from goodreads.com~
~Last Line: "Then, side by side, the vampire and his assistant, we began walking . . . . . . into the night."
Review: My brother breezed through all 12 books of this series quite rapidly, but he loved them. My bestie AnnaBelle also said that they were great so I checked this one out at my school's library. To say the least, it wasn't a waste of time!
The main character, Darren, is your average kid with three best friends, one of which is his bestbest friend (Steve). They all have a good relationship with each other. Then a circus comes to town, the Cirque Du Freak. All the boys want to go, but they could only snag two tickets. It ended up being Steve and Darren going to the show.
To spare you another spoiler review, let's just say that Darren likes spiders, will do anything to get one, and goes through the realms of H-E-double-hockey-sticks to fix his mistakes. Although I'm probably overexaggerating a lot. But even so, the plot was set up nicely. However, I think it could still use a bit of work. Everything flowed well, but I just needed something more. I'm sure either book 2 or 3 will solve that, though.
The characters in Cirque Du Freak were good and interesting, but were predictable throughout a lot of the book. This element was missing more for me as well. But I think Mr. Crepsley was my favorite character out of them all. He was mysterious to me, something that the others really weren't.
Overall, this book could've used a little work, but it was still enjoyable. I should be reading The Vampire's Assistant soon.
Plot Rating: 4.25
Character Rating: 4
Cover Rating: 4
GoodReads Rating: 4
Overall rating:
and one-sixteenth :)
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