Product Description

The chilling Saga of Darren Shan, the ordinary schoolboy plunged into the vampire world. THE SAGA OF DARREN SHAN BOOK 1 Darren goes to a banned freak show with his best mate Steve. It's the wonderfully gothic Cirque Du Freak where weird, frightening half human/half animals appear who interact terrifyingly with the audience. Darren -- a spider freak -- 'falls in love' with Madam Octa -- an enormous tarantala owned by Mr Crepsley. Darren determines to steal the spider so that he can train it to perform amazing deeds. But his daring theft goes horribly wrong and Darren finds himself having to make a bargain with a creature of the night. Something out of the ordinary is set against the background of children's normal lives to chilling effect. Atmospheric, funny, realistic, moving and! terrifying.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7868 in Books
• Published on: 2000-01-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

From Amazon.co.uk
Darren Shan seems like your average boy--he likes playing football with his mates, passing notes in class and loves spiders. Then, one day, his best mate Steve gets tickets for a banned freak show and Darren starts experiencing things that no average boy would dream of. At the Freak show he sees a limb-chewing wolf man, a woman who can grow a beard in front of your very eyes, a snake boy and a goat-eating tarantula called Madame Octa. But what about the mysterious people in blue-hooded robes whose faces you never see? And is Mr Crepsley really a vampire?

Don't be deceived by the facetious tone of the narrator, this book will have you screaming out in revulsion and horror. Wrap yourself up in your duvets and get prepared to be scared. This is outrageously gruesome:

Anyway, that's enough of an introduction. If you're ready, let's begin. If this was a made-up story, it would begin at night, with a storm blowing and owls hooting and rattling noises under the bed. But this is a real story, so I have to begin where it really started ... It started in the toilet.

Cirque du Freak is Darren Shan's first novel and the first in a series highlighting Darren's adventures and misadventures. You'll be baying for blood if you miss out.

And, remember, it's all true. (Age 10 and over) --Nicola Perry

Amazon.co.uk Review
Darren Shan seems like your average boy--he likes playing football with his mates, passing notes in class and loves spiders. Then, one day, his best mate Steve gets tickets for a banned freak show and Darren starts experiencing things that no average boy would dream of. At the Freak show he sees a limb-chewing wolf man, a woman who can grow a beard in front of your very eyes, a snake boy and a goat-eating tarantula called Madame Octa. But what about the mysterious people in blue-hooded robes whose faces you never see? And is Mr Crepsley really a vampire?

Don't be deceived by the facetious tone of the narrator, this book will have you screaming out in revulsion and horror. Wrap yourself up in your duvets and get prepared to be scared. This is outrageously gruesome:

Anyway, that's enough of an introduction. If you're ready, let's begin. If this was a made-up story, it would begin at night, with a storm blowing and owls hooting and rattling noises under the bed. But this is a real story, so I have to begin where it really started ... It started in the toilet.

Cirque du Freak is Darren Shan's first novel and the first in a series highlighting Darren's adventures and misadventures. You'll be baying for blood if you miss out.

And, remember, it's all true. (Age 10 and over) --Nicola Perry

Review
Cirque Du Freak "!fast-paced and compelling book ! full of satisfyingly macabre touches!which leaves the reader hungry for more." JK Rowling 'Brilliant, macabre tale.' Guardian "I read Cirque Du Freak last week. I loved it. I love the way you manage to juggle the funny with the unpleasant, the affection with the hurt. It's great story-telling." Roddy Doyle The Vampire's Assistant "The Vampire's Assistant blazes a thrilling, gruesome trail through a fascinating plot." The Good Book Guide Vampire Mountain "Get your teeth into it!" Funday Times

Shan's 'true story of his bizarre life begins in this first title in a series of what promise to be chilling reads. Darren and friend Steve sneak off to an illegal freak show in the middle of the night and encounter such delights as Rhamus Twobellies and a savage wolfman. This is captivating insider stuff for pre-teens, and tension mounts as Darren steals Madame Octa, the deadly performing spider belonging to vampire Mr Crepsley. Things spiral out of control for Darren as Madame Octa attacks Steve, leaving him paralysed. Mr Crepsley makes Darren a terrifying offer: he will save Steve's life, but only if Darren agrees to leave everything behind and become an assistant vampire. Cirque Du Freak is a truly twisted tale, a strange mix of hammy gothic horror and emotional realism, and the feeling of being let in on the dark truth about a secret world keeps you turning the pages. It is a stylish book that deserves to be devoured. The children I tested it out on were better than scared: they were fascinated, and listened with rapt attention. (Kirkus UK)

The sequel to Shan's successful horror debut (not reviewed) is another guilty pleasure. Shan, the author/narrator of this putative true account, is now a "half-vampire" and the assistant to the well-meaning vampire Mr. Crepsley. Since he refuses to drink human blood, Darren is slowly dying. After exiling himself from his family and friends, he is also lonely; so he and Mr. Crepsley return to the freak show where they met. There he bonds with Evra, the reptilian snake-handler, and Sam, a precocious human boy. Unfortunately, he also gets involved with R.V., a stereotypical unwashed hippie eco-warrior, who decides to make his next cause freeing the show's animal acts. Shan won't win any literary awards for this one-Darren's voice is stilted and unconvincing, suspense is created by contrived cliffhangers, ominous foreshadowing keeps falling from the sky like anvils, and the plot is gutted by elementary scientific blunders (such as repeated references to the python's "poison"). Once Darren becomes a freak-show insider, the eerie creepiness is not so easily maintained; but Shan more than makes up for that by ladling out great glops of macabre grotesquerie: a snake-boy who can "lick the inside of his own nose! "Mute misshapen dwarfs who "feast on human flesh! "The circus performer who "saws off his own limbs! "Gross-out horror fans will devour it and clamor for the next in the series. "(Fiction. 10-14)" (Kirkus Reviews)

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Customer Reviews

An entertaining dark and diverse tale
In the first part of the saga, normal boy Darren gets the chance to go to a freak show with his best friend, and when there, he sees bearded ladies, werewolves and vampires, and Darren's life is turned upside down in this interesting fantasy novel from Shan.

Hardly brilliant writing with a frequent use of colloquial language to involve the target audience of teenagers and the action sequences could easily have been faster and sharper but apart from that, this is an intriguing novel with a great main ideology.

Filled with many teenage conventions such as football, school and selfishness, Shan writes with a clear intention, to upset the balance of reality, which is done by including the use of a forbidden freak show which has many intriguing people, and the impact this has on Darren and his best friend Steve is interesting and once the show is under way, does the novel really start moving forward.

The fun and light heartedness of every teenage read is included, but Shan puts a good twist on it with the use of dark imagery in the freak show, and the consequences of breaking the law, and the penalty of messing with legendary creatures.

Some scenes are quite gruesome, but Shan with teenagers in mind has spared the detail and left it to the imagination, which is a good motive.

Not over explaining situations too much is often a mistake by a lot of writers but Shan has left it very open. However next year this book will be made into a film, along with the three after (Vampire's assistant, tunnels of blood) which will ruin the imagination, but should be an entertaining film, sadly being made in America and not in Great Britain.

At under 200 pages it is an interesting quick read. From memory the series does get better so if you aren't entertained by this fantasy adventure just carry on anyway as they are only short, it really does get more gruesome and entertaining, and the whole 12 books are must reads.

The writing isn't great, neither is the description but the ideology and the darkness behind it all is perfect and diverse from other teenage horror stories so give it a try.

8/10

Not bad, but not good...
Hm, I'm not really sure how to review a book when, like me, you're sat so firmly on the fence of the 3-star rating.

Well, I can commend Darren Shan for making the whole vampire myth refreshingly different. Too long, vampire stories have mostly been read by women, and of course, to cater to the feminine audience, the vampires are highly romanticized, etc. This is like a vampire series for boys - it's got action, gore, horror, and I suppose young boys can relate to Darren and all his friends when he's human.

Also, I have a few criticisms. Hey, I did say I was sat on the fence.

The book seemed too short. Granted, it's really a boys' series - and as we all know, quite alot of (though not all) boys do tend to have a low attention span, which makes them far more interested in getting up and doing something rather than reading a book. I'm a girl, and I love reading - and I was pretty hooked, I must say, on the story. But, I finished it in a sitting of about 2 hours. Sadly, when you had the reading age of a 14 year old when you were only 8 (I'm 16 now), you do tend to read quite quickly, so I suppose I'm biased in this case.

There are 11 more books in the series after this, and I've read 5 of them. Sadly, I had the series spoiler for me, so I can't really read it. And also,

Anyway, I'm sure lots of people love this book - I'm going to check out the movie next year - I just found it a bit too short, although it was a very good read.

If you like Harry Potter you'll LOVE Darren Shan!
I started reading Cirque du freak after my boyfriend persuaded me to give it a go. I was not expecting to like it and only agreed to read it to prove him wrong. Fortunately it was one of the very few times my boyfriend has been right, I loved it and proceeded to read all 12 books in succession. The first book is not the best one by far, it is merely an introduction to the charecters so if you decide to give it a go i urge you to read the second book too as that is when the adventure really starts.
I am a 29 year old mother of 2, but I enjoyed reading these books just as much, if not moreso, as Harry Potter. It can be very dark in places but also includes lots of humour and some rather emotional scenes, i even shed a tear or two.