Cirque du Freak - Darren Shan

== General information about the book == Cirque du freak was written by Darren Shan and is the first book of twelve in the 'Saga of Darren Shan'. Collins, which is an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Limited, first published it in Great Britain in 2000. The recommended price is £3.99, which you will probably find to be the same (or approximately the same) in most major retailers. == The basic storyline == Darren Shan is just an ordinary schoolboy - until he gets an invitation to visit the Cirque du Freak...until he meets Madam Octa...until he comes face to face with a creature of the night. Soon, Darren and his friend Steve ...  Read the complete review

This is the first in the series of vampire books written by Darren Shan who is also the main character in the books,where he is a young boy of about 12. Darren Shan knows how to draw you into the story, with a tale of a tarantula being sucked up into a vacuum cleaner. Darren has always been fascinated by spiders. Darren's friends are Steve Lenard, Alan Morris and Tommy Jones. Alan gets hold of a fl-yer for a performance by 'Cirque du Freak', a freak show, which has just come into town. They decide they need to go and see it, but Steve who goes goes to buy the tickets is only allowed to purchase 2 tickets. It is decided that Steve and Darren will go. Darren ...  Read the complete review

I do not read that many books, and the books I do read tend to be about fast cars and big engines. But Darren Shan and his amazing writing skills changed the way I viewed reading forever! My aunt bought me the first Darren Shan Trilogy for my birthday and to be honest I thought it was just going to be a lame version of "Goosebumps" which I remember reading when I was about eight years old thinking I was cool, then not being able to sleep! So, I began reading this book one night and my god, it was gripping! I was only going to read the first couple of chapters but I couldn't, the book had almost hypnotised me, page after page turned and I ...  Read the complete review

This book is amazing everything about it made me just want to keep on reading it and reading it! Darren Shan truly is a master in this genre. ____________________________________________________ STORYLINE If you are like me and into vampires, werewolves and other creatures like that then you will LOVE this book. Basicly this book is about a boy called Darren Shan (Yes the author is called Darren Shan too) who goes to a "Freak" show with his best friend Steve Leonard Aka Steve Leopard, without revealing too much things go wrong and Darren becomes a creature of the night... a ...  Read the complete review

I will start of by saying this was NOT my favourite book in the series. I enjoyed it however read the first few before making up your mind. The series picks up later on, i feel the first book is one of the weaker ones. Towards the end of the series (13 books in total) the story gets more in depth and surprisingly good. The book has recently been made into a film, soon to be released in cinemas. It will be interesting to see Hollywoods portrail of the series (from the adverts does not look to be very good, far too comic for my liking, should have been darker and creepier). I read the series when i was a young teenager and after a while of getting used to writing ...  Read the complete review