Darren never knew that he would one day drink blood to stay alive. In Mr. Shan’s suspense sires Cirque Du Freak, it starts off with Darren sneaking out to go to an illegal freak show with his best friend. When he is accidentally paralyzed by a spider stolen from a vampire, he must become a vampire to save his friend, but once he does, his best friend becomes his worst enemy. Having to leave his family behind by faking his death, he begins life anew as a vampire in-training. Not being a full vampire though, Darren can still be out in the sun, but he doesn’t ago as slow as normal vampires. As Darren is making new friends at the Cirque Du Freak and learning the ways of the vampires with Mr. Crepsley, he learns about the vampaneze, who are vampires but kill humans mercilessly and are purple from all the blood they drink. He may not know it at first, but the future for all vampires, vampaneze and humans.

I thought the Cirque Du Freak series was compelling and clever. The narrator throughout the series is Darren Shan, but I think he’s telling it from the future, thinking back upon what he’s done. Mr. Shan did a great job with the story and the characters, once you start reading, you can’t stop! I would recommend this book to anyone who can handle some gory violence here and there in a book.