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Title | Cirque Du Freak: A Living Nightmare
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Author | Darren Shan
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Cover Art | --
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Publisher | Little, Brown and Company - 2002
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First Printing | Collins - 2000
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Title | The Vampire's Assistant
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Author | Darren Shan
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Cover Art | ---
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Publisher | HarperTrophyCanada - 2008
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First Printing | Collins - 2000
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Title | Tunnels of Blood
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Author | Darren Shan
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Cover Art | ---
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Publisher | HarperTrophyCanada - 2008
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First Printing | Collins - 2000
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Title | Vampire Mountain
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Author | Darren Shan
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Cover Art | ---
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Publisher | ---
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First Printing | ---
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Title | Trials of Death
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Author | Darren Shan
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Cover Art | ---
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Publisher | ---
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First Printing | ---
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Title | The Vampire Prince
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Author | Darren Shan
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Cover Art | ---
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Publisher | ---
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First Printing | ---
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Title | Hunters of the Dusk
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Author | Darren Shan
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Cover Art | ---
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Publisher | ---
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First Printing | ---
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Title | Allies of the Night
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Author | Darren Shan
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Cover Art | ---
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Publisher | ---
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First Printing | ---
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Title | Killers of the Dawn
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Author | Darren Shan
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Cover Art | ---
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Publisher | ---
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First Printing | ---
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Title | The Lake of Souls
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Author | Darren Shan
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Cover Art | ---
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Publisher | ---
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First Printing | ---
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Title | Lord of the Shadows
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Author | Darren Shan
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Cover Art | ---
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Publisher | ---
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First Printing | ---
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Title | Sons of Destiny
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Author | Darren Shan
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Cover Art | ---
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Publisher | ---
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First Printing | ---
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Category | Middle Grade
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Warnings | None
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Main Characters | Darren Shan, Mr. Crepsley, Evra Von
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Main Elements | Vampires
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Website | ---
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Cirque Du Freak: A Living Nightmare
Darren Shan and his best friend, Steve, get tickets to the Cirque Du Freak, a wonderfully gothic freak show featuring weird, frightening half human/half animals who interact terrifyingly with the audience. In the midst of the excitement, true terror raises its head when Steve recognizes that one of the performers-- Mr. Crepsley-- is a vampire!
Steve remains after the show finishes to confront the vampire-- but his motives are surprising! In the shadows of a crumbling theater, a horrified Darren eavesdrops on his friend and the vampire, and is witness to a monstrous, disturbing plea.
The Vampire's Assistant
Darren Shan was just an ordinary schoolboy - until his visit to the Cirque Du Freak. Now as he struggles with his new life as a Vampire's Assistant, he tries desperately to resist the one thing that can keep him alive...blood. But a gruesome encounter with the Wolf Man may change all that...
Tunnels of Blood
Darren Shan, the Vampire's Assistant, gets a taste of city life when he leaves the Cirque Du Freak with Evra and Mr Crepsley. At night the vampire goes about secret business, while by day Darren enjoys his freedom.
But then bodies are discovered ... Corpes are drained of blood... The hunt for the killer is on and Darren's loyalties are tested to the limit as he fears the worst. One mistake and they are all doomed to perish in the tunnels of blood...

I saw the movie a few years back but took till now to see if the library might have the books. By this point I remembered little but that's sometimes for the best when it comes to movies, they can diverge so much from the original books. The first book had me hooked. Crepsley in particular was a complex character. He could have easily been evil, but he wasn't. But he's hardly a good guy either, after all he could have helped Darren without exacting a life changing price. He's kind of apologetically evil, it was interesting.
And Darren is similar. He's not a bad kid, but he's no saint either. After all, there wouldn't be a story if he wasn't so brazen as to sneak into an illegal freak show, as well as steal from a vampire, and then his friend nearly paid the price with his life.
And that was one creepy freak show...I mean people were ok with a werewolf that bit a woman's arm off? Sure the attendants sewed it back on but, yikes! Maybe the show was able to filter the audience with a lot of skill, ensuring nobody would report the show no matter how things went.
In the second book Darren is getting a little lonely living just with Mr Crepsley, obviously there's the age gap and Darren isn't all that fond of the man that turned him into a monster and forced him to leave his family. So Crepsley suggests they rejoin the Cirque, where Darren can befriend the snake boy, Evra, as well as get to know all the other characters when they aren't performing.
Now the library had this under YA and I couldn't understand why, the language used and writing style is very middle grade if not younger. But oof, by the end of the book it go really dark and graphic so that's likely why. If you're unconfortable with your protagonist running through the woods snapping the next of little animals, or someone's internals being consumed, and another getting his arms bitten off, not a book for you.
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