Title Cirque Du Freak: A Living Nightmare Author Darren Shan Cover Art -- Publisher Little, Brown and Company - 2002 First Printing Collins - 2000
	Title The Vampire's Assistant Author Darren Shan Cover Art --- Publisher HarperTrophyCanada - 2008 First Printing Collins - 2000
	Title Tunnels of Blood Author Darren Shan Cover Art --- Publisher HarperTrophyCanada - 2008 First Printing HarperCollins - 2000
	Title Vampire Mountain Author Darren Shan Cover Art --- Publisher Little, Brown and Company - 2002 First Printing HarperCollins - 2001
	Title Trials of Death Author Darren Shan Cover Art Sheila Smallwood Publisher Little, Brown Books - 2003 First Printing HarperCollins - 2001
	Title The Vampire Prince Author Darren Shan Cover Art --- Publisher --- First Printing ---
	Title Hunters of the Dusk Author Darren Shan Cover Art --- Publisher --- First Printing ---
	Title Allies of the Night Author Darren Shan Cover Art --- Publisher --- First Printing ---
	Title Killers of the Dawn Author Darren Shan Cover Art --- Publisher --- First Printing ---
	Title The Lake of Souls Author Darren Shan Cover Art --- Publisher --- First Printing ---
	Title Lord of the Shadows Author Darren Shan Cover Art --- Publisher --- First Printing ---
	Title Sons of Destiny Author Darren Shan Cover Art --- Publisher --- First Printing ---
	Category Middle Grade Warnings None Main Characters Darren Shan, Mr. Crepsley, Evra Von Main Elements Vampires Website ---

Cirque Du Freak: A Living Nightmare

The Vampire's Assistant

Tunnels of Blood

Vampire Mountain

Trials of Death

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.

By the time I got to the fifth book I decided I was happier not knowing how vampire society worked. See there are two groups of vampires, one of which is called the "Vampaneze", and they have purple skin because they go around killing when they feed. The moment that word appeared I could no longer take these books seriously. And then Darren goes to Vampire Mountain and discovers what vampires do when they are together, basically they fight and show off their physical prowess...definitely not the type of vampire I want to be. Guess it's 'cause I'm a girl, since there are very very few female vampires (talk about about a book series directed towards boys, can't have girl cooties contaminating things, even as a peripheral character!).

I don't hate the series but I now find it more silly than anything else.