“The freak show was all I could think about that night. I tried forgetting it but I couldn’t, not even when I was watching my favorite TV shows. It sounded so weird: a snake-boy, a wolf-man, a performing spider. I was especially excited by the spider…. ,” –Darren Shan. In the book Cirque du Freak by Darren Shan, Darren and his friend Steve Leonard go to a freak show one night and discover something shocking which leads to a series of unfortunate events. Soon the two friends have to make important decisions and take different paths. Darren Shan was a regular teenager until he went to the freak show.
He is forced into becoming a half-vampire and faking his own death by Mr. Crepsley, after stealing his performing spider and getting his best friend Steve bitten by it. After becoming a half-vampire he is Mr. Crepsley’s assistant and hates him for making him leave his life behind but eventually learns to like him. Steve Leopard was Darren’s best friend until he feels Darren betrays him by becoming a half-vampire after he wanted to be one and got rejected. He then turns into a Vampire Hunter. He is the reason Darren becomes a half-vampire, because he gets bitten my Madam Octa (Mr. Crepsley’s deadly telepathic performing spider) and Darren begs Mr. Crepsley for the cure. Mr. Crepsley is a 170 year old vampire who turns Darren into a vampire. He has orange hair, a scar on his face, and likes to dress in red. Evra Von a performer at the freak show was also known as snake-boy because he had scales all over his body and performed with his giant snake. Rhamus Twobellies was another performer at the show he had two stomachs and could eat anything in a short amount of time. Truska was another performer in the show she was known as the bearded lady.
Gertha Teeth was another performer in the show and could bite and withstand anything. Cormac Limbs was another performer in the show he was able to re-grow limbs after they were cut off. Hans Hands was another performer in the show and he could run faster than a human on his hands. The wolf-man was another performer at the show he was half wolf half man and was very ferocious so he was always locked up in a cage. Alexander Ribs was another performer he was the skinniest man on earth and could fold his body in any way and make music when he hit his ribs.
Sive and Seersa were also part of the show they were twisted twins that were very flexible. Mr. Tall was the leader of the Cirque du Freak and he had telepathic powers and could tell the future. In the story there are many conflicts some are small and some are big. The main conflict of the story is that Darren does not want to become a vampire’s assistant but he was to in order to save Steve’s life. Another conflict is when Darren has to decide if to save Steve or let him die. Another conflict in the story is that Darren has a hard time saying goodbye to his family.
One of the small conflicts was when Darren didn’t want to be friends with Steve anymore because he was evil. In the book the action starts when Darren and Steve go to the freak show and Steve discovers Mr. Crepsley’s real identity and decides to become a vampire but he refuses because Steve is evil. Soon after Darren steals Madam Octa but soon realizes it was a mistake when she bites Steve and he almost dies. But after being afraid that Steve might die he decides to become a half-vampire because there is no other choice. But after Mr. Crepsley gives the antidote to Steve Darren decides to make a run for it and break the deal. But after a few days of trying to live a normal life he feeds on his friend’s blood during a soccer game and almost feed on his sister Annie as well so he decides to go back to Mr. Crepsley and learn the ways of a vampire. But in order to become a half-vampire Mr. Crepsley tells him he must fake his death and runaway with him and forget about his old life which Darren doesn’t want to do but has no other choice and hates Mr. Crepsley for this.
After Darren gets buried Mr. Crepsley digs him up and tells him to walk around to regain his energy but while Darren does this he is confronted with Steve who threatens to kill him but eventually doesn’t but promises he will return to kill them both for betraying him. And the story is to be continued to the next book. All in all, I think this book was great. It had a lot of twist and turns and it was a fun book to read. I think the book was well written and had a lot of detail. It also had a lot of events that I did not expect.
I would recommend this book to others because it is a pretty good book and it is not boring at all. I would recommend this book especially to those who like horror/mystery books. I would recommend it to them because it has incredible freaks, vampires, and action what else could you ask for. This is also the first book of the series. There are eleven other books and I can’t wait to read them all to see what happens. They are also turning this book in to a motion picture and I can’t wait till it comes out hopefully it turns out to be as good of a movie as the books.
