Cirque du Freak: A Living Nightmare
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- ISBN13: 9780316605106
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed
Product Description
Darren Shan is just an ordinary schoolboy who enjoys hanging out with his three best friends. Then one day they stumble across as invitation to visit the Cirque du Freak, a mysterious freak show. Only two tickets are available, so they draw straws to see who will go. As if by destiny, Darren wins one, and what follows is his horrifying descent into the dark and bloody world of vampires. This is Darren’s tale.Amazon.com Review
Anyone who likes the humorous but hair-raising horror in R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps series will devour British leader Darren Shan’s first novel with equal zeal. Some books are born with a surrounding buzz; this one even has Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling’s stamp of praise: “Quick-paced and compelling, full of satisfying macabre touches,” she writes. Warner Brothers will be building it into a movie, and the rest of the series is already in the works. Agreed all that, you’d expect a tour de force! Really, though, Cirque Du Freak is a thrill ride that will keep even the most reluctant readers turning pages, but will never take its place in the literary canon.
Darren Shan, leader and narrator, sets the book up as a right tale, warning readers: “Real life’s grave. It’s cruel…. Evil regularly wins.” Indeed, evil starts to win when Darren and his followers find a flier for “Cirque Du Freak,” a traveling freak show promising performances by the snake-boy, the wolf-man, and Larten Crepsley and his giant spider, Madame Octa. Darren and his friend Steve wouldn’t miss it for the world.
So, Saturday night they sneak out to the ancient theater, tall and dark, with broken windows. “Every act you see tonight is real,” croaks Mr. Tall. “Each performer is unique. And none are harmless.” That’s for sure. (A werewolf bites off the hand of a name in the audience, for instance.) Things grow very serious for the two boys when Steve not only recognizes Mr. Crepsley as a legendary vampire, but professes his right desire to join him! To make matters worse, the spider-obsessed Darren goes back to the ancient theater to steal Madame Octa so he can teach her tricks in his room. (He does, with mixed results.) The plot further coagulates as Darren is faced with some terrible decisions about what to do to save his bloodthirsty friend Steve.
Readers may be too enthralled to notice some clumsy editing (the aforementioned bitten-off hand is later referred to as an arm, Darren stops dead in his tracks when he’s already stopped, etc.). They may also not notice that the boys constantly use adult-sounding expressions like “his breath stank to the high heavens,” though the book is clearly set in the 21st century. If this book gets under your kids’ skin (and it probably will), they’re in luck–we haven’t heard the last of the Saga of Darren Shan. (Ages 10 and older, not for the faint of heart) –Karin Snelson
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I was wary of the book from the first time I saw whose review was on the take in. J.K. Rowling gave up excellent words for the book but I’m not too fond of J.K.’s writing(her thoughts are excellent but her writing doesn’t draw me in)so I knew that if she liked this book, I most likely wouldn’t. Yet, I was still curious and grabbed it.
I could hardly get through it. The book, to me, was so dull. The plot was silly. The main character wasn’t too bright. I guess you should just go and check it out for yourself seeing that many people loved the book.
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
An unpleasant book. Exactly what was it in the killing of an innocent goat at the freak show did Darren find “thrilling”?
Reader’s Rating: 2 / 5
First, I have read the whole D.S. series getting many books from amazon.uk. The frist book was fantastic I must admit. By book 9 you are totaly let down. The end of the series is very week!!!! The leader is in like with himself and you can defiantely find many many more books and series more worthy of your time. Please take my advice and reda another series. This series could have been summed up in a trilogy as a replacement for of draggggging it out so much. By the way this is the first terrible review I have ever agreed a series or book!
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
a compelling book…a plot full of twists which leaves the reader hungry for more
Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5
First I want to congratulate Darren Shan on eleven excellent books. I say eleven purposefully because had he left the series unfinished I would feel more closure than I do having read the entire thing.
Do not pick up this book, if you do you will be enticed to read the entire series at the end of which you will find out the whole thing is akin to a dream sequence and not only that but Darren O’Shaughnessy (I refuse to acknowledge the arrogance linked with using his pseudonym as the protagonist) uses the most base and sophomoric writing tricks.
If Darren O’Shaughnessy has any self respect he will scrap the last two books and rewrite the ending to something that makes a ounce of sense. Let me offer him a start to this new ending, something happened somebody died or somebody lived and who that somebody might have been.
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5