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BOOK 1
-
Cirque
Du
Freak |
| "A book that leaves you longing for a second bite. Five stars." FUNDAY TIMES |
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"a compelling page-turner ... five stars for atmosphere." TIMES EDUCATIONAL SUPPLEMENT |
|
Italian
cover |
| "Darren Shan is undoubtedly a literary find for children." THE INDEPENDENT |
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"a stylish book that deserves to be devoured." THE GOOD BOOK GUIDE |
PLOT OUTLINE
Darren Shan's an ordinary schoolboy, until he and his best friend Steve get tickets to the Cirque Du Freak, a bizarre freak show featuring such arcane performers as Hans Hands, Gertha Teeth, the Wolf Man and Rhamus Twobellies. In the midst of the ghoulish excitement, true terror raises its head when Steve recognises that one of the performers -- Mr Crepsley -- is in fact a vampire!
Steve
remains after the show finishes, to confront the vampire
-- but his motives are anything but ordinary! In the
shadows of a crumbling theatre, a horrified Darren
eavesdrops on his friend and the vampire, and is witness
to a monstrous, disturbing plea.
Later, in
a moment of insane daring, Darren sets out to steal the
vampire's magnificent performing tarantula, an act which
will have severe, tragic consequences for both Darren and
Steve. Their lives will never be the same again ...
AUTHOR NOTES
I had the
idea for
“Cirque Du
Freak” on
May 8th,
1997. I was
looking
after one of
my aunt’s
children.
She was
shopping,
the kid was
asleep in
the back
seat of her
car, and I
was sitting
up front
with nothing
to read,
having
forgotten to
bring a book
with me. Out
of boredom I
looked
around the
car and
found one of
the
Goosebumps
books. I’d
never read
Goosebumps,
since they
weren’t on
sale when I
was growing
up. I
flicked
through the
book,
reading
little bits
here and
there. My
two
observations
were: (1) It
wasn’t a
very good
book, very
formulaic
and easy to
predict. (2)
Regardless
of that, I’d
have
probably
liked the
book when I
was younger,
since it was
so full of
cliffhangers
and easy to
read.
Then I
started
thinking
that what
the world
really
needed was a
book that
was as fun
and easy to
read as
Goosebumps,
but which
had some of
the darkness
and depth of
Stephen
King. That
led me to
think about
one of my
favourite
King books,
Salem’s
Lot, and
how I used
to try to
scare myself
when I was
younger by
imagining
what would
happen if a
vampire
attacked me
and turned
me into one
of them.
That set me
thinking
about
writing a
story about
a boy who
meets a
vampire and
reluctantly
becomes his
assistant –
and a few
days later I
was writing
the first
book of
The Saga of
Darren Shan!!! |
