Cirque Du Freak (The Saga of Darren Shan, Book 1)
Reviewed by Yong Xin Hui, Nanyang Girls’ High School
Another story involving a schoolboy, another book with various twists and turns guaranteed for readers to lose themselves in, another seemingly simple, innocent book with the main character infatuated with a spider — with a vicious twist. Literally. With teeth, blood and gore (in sparing amounts, at the end).
Cirque Du Freak deals with friendship, misunderstandings, destiny, and the irony of life. Oh yes, and vampires, or at least, vampire, at the beginning of the book. At the end, you could say that one and a half vampires exist.
(The characters in the story also lie and steal, but then, which schoolboy, or in fact, schoolgirl, doesn’t? Adults, you are not supposed to read this. Ironic, isn’t it?)
In this 183-page book, the main character, Darren Shan, along with his best friend, Steve Leopard, goes to a freak show, as the book title suggests.
There, they see real freaks, with one being a vampire posing as a normal (okay, abnormal) human able to control a venomous spider.
Darren literally falls in love with the spider, and later decides to steal it. The consequences are not apparent at first, but then the trouble starts when the spider decides to bite Steve…
Title: Cirque du freak
Author: Darren Shan
Publisher: London: Collins, 2000.
Call No.: Y English SHA
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