Customer Reviews

Cirque du Freak: A Living Nightmare

5 star:		(198)
4 star:		(54)
3 star:		(27)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

Cirque du Freak by Darren Shan

While this first novel for young readers is slightly marred by some careless editing (the folks at Little Brown should know much better!), it reveals great promise for a superb edition to the juvenile horror genre. Author Shan finely delineates several appallingly fascinating characters including the eponymic protagonist, but as ever in this sort of literature, the plot reigns. Intricate as the spider's webs which permeate the text, the reader turns the pages and wishes only to devour more at story's end. There have been comparisons to R. L. Stine's teeny terror tales, but Shan is a better writer and probably full of plots and characters that haven't been recycled for the umteenth hundred time. There are resonances of the vampire fiction of Anne Rice and Chelsea Yarbro with the merest soupcon of J. K. Rowling's wizardly romps as well. Some reviews aim the book at the 9-12 audience, but this old children's librarian would expect it to be a bit too intense for the former, and yet would captivate many an adult admirer of the genre.

I put off reading this book for quite a while, on the basis that I didn't want anyone assuming that I read it solely because of JK Rowling's recommendation. Fans of Garth Nix's "Seventh Tower" series, with the unresolved endings, may like this book...

Darren and his friends are ordinary enough kids, who find a flier for the traveling freak show "Cirque Du Freak" -- snake boy, the wolf man, giant spider -- and a vampire. Not a warm and fuzzy exhibit show.

Darren and his friend Steve sneak to the freak show, where the ominous Mr. Tall informs them that every act is real -- which, naturally, they are (will kids read a scary book about a fake freak show? Course not). Steve recognizes Mr. Crepsly as a vampire, and exhibits the truly "freaky" wish to be a vampire as well. (Counseling, kid, counseling!) Making the situation even more unreal is Darren, who has a thing about spiders and wishes to steal the enormous arachnid Madame Octa. Darren must deal with an enormous spider, a sideshow full of frightening freaks, and his own best friend...

Darren is just weird enough to fit into this freaky story, without losing the understanding and sympathy of the readers. Steve was a bit too weird for my personal tastes, wanting to be a vampire and so forth, and so I had difficulty connecting with him--but that may have been intentional.

The writing style is snappy and spooky, in keeping with this genre, without becoming too wordy or gross as many horror books are. Atmosphere is handled well, especially in the Cirque Du Freak, and in scenes with Madame Octa and the vampire Crepsly.

The book occasionally becomes a little creepy for younger kids and a little too dark for the faint-of-heart. Additionally, descriptions occasionally become too thin and the characters sometimes take odd actions--but again, the second thing may be deliberate.

Though not flawless, I'll read the next book with pleasure.

This book is an awesome book! I ask all people I know to read this book. And I suggest you should too.
Darren was a normal boy. His life was changed by a circus flyer. He and his best friend Steve went to the freak circus. They found out one of the performers was a vampire. That vampire had a performing spider. Darren stole her. Steve was bitten by her. She was a poisonous spider. No one knew how to cure him except one. Darren goes back to the vampire and asks him to cure Steve. But he said that Darren has to pay. Not money, not jewelry, nor gold. Half of his life.
Read this book and face this dilemma. Would you say yes, if your best friend was about to die and you knew the only way to save his/her life which is to throw half of your life away?

While it may be fine for fast, brainless reading, this book still had many flaws. The author naming their protagonist after themselves is high on my list of flaws, it's a cheap, ego-driven trick that annoyed me. Far from helping with my suspension of disbelief, it broke it every time I looked at the cover.
Furthermore, the plot is nigh-on nonexistent. So sue me, I enjoy convoluted, complicated plots, yet this fell even below the normal standards I set for young adult books. The characters were also shallow, I couldn't get myself emotionally involved with any of them. The angsting that Darren constantly went through might have been designed to make you feel sorry for him, but it only made me roll my eyes and skim even more quickly. Steve's reaction was wooden and predictable, as was Darren's. Foreshadowing, when that technique was used, was painted in big, bright, neon letters saying 'LET ME TELL YOU WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN NEXT'. Forgive me for desiring subtlety, but that kind of blatant hinting just isn't going to do it for me. In addition, Shan seems to feel the need to put at least one exclamation point on every page. The constant excitement was really! terribly! effective!
Please note my sarcasm.
Horror-wise, it's not Dracula, but neither is it Something Cute and Fluffy in Pastel. Mostly it's just boring, with the 'freaks' that the book acquired its title from remaining as flat words on a page rather than coming to life as Brahm Stoker's masterpiece.

Admittedly, it's written for a more jeuvenile age group, so I can let the badly handled, B-rated-horror-movie-style dialogue and hideously contrived plot, and characters slide. I still wouldn't reccomend this book to anyone other than the mentally infirm and those who really, really need something to waste time on.
Now, you may be saying "what a hypocrite! This chick reads the book, takes the time to review it, then claims that we should listen to her advice NOT to read it." All right, you may have a point. As I said earlier, if you want a quick, brainless vampire story, this is the book for you. No higher functions involved, the most intricate motion you'll need to make is flipping the page every now and then.

As I read this book, I was reminded of a quote from Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut--"My god, if only Kilgore Trout could *write*." That, my friends, is my reaction--the book would be great if Darren Shan could write.

Granted, the man can wield nouns and verbs with the best of them. He can write a proper sentence, make the reader laugh, and keep his audience more or less interested. However, his multiple errors and clumsy dialogue are, at times, quite distracting. It's hard to focus on a plot--even an incredible plot--when one's mind is occupied with picking apart the dialogue. This is a pity; the plot provides many twists and opportunities for shock. However, when these opportunities are passed to Shan, he almost invariably fumbles.

This being said, let me tone down my criticism. For those under the age of, say, 13, this book is great. Even those who are older, the story itself is able to provide some entertainment. If, however, you are a writer, or are used to a more polished version of children's literature, you buy this book at your own risk. I would give it two-and-a-half stars.

Cirque Du Freak is a book about a boy and his friend that go to see an illegal freak show. The freak show changes their lives forever and so many amazing things happen as a result of them going to the freak show. It is amazing how brilliant the author had to be in order to write this book because it is one of the best books that I have ever read and I usually don't even like horror stories. For those of you who aren't sure of whether you want to read Cirque Du Freak or not, I highly reccomend that you do.

The author wasn't kidding when he told us that this was going to be a story that didn't follow typical conventions. It was a wonderfully told story, with action that pushed the story forward from chapter to chapter. He used the device of short chapters, sometimes when they weren't necessary, to fuel that action. If writers write in long chapters, especially in books meant for children, their interest is lost, because they find themselves meandering. But when the chapters break, that implies (almost without the reader being aware of it) breakneck action.

I'd love to discuss the surprise ending, as it was something I was NOT expecting whatsoever. But to do so ruins the surprise ending. I hope reviewers here haven't done that. And some of the things that made that ending possible were truly gruesome. This was a terrific story. It's the second book I've read where I've begun in bed and stayed awake until finishing it (about an hour and a half). I'm really looking forward to reading more, and was glad to see that there is much more enjoyment ahead.

A living Nightmare was great! I loved it from the start. It was really interesting and just thrilling! The author descibes everything in very good detail.
But why did i give it 3 stars, not 5?
One of the reviewers mentioned it before. What Darren says isn't... kiddish. You know, kidlike. As a kid, I know what we say. The author sometimes forgets that he chose the main character as a kid, not an adult. It was weird. In the beginning, the author was really good, and said stuff like us. ex. 'the usual crap'
But as I got further in the book, Darren started sounding like a grown up.
I mean, what kind of kid would say: "Like what kind of kid would say: 'It would be a pity to stop now'.
ok whoevers reading this, you're probably an adult and think im whack saying thats not too high vocab. The thing is, no kid, and i mean NO KID in the world would say 'pity' unless their like a nerd or like doing it for work of somethin
otherwise, pretty good. 3 stars

After seeing a preview clip for the movie version, I thought it would be interesting to read this. I read the frist 5 books of the series the weekend.

This book (and series) is aimed at boys and girls in the middle school range. There are lots of icky-icky moments that kids seem to love, and the moral decisions are fairly simplistic. Having said that, these are pretty good adventures. Each one has the plotting and story trajectory of, maybe, a weekly TV program.

But these are good adventures for kids. I enjoyed them, and would recommend them (and plan to this very morning!) to any parent trying to interest their children in reading. This story of a young boy who ends up as a vampire's assistant, his further adventures, his growth in knowledge, are worthwhile.

I also liked how the author snuck in a few challenging vocabulary items (the hero wonders why his vampire master has to use such big words!).

Read and enjoy.

I am a 35 year old woman, and I have to admit I was hesitant on picking this book up and reading it. I had read other reviews and some were from older points of view, some younger, some loved it and some just liked it and some downright hated it. I like to form my own opinions of course and I happen to love any book with vampires as a subject matter.
I read it in probably an hour, its 272 pages but written in a easy way to where someone like me who gobbles up at least 5 books a week could eat it in one sitting.

I really liked it, not loved, but liked. It sets up Darren Shans world in a precise, original, and thorough manner. Darren and his friend Steve go to a traveling freak show, that's secretive and heralds its acts as nothing you have ever seen before! There are freaks there that normal freaks would run from that is for sure. Steve recognizes one of them as an ancient vampire he saw in one of his comic books and tries to black mail this vampire, Mr. Crepsley into turning him into one of the undead, but Crepsley refuses because Steve is indeed evil inside his youthful body, and he isn't into the evil types. Darren having witnessed this sets out to take something of Crepsleys and succeeds only to have the object turn his world upside down. Darren is then set down a path to which he cannot return and it's both sad and exciting to witness.

This of course is the first book of many and I am gladly moving onto the second with anticipation.