Mary's Review: Cirque du Freak by Darren Shan

Published in Britain as The Saga of Darren Shan (perhaps a more apt if less horror-oriented title, as at least half the series is spent in other locales) this series has achieved a good amount of fame in the US of A as the bestselling Cirque du Freak series. The hype is more or less deserved: the first novel has the horrendously slow pacing required of all first books in the series: it is required to inform of the 12 year old hero Darren and his best friend Steve, who manage to obtain tickets to the titular traveling show (their parents forbid it, of course making the show all the more appealing). There Darren in enraptured by one performance in particular--Mr. Crepsley and his performing spider, Madam Octa. So enraptured that he steals the rare and very dangerous arachnid. Of course he’s stolen it from a vampire, a fact of little importance until Madame Octa bites Steve, leaving Darren with a choice. He can become a half vampire and Mr. Crepsley’s assistant, or he can let Steve die. Of course Darren makes the choice befitting a hero in making, but is rewarded with something less than gratitude. Steve vows revenge, believing Darren to have stolen his rightful position as a vampire-to-be (Steve, being heavily read in such things, had long since know the truth concerning Larten Crepsley). And so the friends part on less than amiable terms, opening the gateway to the other books of the series.
Shan’s writing is far from complex but the subject matter never shies away from the harder subjects: death, good, evil, destiny, so on. Each book falls under 250 pages and takes no more than a few hours to read. Shan never fails to enchant the reader; occasional disgust with little, welcome touches of macabre, and more than a few time yank out one’s heartstrings. Worth the read, as any among Shan’s quasi-cult with tell you.
Final Verdict-3Q-Readable, 5P-Everyone wants to read it