What I'm Reading: Cirque du Freak, by Darren Shan! Yes, it's awesome, yes, it's a movie now, and yes, it's about vampires. However, DON'T stereotype the vampire genre- these vampires are definitely different from Twilight vamps. Three words: They. Don't. Sparkle. They're also not particularly gorgeous or anything (that doesn't mean they're all hideous, though), and no, they don't drink animal blood. (Well, they can, but... it's complicated.)
It all starts when Darren Shan and his best friend Steve find two tickets to the Cirque du Freak, the self-proclaimed best freak show around. Of course, you'd have to be really twisted to go to one of those... which is exactly why they'd love to see it. But neither of them expects the effects the show will have on them...
So, a series about vampires (that drink human blood and don't sparkle) that doesn't center on romance. It makes you laugh, cry, and throw the book across the room and scream AAAHHHH I HATE YOU, DARREN SHAN!!! and three seconds later scream AAAAHHHHH YOU'RE AMAZING, DARREN SHAN!!! (It's the sign of a really good book.) Twelve new novels to read! Who wouldn't love it?
This is a true story.I don't expect you to believe me- I wouldn't believe it myself if I hadn't lived it- but it is. Everything I describe in this book happened, just as I tell it.The thing about real life is, when you do something stupid, it normally costs you. In books, the heroes can make as many mistakes as they like. It doesn't matter what they do, because everything works out in the end. They'll beat the bad guys and put things right and everything ends up cool.In real life, vacuum cleaners kill spiders. If you cross a busy road without looking, you get whacked by a car. If you fall out of a tree, you break some bones.Real life's nasty. It's cruel. It doesn't care about heroes and happy endings and the way things should be. In real life, bad things happen. People die. Fights are lost. Evil often wins.I just wanted to make that clear before I began.
