Cirque Du Freak: A Living Nightmare

Cirque Du Freak #1: A Living Nightmare...
by Darren Shan
Little, Brown & Co., 2002

Genre: Horror

Honors:

• Booklist 04/15/01
• School Library Journal 05/01/01
• Voice of Youth Advocates (VOYA) 04/01/01

Review: This is the first volume in the saga of Darren Shan's diary chronicling his journey into the world of the night dwellers: vampires. When Darren and his friend, Steve, score tickets to an illegal freak show, Darren discovers that his friend knows a little too much about the world of vampires, as he is able to spot one working in the show--and that he wants to join them! But before Darren can face Steve's dark intentions, another problem arises: a telekinetic spider at the show becomes the object of Darren's intense obsession, and his desire to possess the spider for a pet causes him to go down a path that alters the lives of him and Steve in ways he never in his wildest dreams would have imagined, forcing Darren to give up his humanity in order to protect the humanity of others. In the tradition of gothic novels and thrillers, Shan draws readers into the dark world of a nightmare-come-true with suspense, gore, and a little bit of humor and fun.

Opinion: Okay, I have been getting requests from students for this series for many months, and while the library I ran did not have any titles in the collection, I considered for a long time whether or not to put Cirque Du Freak in the library and give all students access to it. It sounded like a very mature and gruesome series, but now that I have read the first book I feel that it is a series that is like a step up from Goosebumps. The thrill of the suspense and the sense of evil lurking around the next corner is what makes the series a page turner and a fun and easy read for tweens or all ages.

Ideas: Cirque Du Freak would make a great contemporary depiction of a freak show to include in a lecture about the history of freak shows. The novel makes some strong claims about the conditions of freaks that performed in these circus-like shows, and I would get a kick out of researching the subject and comparing the characters in Shan's story to those that have been documented in past shows.