"Cirque Du Freak"

 

Cirque Du Freak: A Living Nightmare written be Darren Shan, published by HarperCollins.

This book is about a boy named Darren Shan, yes I know, the main character of the book is the author of the book. The boy is just a ordinary kid who really likes spiders, which happens to get him into some trouble, that will change the course of his entire life. Darren and a group of his friends find a flyer of this freak show called Cirque Du Freak, hints the name of the book. They think it looks exciting and decide to go despite what horrible things their teacher tells them about it. You can only buy 2 tickets per flyer though. So the boys had to play a little game to see who went, since there is 4 of them. Steve is already one of the people going since he was the one who got the flyer back from their teacher. Steve is Darren's best friend. Since Darren is the main character its obvious he wins the little game. Steve and Darren go to the broken down part of town to get the tickets and go to the show. Little does Darren know that hes going to end up seeing a beautiful spider, that he must have. Severe consequences will follow after the taking of Mr. Crepsley's spider Madam Octa, you'll have to read the book to find out. The theme of the book is boy vs. world.

I really enjoyed this book because it is dark and about a demented circus of extraordinary people, even a wolf man.  There's also a strong message within the book, that one choice you make can change your life for the worst. "In real life, bad things happen. People die. Fights are lost. Evil often wins."(6) "I'm sure there are people who came tonight thinking this was a joke. Maybe they thought our freaks would be people in masks, or harmless misfits. This is not so ! Every act you see tonight is real. Each performer is unique. And none are harmless."(61) The movie The Vampires Assistant was based on the Cirque Du Freak books, but the movie was terrible. The movie tried to combine book 1 with 2, which didn't work out to well. They changed to much within the movie to the point where it was almost nothing like the book. This book made me realize that their are just somethings in life that are truly out of your control, and that there are severe reactions to your careless actions, so think of the possibilities before you act.