As a stand-alone book this is a 4. As a member of this franchise it’s a 3.5. While thé fantasy and horror elements were exceptional it took a solid half the book to really get going. I enjoyed the adventure but in the grand scheme of the franchise, it’s a little too side quest. CURSE YOU GOODREADS FOR NO .5s

I remembered this series of books was one of my reasons as a child to go to the libraries!
enjoyed it at that time

Darren Shan the half vampire prince, somehow looks like a cute boy in this book. His adventure this time around was mostly alongside Harkat Mulds, who previously was or in the future would be the dead Kurda Smahlt. How? As Mr Tiny said, 'time is relative'. And if you have read one or two Darren Shan's before, you would understand,...or not understand, why all the confusion. Anyway, in this particular book I read but forgot where to find the description on Harkat. I got it here conveniently stated in the prologue of the next book I'm reading, Cirque Du Freak Sons of Destiny. It says, "Harkat Mulds... one of Mr Tiny's little people... Little People are grey-skinned, stitched-together, short, with large green eyes, no nose, and ears sewn beneath the flesh of their heads. They are created from the remains of dead people..." How about that? Can you imagine what Harkat looks like? Me? Nope. I don't find the motivation to push this old brain to visualize to that extreme corner.

this is the beach episode of the series but it's a lake of souls or maybe an ova between seasons as it adds little to nothing to the main plot but keeps you entertained while you just reaalllyyy want to know what's gonna happen next in the main plot

harkat trys to figure out what his past was like. do you think that darren and harkat will surevive this journy while they are facing off against monsters and vampaneze.Harkat and darren went to the past and figured out who harkat really was. But it was kind of hard for them because they had to fight dragons and monsters and giant spiders. it was a very hard challenge for them but they didnt die and they figured out who harkat was in the past. i thought they was both going to die when theyu was fightin gthe allegators in the lake. But they didnt. And i thought they was going to die when they was fighting the dragon by the lake od souls because the former pirate died. He jumped in the lake of souls and the dragon only doesnt attack when you are near the lake of souls and no one dies in the lake of souls. but they tryed running away and that didnt work. so they stood there and fought for a few minutes. Then the dragon just flew away to another location. So they got lucky right there and survived.

I think I may have lost my desire to finish this series. I DNF’d this one about 60% of the way through.

After the death in the last book, and then this one feeling like a giant side quest, I just don’t think I am in a place where I want to continue the series.

I went into this over a year ago because I remember loving the movie when I was younger. Of course, the movie was very different to the series, but. Nonetheless, I really enjoyed it and it introduced me to the book series. There are definitely some good parts in the series, but also parts that I wonder if they were only introduced to prolong the storyline. Either way, I am glad that I read what I did.

I may come back to finish the last two remaining books, but I’m not sure yet. We’ll see!

One more book finished. This, honestly, was one of my favourites in the series so far. This and the 5th one with the trials of death.

Since I was a kid'o I enjoyed books and tv shows with characters going through puzzles that lead to other clues, with things to fight along the way and situations to get out of. So Darren's and Harkat's adventure in this one was amazing!

And that twist towards the end of who Harkat was actually. Mr Tiny really knows how to play with time!

Ever since I started this series, going throgh all the gory details and gross stuff, nothing made me cringe. Until I got to the creature that was called Grotesque! All those gross details of its appeareance and the stench it had, but letting those people lick him and when he devoured that kid. JESUS! And I was eating when I listened to that part.

Anyway, a very fun and amazing book, plus bonus points for the audiobook cover, one of the most gorgeous ones so far.

Now, two more books to go and the series will come to an end. I am already sad that it's going to finish, to be honest. But I could always re-listen to them whenever I'll feel like.

5 stars!

دارن با زیرکی داستان رو نوشته . در حالی که روند کلی داستان داشت افت میکرد و خواننده با توجه به اتفاقات آخر کتاب 9 دوست داشت بدونه واقعا چی به سر دارن و استیو میاد، دارن داستان رو عوض میکنه!شما رو میبره به یک سرزمین ناشناخته که باید دیر یا زود بهتون بشناسونه و چه وقتی بهتر از حالا؟
ضمن اینکه داستان یک ماجراجویی به تمام معناست !

“Death was on the cards that day, but would it be ours….”

You have horrible, recurring nightmares everyday. As every night passes, they get longer, and worse. You are going crazy. Vampires, supernatural freaks with much more strength than humans, have to chain and hold you down at night so you don't murder anyone. That is what your friend is going through. He must go on a journey to find who he was in his past life. Will you go and risk your life, or will you stay back with your vampire clan.
Darren Shan is back again in Cirque Du Freak: Lake of Souls. This time, his friend Harkat Mulds needs to find who he was in his past life. A man by the name of Mr. Tiny teleports them to an unknown place where Darren and Harkat must discover who Harkat was before. The journey is as dangerous as ever, with obstacles around every twist and turn. Will the luck of the vampires be with them?
Now that you know about the plot of the book, I will tell you more about the characters and the theme. If you have read the past books in the series, you probably know about the characters, if not, you should probably start at the first book, “Cirque Du Freak: A Living Nightmare”. Darren Shan is a half-vampire who was raised by Mr. Crepsley, a vampire. Darren’s life has been rocky and rough, he is a prince of the vampire clan, which consists of a few thousand vampires, and he is in a war, The War of Scars, with an evil vampire clan called the Vampaneze. His life has always been as risky as any, and life-threatening occasions always seem to have some very slim-chance lucky ending. Another character from in the series, Harkat Mulds, stars in this book. He is always in the background of the story, but at times he is the most important character. He is someone who was brought back to life in an inhuman form, known as a Little Person. A new character in this book, Spits Abrams, has a weird personality to him. He always had a suspicious manner about him. He was a pirate, but when abandoned he built a shack and drank a lot of poteen, and alcoholic beverage made from potatoes.
The theme of this book wasn't too hard to find, it was mentioned throughout the whole book. Friendship can make you do anything. "If you step through after Harkat, you might never come back. Is your friend worth such an enormous risk?" Said Mr. Tiny, the guy who teleported them. Darren said yes to this, knowing that he had to join Harkat. Without joining Harkat, he would be alone for possibly years.
Now onto the actual review. There are a couple of complaints that I'd like to share. First off, this book was COMPLETELY unnecessary in the series. I wouldn't mind if it was a subplot of another book, but an entire novel dedicated just to this? Maybe Darren Shan could have spent more time at the end, explaining who Harkat was and how it would affect him. I have a minor complaint based on this point. How does knowing who he was in his past life stop his nightmares about dragons and such? This is a fictional book, so I'll let that last question slide.
My second complaint is this predictable nature of the book. Use this formula to predict what will happen at the end of the book. X conflict against Y main character(s) and Z protagonist(s) will always end in an almost certain defeat for the main character(s), but the “Luck of the Vampires” theorem states that any conflict that could end Darren's life, especially if the conflict is almost certain to kill Darren, will always flip at the last second and leave Darren with his life, saying that the “Luck of the Vampires” was with him. Try this on any conflict in this book, like the fight with the black panther. Plug your information in at the formula above.
My only positive reviews about this book are that Darren Shan, the author, is not afraid to let his imagination run loose and this book was entertaining. The grotesque was quite weird and interesting. I would like to know how Darren Shan can think of these things! This lead to me loving the unnecessary but random plot. Before I give my conclusion, WOW THAT PLOT TWIST WAS INSANE!!!
Adding up the positives and negatives, I have to give this book three stars. Although it was fun to see Darren and Harkat throughout their journey, a whole entire book dedicated to it watered down some of the action. The repetitive nature of the book really got on my nerves at times, but without it the book would be boring because of the way it was written. The plot twist at the end was slightly confusing, but it was still very surprising and actually fun to think about.
Would I recommend it? Yes. Although poorly written, it was an interesting experience for me as a reader. That's it for my review, and I hope you have made the choice to read this book/series!

the best one so far .... i loved The lake of souls what an amazing place ^^

Tenhle díl mě zatím bavil asi nejmíň ze všech. Teda až na konec, ale to se dalo předpokládat...

definitely one of my favorites of the series. the world building and creatures were super cool. again, i would love to see this be brought to the screen. the creatures would be insane to see.

the time traveling aspect of it was kinda wild. i’m not sure i completely like that.