Darren, the vampire's assistant, gets a taste of the city when he leaves the Cirque Du Freak with Evra the snake-boy and Mr. Crepsley. When corpses are discovered corpses drained of blood. Darren and Evra are compelled to hunt down whatever foul creature is committing such horrendous acts.

This was a definite improvement from the last 2 books, Darren is now fully committed to his new life has a half vampire and the responsibilitys that come with that, and it was really interesting learning more about vampires in this world and how the vampire generals and council work, all fascinating revelations. And a long while after this everything goes great, that was until i feel the author realised he needs to branch out from his audience of young boys and shoehorn a love interest for Darren and it was at this point the book lost me. Now i have made it clear many time's im not one for a romantic love interest if it is not needed, and the worst offender of this is forcing it on the reading and being blatantly obvious about it, the character of Debbie is just annoying and I couldn't stand it when she was around, honestly if it wasn't for the bit im about to talk about i would of given this book a lower score. Thankfully the author Brought the story back with its villian! And trust me this was a Stephen king level kind of evil, I was in fear for Ezra and Darren as this being was on another level that we really haven't seen before in this series, and it was because of this and the fast pace of it at the end that I ended up enjoying this book more than i would have. So if you want more blood and guts a real sense of fear and you don't mind a forced love interest then you might survive this book, but the next one well .... I'm not quite sure yet.

4/5 Stars GoodReads ⭐⭐⭐⭐

90/100 Drops of blood

The fact that I've read this books a billion and one times, and can now read them out of order and still 110% understand them says a lot. There aren't many books I can reread as though it's the first time, but this entire series does that to me. I absolutely LOVE these books, every last one of them. I literally want to read them all again right now but I have other things (LIKE A 400+ LONG TBR) to get on with. Alas, it's time to read something else. But I'll come back Darren, I'll always come back.

3.5⭐️

4.25 stars ...

Well, this was absolutely the creepiest Christmas story I've ever read (listened to)! This is a really fun series ... if you're into this kinda thing!

I am absolutely hooked into this series!!!! The first one was just okay, but the second and now third are totally awesome!!! Darren and his story is just so entertaining!!

Darren and his friends are settled in their rolls, but then things pick up and it’s nonstop action until the end. The villain is totally creepy and easy to dislike. Evra is still one of my favorites because he’s just so odd! But there are a couple new characters that I’m really digging from this book also.

Point is, I couldn’t wait to start the next one. In fact, I already have. So I really recommend this to those who enjoy books about vampires that have lots of action with a bit of humor.

A much more enjoyable read than the vampires assistant.
Darren is settling into being a half-vampire a lot more in this book but situations pull on his human side which he holds onto. I enjoyed the brief romantic encounter and the bitter sweet ending.

Things are really starting to take off in this one and I love it! All the best stuff from the last book is expanded upon (worldbuilding, more Evra, Darren and Mr. Crepsley's relationship) and with the introduction of some new characters and concepts it's a wild ride from start to finish. It ends a little suddenly I think, I would've liked another chapter or two, but aside from that it's really great

One of my favourites in the series. Grim, sneaky and plenty of action. Darren bringing the softness out of Mr C throughout.

The setting in the tunnels is eerie and gives the darkness below vibes of the vampaneze.

This is as far as I read as a kid so the next load of books in this are open and full of new stories... Cannot wait.

I loved this book, it really adds lots of depth to the series and the introduction to the vampire world. I also really enjoyed the idea of Darren getting a love intrest, I think it will add lots of lore and plot to the series.

The theme of this book is that it is ok to be different. I say this because the people at the show criticize them because they are freaks but really on the inside they are just as normal.

I don't know why I keep torturing myself by reading this series. Poor plot, awful characterization and the worst writing style ever, are the things that bother me the most.

When I compare this series to Demonata, I can see while both of them have so many flaws, Demonata was so much better than this one. It had a solid story behind all the books and each character had a single book devoted to him/her so I could actually feel something for them when one of them died.

The story goes on so slowly while the writer rushes the relationships between characters. I couldn't understand how Darren fell in "love" with Debbie almost instantly and the love between them wasn't even one of those cheesy, lame loves at first sight. Actually it was nothin. The relationship between Darren and Mr crepsley was so ridiculous that I just wanted to strangle them. If Darren is crepsley's personal assistant he should train Darren but in the whole books crepsley's sleeping. And stupidity of Darren drives me crazy. If I was crepsley I had killed him by now.The only character that I could understand was Evra. He was the coolest one.

Even though I really feel like I'm wasting my time by reading this I can't help myself. There's something in this series like an invisible string that connects me to past. To better times that will never come back and I'm kinda clinging to them by reading the books that I wanted to read back then.

Sadly, this novel wasn't anywhere near as good as the first two. Darren, Mr. Crepsley, and Evra leave the Cirque after an old friend from Mr. Crepsley's past shows up. The trio arrive in a small town and stay at a hotel where the boys joke around and enjoy the wonder of television while Mr. Crepsley goes out at night and says nothing to no one. His secrets become scary when six murdered bodies are discovered in a warehouse near the outskirts of town. Evra and Darren think Mr. Crepsley has gone on a bloodlust killing spree and needs to be staked! They follow him one night and discover a whole new kind of freak!
While this may sound exciting, I found the novel dragged. I really enjoyed the Cirque life and wanted to explore more of it. There was a significant lack in the number of supporting characters, and it seemed that Shan grew bored writing only of the three. He set himself up for dragging moments with only Darren and Evra around to entertain themselves throughout the day and the night. While Darren scores a girlfriend, the introduction of Debbie only complicates matters because it causes paragraph after paragraph of Darren's inner monologue of worrying Debbie will find out the truth about Mr. Crepsley. And who has no reaction whatsoever to a boy with green scales for skin?? Who does that? Apparently, Debbie does.
Evra's character development was wonderful. Reading about the growing bond between the two boys was enjoyable and sweet. I hope Evra takes on a larger role in the later novels.
Overall, I was just not pleased with this third book. There was some suspense in the end, but it was easy to predict the outcome. I still believe number 2 was the best yet!