I had first read this book back when I was in middle school and stumbled upon it again on audible plus. Honestly it still holds up in my opinion, it’s a very easy and an extremely engrossing read.

This has got to be one of the best books I have ever read! I used to hate reading I found it a chore. I only read school books. This book changed that normally I'm not normally into horror books but Darren Shan is different he is such a cool and likeable person. I reccomend this book to anyone who likes reading, this book is a great start to a series I loved. I re-read the series all the time. If you read it, then I am 86% sure you will love it.

I had watched the Cirque du Freak movie and found it enjoyable. It isn't Shakespeare but I thought it was fun. The book was better and I enjoyed the read. I will continue in the series and see if I like the rest of the series.

I have been looking forward to reading this book for forever. I have read so many great reviews, and it was even endorsed by my favorite author, JK Rowling. I was truly expecting to love every moment of the book. But I was not prepared for the lack of entertainment I found in this book. I am not sorry I read it, just sorry the book didn't live up to my expectations.

This book is about Darren, a boy who seems to have a decent heart - Kind of. He and his friends seem pretty normal for young boys. They play soccer, hate school, and are interested in the weird and macabre. Pretty normal stuff. Then Darren and his best friend Steve get into a freak show, and their lives change forever when a spider and a vampire are introduced into their lives.

The characterizations in this book were very inconsistent. In one passage, it seemed these main characters should be in their teens, in other scenes they seemed no older than maybe 6th graders. No real description was ever given about any of them. I understand that the author was "protecting" the identity of everyone int he book because it was a "real" story, but some descriptions of the characters would have been nice - as well as some character traits that stayed with them throughout the entire book.
(possible spoilers to follow)
There are several key things in this book that bug me. One - nothing was ever explained as to how the Tall Man knew so much about these boys when they first entered the show. It was like this whole thing was planned from the beginning, but even Mr Crepsley admitted that he hadn't considered anything special about Darren until after he had stolen the spider...so there is one major inconsistency.

Two - apparently, Steve is evil. We are told so, but NOTHING in the book before this was mentioned showed us that Steve was anything more than a normal boy. So we are all just supposed to believe that this kid is evil on the word of a vampire - who we are also just TOLD is not evil. UGH.

Three - Like I said before, the characterizations of the boys just don't fit.

Four - There are some MAJOR errors in the editing. I know I don't have an original copy, so why were some of these more than obvious issues not corrected in later issues?

Five - They had to fake Darren's death (this is a two part complaint on my part) because if they don't, they will never be free because his family will never stop looking for him. Great, I get that. But the vamp describes how he is going to snap his neck. But that won't kill him because it is only deadly when the spinal cords are severed, usually in the break. BUT he breaks Darren's neck and THEN throws him out the window? SERIOUSLY?? He has a broken neck, and he throws him down to the ground from an upstairs window. No worries about severing the cords there... THEN the doctors pronounce him dead and have him buried. The vamp talks about worry of an autopsy...which the author clearly thinks children should understand, but there was NO embalming process? What was that too much for the kids? But this was described as a pretty gruesome horror story... Guess the kids don't need to know about that or any of the other parts of burying a body? OH GEEZ...

It just got worse and worse as I read. I wouldn't have finished this book, except that there are so many lately that I haven't finished because I was disappointed in them, that I figured, this was a quick enough read and I would just grin and bear it. I thought I would get a slightly scary story, but the Series of Unfortunate Events was much more bang for my buck on the creepiness scale, and at least if things didn't make sense in that series, that's because it wasn't supposed to. That whole series was over the top on purpose. This one was over the top and it seems mostly by accident because the author didn't really pay much attention to details, or is not giving his audience nearly enough credit. Overall 2 and 1/2 stars.

Cirque Du Freak = The Saga of Darren Shan, Darren Shan
The Saga of Darren Shan (known as Cirque du Freak: The Saga of Darren Shan in the United States) is a young adult 12-part book series written by Darren Shan (pen name of Darren O'Shaughnessy) about the struggle of a boy who has become involved in the world of vampires. As of October 2008, the book has been published in 33 countries around the world, in 30 different languages.
عنوان: قصه های سرزمین اشباح : جلد یک 1 : سیرک عجایب؛ نویسنده: دارن شان؛ مترجم: سوده کریمی؛ فرزانه کریمی؛ تهران، قدیانی، کتابهای بنفشه؛ 1382؛
دارن شان برای معرفی خویش در نخستین صفحه از داستان میگوید: وقتی بچه بودم خیلی دلم میخواست از چیزی بترسم، از عنکبوت خوشم میآمد، مامان و بابای دارن شان در نه سالگی به او یک رطیل هدیه میدهند، تا نگهداری کند. مینویسد: قصه اش بیشتر شرح یک کابوس است. اما چرا این فراموشکار این کتابها را خواندم، دلم میخواست بدانم بچه هایم چرا این کتابها را میخوانند، چه چیزی در این داستانها توجه آنها را جلب کرده، پس از آنها مجموعه را خواندم، آن هم دوبار، انگار نوجوان شده بودم، هنوز هم کتابهای فانتزی و نوجوانان را دنبال میکنم. ا. شربیانی

“A world of "if"s, but it would make no difference. If I could go back in time... but I couldn't. The past was behind me. The best thing now would be to stop looking over my shoulder. It was time to forget the past and look to the present and future.”

I've now read three of this series. I can't say it's my favorite Young Adult series since I have so many to read still. Based on what I've read so far, if they stay this good or improve, I'd have to answer that question with, "Yes, the Cirque Du Freak collection is my favorite YA".

Really, one owes it to themselves to read this. The protagonist is a young boy and there are no bizarre twisted love stories or love triangles here. There is a touch of youth, the circus, a truly incredible unique world setting, and the tests and bonds of friendship, family, and faith.

At first the plot seemed too young to me, the writing slightly awkward, too childlike and easy to zip through, to where I was wondering that the age was TOO young. However, almost midway through the author picked it up and the tale became absolutely fascinating with improved literary style. Also the author employed too many exclamation marks at first - *shudders* - even in YA and Children's tales this just shouldn't be allowed. After the first chapter or two the author seemed to get more comfortable and settled in with a more relaxed, realistic tone.

Basically, for a book this was good, for it's age group? Exceptional.

Mixed with a fun lightness but also a depressing darkness, the story starts out much simpler than it ends. In fact, there is a heart-wrenching scene for the parents in store, which made me cry, as I couldn't imagine much that would be more awful to endure. Fun lightness comes primarily at the beginning before Darren's life changes forever -- fun with friends, time outside spent playing sports and planning on trips to the "secret circus."

Character wise Darren is a worthy protagonist. He's a teenage boy with the normal sort of angst, a realistic innocence and loyalty to friends, a healthy dose of dread and fear. The vampire in the story may sound unattractive to any who prefer darker themed menaces. Not a menace at all, he's kind enough (although reclusive and not particularly fond of children.) The boy, the vampire, the spider, and the group of circus freaks are all forced together in unusual circumstances which don't end up pleasantly. Steve as the friend was a multi-leveled character, but I was irked at the end with him because I hate misconceptions and miscommunications in stories.

I'm sure many of you have seen the movie. I have also, and way before reading the book. I only purchased the book mainly for my son, Gage, although I was always curious about it myself. It follows the movie faithfully at first, but then twists off in completely different directions. I think perhaps the movie invented many scenes, and took others from novels that are farther down in the series. Since it did not include what's in the second and third book, I'm not really sure. The movie was good, fun for kids, but the book is much better with a richer world.

Ended up slapping on a four star rating for the weak beginning, which was a slight struggle to continue with, the awkwardness as Shan started out with the writing style, and some of the inconsistencies. However, this one ended up being an addiction to be consumed the farther I went, the more I had, and it also ended with a pretty hefty cliffhanger. It's good I had the second ready and rearing to go!

Cirque Du Freak is really popular. I even saw a jock at my school reading them, which is quite surprising.. So, I got this book last night, and I'm done. And I loved it! At first I read the introduction, and I was like, wow, this is real? Now, I do not think it is. Because well, vampires, and a huge colorful spider named Madam Octa? Yeah, I don't think so. But, I loved the characters.
So, I watching one of those book hauls/reviews on YouTube. The videos with the username chapter chicks. Yeah, well I was watching the review, and she said the writing was very immature, and too many explanation points. Yeah, um, no. The writing might be immature to her, but the writing is just very fast paced and it doesn't drag on, and I like that. I like to get straight to the point and then BAM that's it.
Overall, yes I recommend this book to all ages! It's a quick read. Your never bored either. There is always something exciting going on the book. I'm not going to say anything about what the book what about because I do not want to ruin it, but yeah. Read the book.

There are twelve books in the Cirque du Freak series by Darren Shan and I read my way through all of them in about three weeks as a child! I absolutely loved them and was totally immersed in the world created by Darren Shan from the get go. Recently, I decided to re-read some of my childhood favourites, this being one of them and I was not disappointed. Cirque du Freak was everything I remembered. Creepy, full of gore and suspense, leaving you wanting more! All the characters are incredibly unique and developed. The story as a whole is different from comparison novels and you can tell even from the first book that there are many more books to come. Shan has written the books whilst planning ahead. Small details that suggest further meaning crop up later in the series and it is sheer genius and talent. All the main characters are male which some people might have an issue with. There's a younger sister character with a small part and I enjoyed the siblings' relationship, but aside from her and a few mothers, this is mostly a series about boys. Did that bother me? Not at all. I do not think this impacts the story in the slightest and I think both boys and girls would enjoy reading Cirque du Freak.There is gore, which I enjoyed immensely. Also, some humour thrown in so it wasn't completely gross and disgusting all the time. It was a nice way to break things up so it didn't feel dark and bleak every step of the way. I was lucky enough to meet the author at Edinburgh Book Festival in 2019 and every sentence on every page of this book oozes his personality, humour and fantastic mind!

Years ago I watched the film and fell in love with this series. It was a shame the movies never continued because I was enchanted and adored it. I had a Harry Potter-mania type love for it. Why wouldn't I? I'm a girl obsessed with Halloween and all things spooky!

As an adult, it's weird picking this book up. I can totally tell I'd be obsessed with this book series as a middle grader. It's a real shame I never grabbed it back then. It would have totally fit on my shelves next to my Goosebumps and Bunnicula!

Darren Shan being the author and main protagonist is interesting. I did read this series out of order, so it was weird knowing what happens next, but it was still good! I can totally see why middle graders loved this series and I can see why it was so popular. I want to keep reading its because it's fun, mysterious and full of frights. It has a male lead, which is different from what I normally get, so it also made reading it a bit more interesting. A vampire tale told by a male becoming a vampire and not a girl chasing after them? Not my norm! Oh, and it's dark. I love that!

Overall, I really liked this book. It's got a whimsical tale with lots of spooky lore and mysteries that will surely be expanded upon. I want to see how the world of Cirque Du Freak works and what will become of Steve.

Four out of five stars.

به شدت دلم برای قلم دارن شان تنگ شده بود، خیلی خوشحالم این مجموعه رو شروع کردم امیدوارم جلدای بعدی هم دوست داشته باشم.

LOVE love love when middle grade books get a little too gory and disturbing

So good! This is exactly what horror/fantasy book/series for kid should be. It have good characters, it's fast pace, have some dark enough stuff and a really intriguing storyline! I can wait to read the next one! Well done!