این اولین کتاب تخیلی بود که خواندم. به شدت مشتاقم جلد های بعدی را هم بخوانم و به این فکر میکنم که تا بحال چقدر جای این ژانر در کتابخانه م خالی بود.
بنظرم داستان جذاب و گیرایی دارد و اصلا قابل پیش بینی نیست
در ضمن من اگر بودم پشت جلد نمی نوشتم رمان نوجوان چون این کتاب برای هر رده سنی بجز کودکان میتواند جذاب باشد!

۴.۵
حقیقتا بعد از این همه سال که از خوندن این کتاب گذشته بود هنوزم برام جذاب بود...
این مجموعه برای من یادآور دوران خوب ۱۵ ۱۶ سالگیه و جز اولین کتابای فانتزی بود که خوندم...
و واقعا بعد این همه سال هنوزم برام قشنگه

۳.۵ ستاره ⭐
شاید اگه دو سال زودتر خونده بودمش میشد مجموعه موردعلاقم =)
به‌هر حال، جالب بود. ادامش میدم.

this series is so important to me and that's why i'll always give it a five star rating. i've loved reading for as long as i can remember, but this was the first series i truly became obsessed with and invested in. i remember finding the first three books at barnes and noble and convincing my dad to buy them for me. i stayed up all night reading them and actually bought the rest of the books, which was something i didn't get to do very often because we didn't have a lot of money. this was also the first series that actually made me cry, made me scream, made me throw the book across the room. the first series i went and talked to people about, because i loved it so much.

it's not the best series, i can acknowledge that. but it's fun and will always be a comfort read for me.

“The thing about real life is, when you do something stupid, it normally costs you. In books the heroes can make as many mistakes as they like. It doesn't matter what they do, because everything works out in the end. They'll beat the bad guys and put things right and everything ends up cool.
In real life, vacuum cleaners kill spiders. If you cross a busy road without looking, you get whacked by a car. If you fall from a tree, you break some bones.
Real life's nasty. It's cruel. It doesn't care about heroes and happy endings and the way things should be. In real life, bad things happen. People die. Fights are lost. Evil often wins.
I just wanted to make that clear before I begun.”

As a book series that I loved when I was a kid, I've decided to re-read the series to immerse myself in Darren Shan's vampiric life. The first book of the series is strategically placed so that the true adventure may begin.

I enjoyed this when I was younger and now as well

However I do think it’s pretty dark for the age group intended

Easy to read and engrossing.

No sé qué pensar del libro. La forma en la que está escrito (vocabulario simple, oraciones breves y repetitivas, etc.) hace pensar que es una novela para niños de no más de 10 años. Sin embargo, los temas que se tocan y la crueldad de algunas escenas son dignas de una obra para mayores de 16.
Supongo que está pensado para “niños valientes que se atreven a leer horror”, esos chicos a los que R. L. Stine no les alcanza, pero que Stephen King los supera.

Mi edición en particular es sorpresivamente mala. Si bien es un reprint hecho poco antes de que saliera la película, tiene varios errores de tipeo y le faltan varias marcas de diálogo. A veces el personaje deja de hablar y no nos enteramos. O comienza a hablar y nada nos lo avisa. No sé por qué la edición es tan mala si no es la primera, pero me molestó mucho. Espero que la versión en español esté más cuidada.

No es un libro malo, pero tampoco es bueno. No tiene una mala historia, pero tampoco es genial. Los personajes no son malos, pero no causan nada. Creo que le faltó mucho trabajo, que podría haber sido genial con unas cuantas páginas más que nos dieran tiempo de empatizar con los personajes, de aprender más sobre los freaks, de sentir que el texto apuntaba a algo.

Y sí, comprendo que está pensado para lectores mucho más jóvenes que yo, pero incluso la primera vez que leí la obra, cuando todavía estaba en la primaria, me resultó igual de insulsa que ahora. Supongo que esto puede estar relacionado con el hecho de que yo crecí acompañada de clásicos y que este tipo de historias siempre me han resultado un poco tontas.

En pocas palabras, es un libro al que no puedo criticarle casi nada, pero tampoco puedo elogiarle nada.

Pueden leer la reseña completa en mi blog: http://pardonmispanglish.blogspot.com...

3.5 stars ✨

10 years later and I just realized Steve is a justified villain

review by Megsly

*Warning: possible spoilers ahead.*

A few weeks ago, this charming little movie called The Vampire's Assistant came on my television and I, being obsessed with vampires as everyone knows, just had to watch and I was extremely impressed by the originality of the movie so when I unearthed the series, The Saga of Darren Shan, I dove right in.
A Living Nightmare is book one of the The Saga of Darren Shan, otherwise known as Cirque du Freak. It introduces us to Darren Shan, a young boy who's an avid soccer player, has an insane obsession with spiders, and a somewhat bad-boy best friend named Steve. The books are clearly geared towards younger audiences, especially with the main character being so young. I'm under the impression that he's 12 or 13 in the series, due to the fact that he is constantly referred to as a child, by others and by himself.

First off, I'd like to point out that the first book in this series is not very well written. There are tense errors and an extreme number of punctuation errors, but the plot itself is fascinating and quite frankly, I had no problem overlooking the errors while reading. We're introduced to Darren, who seems to have a knack for doing things he probably shouldn't do, usually under the influence of his best friend Steve. First thing they do? Attend a freak show. An extreme freak show. While there, they witness a horrifying wolf-man who bites off a audience member's hand (literally, a wolf man; he's half human, half man. He is by no means a werewolf), a lady who can grow a beard to the floor in seconds, only to retract it once again, a contortionist, a man who two bellies who devours broken glass and Mr. Crepsley, the spider tamer who has a rare and extremely dangerous tarantula named Madam Octa.

Steve, who has an obsession with all things vampire, immediately recognizes Mr. Crepsley as a vampire who's portrait he's seen in an old book. When they go to leave the Cirque du Freak, Steve lags behind, sending Darren on ahead so that he can confront Mr. Crepsley about what he knows. Darren, being the ever inquisitive boy, lingers in the shadows to listen to the exchange, where he hears Steve lay out his life story and beg the vampire to change him into one of them. The vampire refuses, for rather interesting reasons, and Steve makes a vow to destroy him one day. At this point, Darren flees, but in his mind he can only imagine the extreme pleasure he would have at owning Madam Octa. A few nights later, and after very little conversation between him and Steve (Darren is put off by the fact that his best friend would actually desire to become a blood sucking vampire), Darren returns to the circus to steal Madam Octa away from the vampire. Surprisingly enough, he succeeds and returns home with a brightly colored, massive and highly deadly tarantula.

A week or two passes and Darren is slowly mastering the techniques of the flute and doing tricks with Madam Octa, when Steve discovers the spider in his room. One thing leads to another and Steve gets bitten by the deadly spider, leaving him laying near death in a hospital bed. In an effort to save his friend, after the doctors have proclaimed they have no way of curing Steve from the strange ailment that has overcome him, Darren heads off to find Mr. Crepsley and save his friend.

Surprisingly, Mr. Crepsley is waiting for Darren, fully aware of what has transpired and willing to strike a deal. In exchange for saving Steve's life, whom Mr. Crepsley claims is evil, Darren would have to become a half vampire and pledge his life to assisting Mr. Crepsley. Reluctantly, and with much disdain, Darren accepts the situation and becomes a half vampire through an interesting version of vampire to human blood transfusion. His death his faked, and he leaves his family and friends behind to start off a new life as the reluctant assistant to a vampire whom he hates.
But shortly thereafter, Darren discovers that one person didn't fall for the faked death (which was extremely elaborate, it's rather fascinating to read) and is faced with one highly pissed off Steve who accuses Darren of intentionally stealing his dream and making the spider bite him, therefore becoming a vampire in Steve's stead. Threats are made, and Darren's world is further shaken to the point where he has extreme doubts in his own decisions and wonders if it would have been better to just allow Steve to die, therefore leading in to the much better written, and truly awesome second book, The Vampire's Assistant.

Despite the fact that this book had some serious flaws in writing, I truly enjoyed it. I've already devoured the second book, and will save that review for later but I find that this is a series that is worth reading. It's geared towards younger audiences, the characters are surprisingly well developed, and more importantly, are true to their ages. These kids are kids, they act like kids, they talk like kids, they deal with issues as children do so I think the author did a fabulous job keeping true to the ages. Also, the plot intricate but not over powering, and it's an extremely easy read. I read the first two books in one rainy day. I definitely find this to be a book worth picking up, and I hope some of you give the series a chance!

If the only way to save my life is to put the antidote into your mouth, gargle it, and then transfer it to my mouth… you can go ahead and just let the poison take me

بعد از ۷ سال از خوندنش، دارم دوباره این مجموعه رو میخونم. :>