These books are strange because some of them you really like and some of them are just ok. It's still hard to see what the bigger picture is going to lead up to, though.

This one focuses more on a mystery of who lied to the school and forced Darren to school, and which Vampaneze is attacking people again.

We get to revisit the character of Debbie, who I really enjoyed in her first appearance in the third book. This time, she's quite a bit older and is actually Darren's teacher!! But he is quite selfish with his actions and doesn't take what it would look like for a TEACHER to date a STUDENT, even if the student is technically the same age as you but appears younger.

I really don't remember reading this one the first time, so I did enjoy it. I hope for more action in the upcoming books though!

I forgot how frustrating it is to read these as single volumes and not trilogies ... it just goes straight into the next one, doesn't have an actual ending, just stops. come on lol...

that aside! this book is where things start getting really juicy and I love it. All the familiar faces are *so. good.* I've read them so many times now so I'm not really surprised anymore, but I'm always brought back to being 14 and screaming the whole time because the crazy train doesn't really stop. just fantastic!

Allies of the Night is the eight book in the Cirque du Freak series. While Darren, Mr. Crepsley, and Harkat are still searching for the Lord of the Vampaneze, mysterious killings bring them back to Mr. Crepsley's home town. But something suspicious is going on. The only thing is, will our heroes figure it out before it's too late?

Plot

Let’s be real: the plot is being drawn out and spread too thin. The whole vampire/vampaneze war is interesting. So is the quest to find and kill the Lord of the Vampaneze. But a half-vampire in school? An entire book full of the protagonists searching for their enemies? These are things that are not interesting. This is the third book in a row that I’ve given two stars to. This is the same problem I had with The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod. The overall plot was interesting enough but it was spread out too much and became boring really quickly. Same thing’s happening in Allies of the Night. Same as with Hunters of the Dusk. It was mostly boring with a bit of action at the end.

Writing

The writing has gotten boring because nothing is going on. It is good quality writing, I give Shan that much. Shan’s writing has always been good, except when there’s no action going on. For the life of him, the man cannot write mundane scenes very well. And this book was full of them, just like the last two.

Characters

I’m starting to dislike Darren a little more. He’s around twenty-five but he’s still making bullheaded decisions. Yes, he’s matured as far as fighting goes, and how he views humanity, but he still makes these naïve choices that are not becoming of someone his actual age.

I like Harkat Mulds a bit more. He’s not afraid to speak up against the questionable things Darren is planning on doing. The relatshionship between him and Darren could have been shown more, though. This book revolved a lot around Darren so I don’t really have an opinion on the other characters.

Things I Didn't Like

The whole school thing was pretty pointless in my opinion and I didn’t like it. I don’t really see a reason for it and it feels like a waste of a book. It was also an insanely easy predicament to get out of. Mr. Crepsley could have said that someone forged all that stuff, which they did. They could have moved out into the woods near the town or travelled to a close town altogether. The school plot is my main gripe.

Diversity

Debbie’s back! So that brings the female and racial diversity count back up to a total of one. Yipee. Downside, however, is that Debbie eventually just becomes the damsel in distress. Take that how you will. That’s about all as far as this section goes.

Overall

This entire book was boring. I cannot put it more simply than that. Nothing really happened except at the end. You can’t have the action happen at the end while making the reader to struggle through three-fourths of the book and expect them to be happy about it. I know I wasn’t. I’ve already read this series once and there’s a reason I couldn’t remember what happened after The Vampire Prince. It’s because between that and The Lake of Souls was too boring to remember! I’ll trudge through the next few books, but if they continue this way then I definitely won’t be happy about it.

Here is a link to my notes.

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من فکر می‌کردم استیو ارباب شبح‌واره‌ها باشه. :-"

Cirque Du Freak: Allies of the Night was the first book I read in the series, and I have to give it 4 out of 5 stars. Firstly, I would recommend this book to anyone who loves suspense, surprises, and vampires. Darren, the main character, is a vampire prince who ages at 1/5 of the rate of a normal human being. He stays in a hotel with his guardian, Mr. Crepsly, and freakish friend, Harkat. This group sticks together in the city to fight off "vampaneze," AKA extremely agile vampire creatures that seek to kill humans.
The reported killings in the city stop for a while, and the group wants to flee. However, the vampaneze have just been carefully throwing rocks in the gears of Darren's plan to stop them. From putting Darren's love interest in danger to tricking him into thinking his old friend, Steve, is there to help him, these creatures are praying on his downfall. Overall, this book kept my attention the whole time. If I had read the previous 7 books in the series, though, I would've been a lot less confused in the beginning. I fully recommend this book to anyone who loves vampires!

درسته كه اتفاقات جديدى رخ داد و حتى خيانتى كه غير قابل پيش بينى بود ولى خط داستانى خيلى يكنواخت بود تا اينجا تنها جلدى كه خوندنش يكم حوصله ميخواست ...

داستان در این کتاب کند پیش میره و خیلی رو اعصاب خواننده هست .

After reading the first book in the Zom-B series, the Cirque du Freak series still holds my interest, but it doesn't seem as dark or gory as it used to be. The story continues from past books, and brings the reader along with Darren as he searches for the Vampaneze Lord. Throughout the book, you wonder who the Vampaneze Lord is and why Darren seems to be given special attention by him.

This book takes the reader back to a location and characters that have been mentioned before. While Darren still looks like a teenager, everyone he used to know is an adult. This makes it a little difficult for him to explain why he still looks the same as he did years ago. His looks also get him in trouble when he does not appear to be going to school, even though there is an application for him.

Many mysteries are brought up throughout the book, with very few of them being resolved. This tactic draws the reader into the rest of the series.

Author: Darren Shan
Publisher: Little, Brown Young Readers
Publication Date: 2002

OHMYGOD SO MANY GOOD PLOT TWISTS IN THIS! My love for this series still hasn't changed. Probably one of the best Vampire series I've ever read! I AM SO PISSED BECAUSE OF THE ENDING THOUGH!!!!

***Spoiler Alert***
I'm quite disappointed in how this book turned out. I really thought that at least Mr Crepsley would be able to figure out that Steve really was up to no good. I get that Darren thought that he was his friend but for everybody to just let him just tag along just because he saved Darren's life, that doesn't make any sense to me. It was too many things that seemed coincidental and lo and behold it was Steve all along. How they didn't see that coming I'll never understand.
Poor Debbie she is always under attack by the vampaneze. Hopefully in the next book they'll be able to get her back alive but this is the second time they've let the vampaneze Lord go. They have one more time and then they are doomed.
Hopefully they'll use some of their ancient vampire sense to at least try to be more perceptive to what's coming before it happens. This was totally predictable and none of them saw it coming. They were way too trusting to say they are in the middle of a war.
So disappointed in the characters!!!

This was very interesting volume as we had not one, but 3 different characters from the past show up. I knew we'd be seeing one of them again, the other two I wasn't as sure about. The war is still on between the Vampires and the Vampeneze, and now Darren's past has shown up to haunt him. He even ends up back in school, at least for a little while.

Overall a strong volume with some twists that I did see coming, and others I didn't. This series has exceeded my expectations.

Still not sure about Vancha, no frogs this time either :(