Cirque du Freak (The Saga of Darren Shan No.1) [ペーパーバック]

'fast paced and compelling, full of satisfying macabre touches -- Cirque du Freak explores the powerful fascination of the dangerous and unnatural and also, movingly, the obligations of friendship' J. K. Rowling THE SAGA OF DARREN SHAN BOOK 1 Darren goes to a banned freak show with his best mate Steve. It's the wonderfully gothic Cirque du Freak where weird, frightening half human/half animals appear who interact terrifyingly with the audience. Darren -- a spider freak -- 'falls in love' with Madam Octa -- an enormous tarantala owned by the circus proprietor. Darren determines to steal the spider so that he can train it to perform amazing deeds. But his daring theft goes horrible wrong. The spider bites his best mate and Darren has to sell his soul to an evil vampire to get the antidote. Something out of the ordinary is set against the background of children's normal lives to chilling effect. Atmospheric, funny, realistic, moving and...terrifying.

The chilling Saga of Darren Shan, the ordinary schoolboy plunged into the vampire world. THE SAGA OF DARREN SHAN BOOK 1 Darren goes to a banned freak show with his best mate Steve. It's the wonderfully gothic Cirque Du Freak where weird, frightening half human/half animals appear who interact terrifyingly with the audience. Darren -- a spider freak -- 'falls in love' with Madam Octa -- an enormous tarantala owned by Mr Crepsley. Darren determines to steal the spider so that he can train it to perform amazing deeds. But his daring theft goes horribly wrong and Darren finds himself having to make a bargain with a creature of the night. Something out of the ordinary is set against the background of children's normal lives to chilling effect. Atmospheric, funny, realistic, moving and! terrifying.

Darren Shan seems like your average boy--he likes playing football with his mates, passing notes in class and loves spiders. Then, one day, his best mate Steve gets tickets for a banned freak show and Darren starts experiencing things that no average boy would dream of. At the Freak show he sees a limb-chewing wolf man, a woman who can grow a beard in front of your very eyes, a snake boy and a goat-eating tarantula called Madame Octa. But what about the mysterious people in blue-hooded robes whose faces you never see? And is Mr Crepsley really a vampire?

Don't be deceived by the facetious tone of the narrator, this book will have you screaming out in revulsion and horror. Wrap yourself up in your duvets and get prepared to be scared. This is outrageously gruesome:

Anyway, that's enough of an introduction. If you're ready, let's begin. If this was a made-up story, it would begin at night, with a storm blowing and owls hooting and rattling noises under the bed. But this is a real story, so I have to begin where it really started ... It started in the toilet.

Cirque du Freak is Darren Shan's first novel and the first in a series highlighting Darren's adventures and misadventures. You'll be baying for blood if you miss out.

And, remember, it's all true. (Age 10 and over) --Nicola Perry

VAMP IT UP IN THE NEW MILLENNIUM!!
We're at the start of something big ... something dangerous ... something deadly. The Saga Of Darren Shan is going to take us places we've never been before, places of darkness and terror and doom. It's going to introduce us to many strange and fascinating characters, some of whom are true and helpful, some of whom are deceitful and murderous. The difficulty will be telling them apart, because in the darkness it's hard to spot the difference between good and evil. The world of Darren Shan is a harsh world, a testing world, a cruel world. It's a place of poisonous spiders, savage wolf-men, insane killers; a domain of magical, powerful beings, of freak shows, of underworld tunnels and organisations. It's a world where death stalks silently by the sides of every character - reaching out to snatch them whenever it chooses, in the blink of an eye, the beat of a heart, the baring of a set of teeth. CIRQUE DU FREAK is the start of the adventure. In it, an ordinary boy called Darren Shan steps through a doorway into a world of nightmares. I hope you step through with him - he's going to need the support of loyal and honest friends in the lonely years ahead. We're at the start of something big ... the path in front of us is long and bloody ... I don't know if we're ever going to make it back ...

Born in London in 1972, Darren O'Shaughnessy [writing as Darren Shan] moved to Limerick with his parents and younger brother. Returned to London to study Sociology and English then worked for a TV cable company. His first adult novel Ayuamarca has been published by Orion and his writing has been likened to Clive Barker and Iain Banks. He is now a full-time writer of TV scripts and novels. Cirque du Freak is his first title for children.