Cirque du Freak

What an incredible disappointment.

With a movie deal, rave reviews, and even an endorsement from J.K. Rowling on the cover, I wholeheartedly expected—well, something. Something bigger, something better, something much more extraordinary. All I found in Darren Shan’s novel Cirque du Freak: A Living Nightmare, however, was an enormous letdown.

I couldn’t help expecting so much; I’ve been so overcome by so many wonderful young adult books lately that the expectation for greatness just sort of accompanies every book’s spine—especially if it’s one that’s featured on a shelf proclaiming, “If you liked X (Harry Potter, Septimus Heap, Percy Jackson, etc.), you’ll love this book!” And this one had a great premise, too—a story about some teenage boys who discover wonders, magic, and mayhem with a plethora of extraordinary characters in a modern-day “freak show.” Cool, right?

And the characters themselves—well, many of them—don’t disappoint, either. Shan has created some really intriguing creatures and people with amazing abilities, talents, and features. If I planned on reading any other books in the series, I would certainly do so to simply see what happens with these people from the cirque.

But I don’t plan on reading any further—not even after seeing the film.

The main characters in the book are extremely boring. Even the troublemaker, who wishes to become a vampire (spoilers ahead), is pretty dull, without much of a personality. In the film, we are given a few more details about the boys than we’re provided with in the first book, but both prove to be uninteresting at best. I always have to care about characters to follow them wherever they go, and I could really care less about those in Shan’s book—even the somewhat likeable main character, named after Shan himself.

The book had some scary premises—death, an arm being torn off and sewn back into place, vampires, etc.—but was told in a third or fourth grade voice, complete with plenty of annoying exclamation marks and shallow narration. The combination simply didn’t work. Had Shan kept his very cool ideas, interesting characters, and simply upped the ante on the main character’s voice, I would definitely be reading further. He was simply to annoying, however, to follow.

Then there’s the dangers present within the story. Personal responsibility is stressed, which is good—Darren steals a spider and must atone for his mistake. However, his entire fate is then sealed from the single act, after which he bargains with a vampire to save the life of his best friend, who turns out to be evil with “bad blood.” Again, this scenario is interesting alone, but as it’s told in the story it simply doesn’t provide the reader with enough depth. It all sort of falls on top of each other piece by piece; it literally feels like a long introduction into a book—which makes sense, since it’s the introduction of a series; however, introductions should only last so long before we really get into some action and real adventure.

Perhaps the next book (and subsequent books after that) is far better than the first; if anyone has an opinion to share, I would be willing to change my mind and give it a chance if it’s truly any good. But until then, I think I’ll move on and try out a new series altogether.