Darren Shan is the young narrator of this young-adult dark fantasy novel, first in "The Saga of Darren Shan"; just to add a layer of complexity, Darren states in his introduction that his name isn't really Darren Shan. According to our sources, the author also writes adult fantasy as "Darren O'Shaughnessy". In the novel, Darren's a normal schoolkid until he and his friends find a flyer advertising the freak show, Cirque Du Freak. Darren and a friend attend, and find the show to be much more than they had imagined, to the point where Darren becomes obsessed with one of the acts, and makes a serious mistake that ultimately puts him in the hands of a real vampire. This is an engaging mix of the everyday and the believably spooky; beyond some of the Cirque's more inventive acts, there's little new for serious horror buffs, but younger readers should enjoy it.