Cirque Du Freak starts out when a scout leader is walking home from a scout meeting. He begins to hear twigs snap around him. Soon there was a vampire and a young boy. The young boy breathed on his hand and put it over the scout leader's nose and mouth killing him. The young boy's name is Darren Shan. He has to suffer the average life of a half vampire. When he was four years old a vampire blooded him by putting vampire blood into his blood stream. He now wants to drink human blood. He hates the fact that he has to drink human blood in order to survive. Darren is stronger than almost every adult in the world. He can throw a baseball farther then the record and his fingernails are too thick to be clipped. He felt he was a danger to kids his age so he went with Mr. Crepsley, his mentor and also a vampire, to join a freak circus called Cirque Du Freak. The circus was made up from a bunch of freaks. These freaks are real though they are performers. They can eat a glass mug and piece it back together in their stomach and bring it out of their stomach perfectly put back together. There are also freaks that can grow arms back after they have been cut off. Darren joins the Cirque Du Freak and takes part in the show. He helps out with Mr. Crepsley's act. He plays the flute while Mr. Crepsley's tarantula, Madam Octa, spins a web over his mouth. Darren thought about killing Mr. Crepsley because of what he had done to him, but he needs him to survive. Darren Shan, the author of Cirque Du Freak, lives in Ireland. During his childhood he watched scary movies and read spooky comic books, which gave him the idea to write this book. I think Cirque Du Freak is a great book that will capture readers' minds of all ages. One of my favorite parts of the book was when R.V., a guy out to protect nature, frees the wolfman. The wolfman then rips off both of R.V.'s arms. It was my favorite part because I could picture blood squirting out and guts from R.V. in the wolfman's mouth. I think other readers would like this book because the level of horror is perfect and a lot of kids today like this kind of book.