THE VAMPIRE'S ASSISTANT by Darren Shan is part two of Cirque Du Freak (actually, it's part two of The Saga Of Darren Shan -- darren). Young Darren has now been drawn under the wing of Mr Crepsley, the vampire. He finds himself in a twilight no-man's land, neither a boy nor a full vampire because he refuses to drink human blood. It is this refusal that is making his life ebb away. Missing family and friends, he eventually teams up with Evra, the circus snake boy, and Sam, an ordinary boy who passionately wants to be part of the Cirque Du Freak. The three youngsters wind through a labyrinthine, gothic half-world peopled with creatures somewhere between nightmare and normal. And then there's the eco-warrior, Reggie, whose concern for the Wolf Man brings about consequences too terrifying to even imagine. A thrilling read made all the more horrifying through being told in the first person, a Stokeresque touch which induces the reader to identify with the fears of the narrator.