Book Analysis: Cirque Du Freak

Book analysis: Sirque du Freak by Darren Shan It? s impossible to put down! Introduction The book I read was called Cirque du Freak. This is a quick and easy to read thriller for the whole family. Darren Shan tells this 266 page “true story” about his life as a child wonderfully. This story is an attention grabber and once you start, it will be hard to put down.

Setting The setting itself is pretty simple. It starts in what I assume is about a fifth or sixth grade classroom and then falls into the circus.

Of course, this is no ordinary circus; it is an “underground” circus. Since the circus is illegal, it is well hidden. It takes place deep in the ghetto of a city, in an old run down building, where it is dark and creepy.

The setting really only matter in the beginning, as it sets up the mood for the novel, a creepy scary place that is full of surprises. One can never anticipate what happens next. Plot As I have mentioned, and what makes this novel even more interesting, is that the author claims that this story is true. As I read through, I found that hard to believe.

The author starts us in a classroom with a couple of kids, of which I assumed were about ten to twelve years old. One of the kids, Steve “Leopard” Leonard, steals a flyer he found in his brothers room about a new circus that is in town.

As Steve is showing off this really cool circus that is in town made for adults only, his teacher interrupts him and takes the flyer away, next, the kids find themselves in a long lecture about these freak circuses and how bad they really are. This lecture only entices the children even more.

Darren Shan and Steve Leonard end up being the only two boys that can go to the show. This is where the adventure and action begin. Finally, the boys get to go to the circus; they snuck away from home and had head for their doom. In the circus they see many crazy, scary, and freaky people.

The particular favourite of Darren Shan is Mr. Crepsley, and his amazing spider, Madam Octa. Darren has gotten an obsession with Mr. Crepsley’s pet spider and is thinking about how he can gain possession of such a rare spider. He realizes that the only way to getting this rare spider is by stealing Mr.

Crepsley’s.

How can Darren possibly steal and then controle? There are small chances of this story to end well. Author Darren O’Shaughnessy was born 2. July in 1972 in London, he commonly writes under the name Darren Shan. He is the author of “The saga of Darren Shan” and “Sirque du freak” is the first of twelve books in this saga. He also has written another saga: “The Demonatia”.

The books in these series have the same main character, which is called Darren Shan. The Saga of Darren Shan is about the Vampires, and The Demonatia is about Demons. Main Character(s)

The protagonist is Darren Shan; I assume that he is twelve years old. His hobby is to read comics with his best friend, Steve. The comics are in the horror category, that’s where he gets his interest of spiders from.

I’ll say that the most important bi-character is Steve “Leopard” Leonard. He has all the same interests as Darren, but he has an obsession with vampires. Steve joins him to the Freak Show and when he recognizes Mr. Crepsley as a vampire he has red about. In the book he is described like so: “It was Steve Leopard, my best friend.

Steve? real surname was Leonard, but everyone called him Steve Leopard. And not just because the names sound alike. Steve used to be what my mom calls “a wild child”. He raised hell wherever he went, got into fights, stole in shops. […] He was feared and despised everywhere he went. But not by me.

” Theme The story is about the battle between good and evil and about how the life of a teenager suddenly totally chances. It’s about how strong a friendship between two boys can be. For example when a close friend is dying and he knows that he is the only one that can help him.

To do so he has to sacrifice everything he loves and cares about. Ending The thing that I found out very quickly about Cirque Du Freak is that it’s much more than about an illegal freak show.

Instead that is just the event that gets the plot line going. Although sadly, in this book just when the events start rolling the book ends in an almost “to be continued” like fashion. This left me with an almost incomplete sense, I wanted to know more about what happens to Darren and how he is going to cope in the world. Conclusions I did really enjoy Shan’s portrayal of vampires in this book.

So many vampires in young adult books lately have been romantic and sparkly (for example Twilight).

They are almost like the teddy bears of the undead lately. Shan takes a different approach and brings them back to the scary, evil, not nice people that these creatures are supposed to be. In the end this is a great book especially for boys because it has all those elements that I’m sure they are looking for in books. I’ll anxiously go and devour the next book in the series! If you aren’t going in expecting an adult horror book you just might be surprised with the experience that you’ll have!