Cirque du Freak by Darren Shan

This is a very good book that is a combination of an adventure story and a horror story. It is about a boy called Darren where him and his friend go to a freak show after a lucky grab of a ticket. Darrens friend is intrested in a spider man and he knows he is a vampire. Darrens friend steals the spider as the spider man refuses him to be his vampire assistant. Then the spider man comes to Darren and says that he has to become his vampire assistant or his friend dies.... The story does continue on but that was a short description of what the main event is. The story is well structured as it is in the first person. It doesnt have really long paragraphs and it doesnt have really long chapters which i like about a book. It was an easy read as i previously said with not very long chapters and not very long paragraphs. It also doesnt have words that people won't understand. The characters were quite unbelievable as there are no such things as vampires in the world but the writer did develope the characters well. I liked the character Darren as it seemed that fate brought him to the spiderman as he reached out and one piece of paper, the right bit of paper (the ticket), misteriously falls into his hand. The main story of the book is that fate pulls Darren to become a vampires assistant to the spiderman. This freak show dragged him away from his life. He was warned by his teacher not to go but he did. So the writer is trying to say that if you do something that you are warned not to do it can ruin your life. For example drugs. The settings are not described succesfully and the writer doesnt really make you feel like you are there as the main focus of the description is on the characters and not the surrounding scenery. I would mark this book a 5.5 out of 10 as it is not the most interesting book i have read. It also isnt very scary even though it says it is a horror. (I do like the front cover though!!)