At the behest of a young friend of mine, I have just finished reading the first 3 books of the Cirque du Freak series by Darren Shan.  I know that she will be disappointed in me for merely saying: They’re okay.  I liked it.  It has a neat premise.  Mr. Shan isn’t a great stylist but the writing is clear and the books are interesting.  No, I won’t be continuing on with the series, but I see why she likes them.

Now before that gets read as a negative, it’s not.  The main character, also named Darren Shan, is a smart kid who tries to do what is best for the people around him, even if it means sacrificing himself.  And his vampire mentor, Larten Crepsley (I love that name) embodies shades of gray that is refreshing to see in a genre book for children or adults.  Mr. Crepsley and the rules around vampires are Mr. Shan’s most brilliant piece of work. 

Mr. Crepsley keeps refusing to be what Darren expects him to be, neither evil nor good.  Darren comes in with black and white ideas and claims more than once that he will kill Mr. Crepsley if he gets the chance.  But he doesn’t.  Because just when Darren is sure Mr. Crepsley is selfish and evil, he does something stunning and good.  He is that most infuriating of creatures to a child: An adult living in a dangerous adult world, with all the compromises that entails, without regard to what the child will see as good and fair and right.  Mr. Crepsley is the practical adult we become.  Darren is the idealistic child we once were.  Their relationship colors these books and makes for some of the most interesting bits of reading.

The circus they work for and the performers they work with are another fun bit of invention, so much so that when the plot stops in the first book for chapter after chapter of description of the show, Mr. Shan doesn’t lose his readers.  Instead we stop to watch with Darren, marveling and wondering what Mr. Shan will come up with next.  Meeting these performers in later books, after Darren has joined the circus, is just as much fun.

So if I liked the characters and the dynamic between them, enjoyed the inventive details, and thought the stories were good, why do I say they were only okay and that I won’t go on to read the rest of them?  Because they simply don’t translate well for adults, at least not this adult.  Some children’s and young adult literature does (if any section of the bookstore is more overlooked by academics, it is children’s literature.  And I complain about sf getting passed over) but this one doesn’t.

My young friend, in her own fervor for the series, will not be pleased.  But she is what made these books worth reading.  Listening to her go on and on about vampires and snake boys and poisonous spiders and freak shows–about books!  though in her case this isn’t so surprising–was wonderful.  At least we’re on the same wavelength.  I don’t know what I would have done if she’d asked me to read Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.  Nothing against it, but I review sf and fantasy for a reason.  Poisonous spiders and snake boys are more my thing.

So my recommendation is, if you are an adult and really want to read them, get them from the library, because you probably won’t want to keep them.  However, if you know someone in the 8 to 12 (that would be my guess) age group, you might consider it as a Christmas gift, but check first.  The series was a best seller, so the kid might already be ahead of you.