Vampire's Assistant Giveaway!

Okay, I'm sure you've seen this all over the place. Well, I'm involved too! First and foremost, I'm sure you've noticed the widget at the top of my blog. Here's your chance to vote for your favorite Cirque du Freak t-shirt saying! Just cast your vote and every vote on my blog gives me a change to win an iPod! Help me win and get some great t-shirts out!

I have to say that I only support contests for books that I totally support. And I totally support anything that involves Cirque du Freak. And I'm really excited for the movie to come out!

In theaters October 23

Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant, based on the popular series of books by Darren Shan, is a fantasy-adventure about a teenager who unknowingly breaks a 200-year-old truce between two warring factions of vampires. Pulled into a fantastic life of misunderstood sideshow freaks and grotesque creatures of the night, one teen will vanish from the safety of a boring existence and fulfill his destiny in a place drawn from nightmares.



CIRQUE DU FREAK has been rated PG-13 (Parents Strongly Cautioned - Some Material May Be Inappropriate for Children Under 13) for sequences of intense supernatural violence and action, disturbing images, thematic elements and some language.

THE VAMPIRE'S ASSISTANT and Other Tales from the Cirque du Freak by Darren Shan

New movie edition features the first three books--Cirque Du Freak, The Vampire's Assistant, and Tunnels of Blood-- bound up in one volume!

Do you love to be scared? Then don't miss the terrifying adventure that begins when Darren and his best friend, Steve, get tickets to the CIRQUE DU FREAK, a wonderfully bizarre and creepy freak show. Brace yourself for thrills and chills as the boys witness a parade of grotesque creatures and face their deepest fears by entering the darkest world of the vampire. In the blood-curdling tradition of Anne Rice and Stephen King, CIRQUE DU FREAK will have you shrieking for the next horror show!

Publisher: Little, Brown Young Readers


Be sure to visit Vampire's Assistant's official website!

And if you have a Facebook account, be sure to fan Cirque du Freak over there!

Now for the good stuff - the contest -

What TWO winners will receive -

• Cirque du Freak book Set (see the information above)
• Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant Locker Mirror

What you have to do to get it -

Leave a comment with your email to enter answering this question -

If you could be one of the freaks in a freak show, what/who would you be?

No answer, no entry. Period.

+2 for new followers
+3 for current followers
+3 for linking (up to 3 links for a total of 9 extra entries)
+5 for voting in the poll and telling me which line you voted for

The contest is open to US residents only and will end on November 2nd at midnight, EST. Good luck!

Shipping Guidelines:
The Vampire’s Assistant giveaway is open to legal US residents who are at least 13 years of age as of October 1st. Prizing is only available to United States mailing address only. (International readers can enter if they have a friend in the States who can accept their prizes by mail.)

Cirque du Freak - Tunnels of Blood by Darren Shan

First published in 2000.

Darren was just an ordinary schoolboy -- until his visit to the Cirque Du Freak. Now Darren, the vampire's assistant, gets a taste of the city when he leaves the Cirque Du Freak with Evra and Mr. Crepsley -- but so, it seems, does something else. When corpses are discovered -- corpses drained of blood -- Darren and Evra are compelled to confront a foul creature of the night, who may prove to be the end of them all. Beneath the streets, evil stalks Darren and his friends. Can they escape, or are they doomed to perish in the tunnels of blood? (www.bn.com)

If you haven’t figured out by now, I’m loving this series. Shan has an amazing ability to keep emotions and actions in his young characters real and true to life.

In the third book in the series, Darren’s been a half vampire for over a year and we’ve seen him grow, figuratively speaking, over the course of these books. While he still can be a petulant child (mainly because he still kind of is one), he’s grown into his vampire assistant role and matured beyond what anyone his age would simply because, a lot of the times, he’s on his own. Not many children live with a band of traveling freaks nor have to force themselves through the unpleasantness of having to drink human blood in order to survive. He spent nearly all of the first two books fighting it. Now he’s at peace with it and does it out of want more so than need.

The ending threw me for a major loop and I was very afraid that Darren was going to take a departure from his personality and character for the sake of the plot. Boy was I wrong and boy is Shan sneaky! He utilized an excellent first person device that worked wholly to his advantage and shows just how much Darren has matured. Two books ago, to be perfectly frank, Darren wouldn’t have had the balls. Now he’s a faster thinker and knows what he needs to do in order to stay alive. And does it and Shan isn’t afraid to show that.

The book ends at a very pivotal moment and at the ‘to be continued’ point, we don’t know if everything works out in the end. The major points turned out ok but the matter of person is left hanging in the balance. Of course it’s an amazing way to propel the reader into the next book to find out what happens next. If my TBR pile weren’t up to my knees (it’d probably be up to my chest if it were all one pile) and I wasn't desperately trying to pay my credit cards off (must be debt free), I’d go buy the next few books in the series. I want them that badly.

This is an excellent work with reality in a world of fantasy in a world of reality. The character of Darren Shan is written superbly and amazingly believable and Shan has an excellent knack of writing from one chapter to the next, and dragging you along by the hair to follow the plot. If you haven’t started reading this series yet, do it now. If you appreciate an awesome story and good writing, you’ll be as hooked as I am.

Cirque du Freak - The Vampire's Assistant by Darren Shan

First published in 2006.

Darren was just an ordinary schoolboy -- until his visit to the Cirque Du Freak. Now Darren joins the powerful vampire Mr. Crepsley. As he struggles with his new life as a vampire's assistant, Darren tries desperately to resist the one temptation that sickens him -- the one thing that can keep him alive. (www.bn.com)

SPOILER WARNING!!!

Holy crap, is Darren Shan afraid of nothing?

The Vampire’s Assistant continues with the story of Darren Shan as he adjusts to living with Mr. Crepsley as his half-vampire assistant. It’s a difficult ride for him, especially since he really can’t have any friends his age (what with the shin-cracking incident and all) so they decide to join back up with the Cirque so Darren can have friends. Evra Von, the snake boy, becomes one of his closest consorts along with a mere mortal named Sam who is desperate to join the freaks.

Another unlikely and fair-weather friend comes along named Reggie Veggie, or RV as he prefers to be called. He’s an eco-warrior (or environmental terrorist, however you want to put it) that likes the boys but sours when he finds out how the Cirque “treats” animals, especially the wolf man.

RV proves nothing but serious and deadly trouble for everyone at the Cirque, but most especially Sam. Shan isn’t afraid in the slightest to have loss in his books. Real, genuine, gory loss. I’m sure a lot of authors would have shied away from such things, especially in a series that’s geared towards the younger end of YA and the older end of MG. It’s violent but it’s real and most importantly believable. I found myself a bit nauseated a few times throughout the book.

Not only does Darren have to suffer through the loss of yet another friend, he has to make a decision that would allow his friend to live on within him, but it would also entail Darren drink human blood, something he’s been fighting against since Mr. Crepsley turned him. The fight has been progressively detrimental to his health ever since and Darren has been adamant to fight it, and even considers welcoming death for real in order to avoid drinking human blood.

The reality with which these books are written, despite the fantastical creatures in the tales, is a driving point for me. Even though Darren is a half-vampire, he’s still very much a reluctant boy (still not sure just how old he is) and acts as such. I’m glad Shan kept that attitude grounded in reality and it still consistently showing what it could possibly be like for someone to have to deal with being a vampire. It’s not all acceptance and blood drinking and sex. Especially not for Darren. I’m so entranced with the struggle (that’s not pining, long-winded or evokes a feeling of ‘go get a tan already’) that I can’t help but keep reading. I haven’t read anything like this before, not really, and not with a character so young.

I’m sure I’ll end up having this entire series on my shelves because I really can’t get enough of it. Not to mention they’re pretty fast reads. The only thing that kind of irks me are the pseudo-cliff hangers at the ends of the chapters. Not every chapter but I’ve noticed chapters ending in very obvious (I’m thinking intentionally) foreshadowing and dun-dun-dun but there isn't a resolution for a few chapters after that. That was kind of getting on my nerves because it happened a lot. Perhaps it’s just me but when I see a cliff hanger or blatant foreshadowing at the end of one chapter, I expect it to be answered or resolved in the following chapter. Not so here. Granted it only kept me reading on but it was still irksome.

Other than that, I can’t wait to start the third book!

Cirque du Freak - A Living Nightmare by Darren Shan

First published in 2000.

Darren Shan is just an ordinary schoolboy who enjoys hanging out with his three best friends. Then one day they stumble across an invitation to visit the Cirque du Freak, a mysterious freak show. Only two tickets are available, so they draw straws to see who will go. As if by destiny, Darren wins one, and what follows is his horrifying descent into the dark and bloody world of vampires. This is Darren's story. (www.bn.com)

Oh to be twelve-years-old again. Reading this reminded me of reading all those Goosebumps stories and Alvin Schwartz’s Scary Stories series and all of that. A bunch of my friends and I would collect books of scary stories (all different kinds) and share them during recess and at sleep overs. I would have loved this then and dammit, I love it now!

The story focuses behind the eyes of the main character with the same name as the author (which I’m not sure how I actually feel about that) as he meanders along at school and in life. Then the Cirque du Freak comes into play, a forbidden freak show that only two have passes to, that changes Darren’s life forever. This isn’t your ordinary freak show by any means. When the emcee of the show announces that you may get hurt, he’s not lying.

Aside from the overabundance of exclamation points (a few too many, really), the story is riveting and really captures the attitude of Darren. It’s never stated just how old he is but I think it’s safe to say somewhere around twelve. Could be a year younger. But Darren is truly a vessel for his age at the beginning of the story but reshapes himself into an adult by the end when he has to decide which life is more important, his or his friend’s, Steve.

I think we’re always shown Steve as the older, maturity-wise, of the boys, simply by his attitude but by the end of the first book, him and Darren do a complete role reversal, with Steve going a little too far into the deep end with his vendetta. But that leaves it that much more intriguing for books to come because you know he’s going to reappear.

What I liked the most, though, and it’s something that I don’t see in vampire tales very often at all, is the departure from the family. The pain not only the changing character goes through but the oblivious family as well and it’s a grudge for that pain that Darren holds on to. It’s a life that isn’t willingly accepted and that disdain is very prominent in the actions we see. The even bigger conundrum, though, is trying to figure out which causes more pain, being a vampire in and of itself or leaving behind the family that can no longer be a part of your life. That one really tore at me and made me look at the whole vampire thing from a new perspective. I think especially because of the character that went through that change.

In the books that I’ve read, the change has either been unrealistically accepted by the family or the fledgling doesn’t have any family at all so it’s all really simple. But this isn’t. It adds a complexity not only to the story but to the character and drives a permanent notch into his psyche. I like that flaw. The introduction states that this is a “true” story and that part towards the end, breaking away from the people that he loved, makes it that much more realistic.

I apologize for being vague but I’m trying not to give away too much of the plot (although I’m afraid I might have, sorry). It’s too great to just dump here. It’s something you must read for yourself. If you were a kid like me that just loved all sorts of ghostie or creepy stories (or still do), pick up A Living Nightmare. It’s a new twist on the vampire game and will have you begging for more. I’m glad my books are three under one cover! I don’t have to stop!