I think that every kid growing up has one book series or author whose writing and stories helped inspire them to enjoy a life filled with reading. There are some out there who do not enjoy reading, and I think that it is because they did not find one of these authors that they missed out on so much. A lot of people my age would argue that J.K. Rowling was that author and Harry Potter was that story. For an easy answer, I think that this could be applied to me. I mean I still have my Harry Potter comforter! (Even though my fiancé has forced me to relegate it to the closest…) But if I think on this question longer, and I think about what author and story most affected my life, it is not Rowling. The honest answer to this question is Darren Shan, the mastermind behind the Cirque du Freak and Demonata series.
My mom is without a doubt the reason I came across Darren Shan. She would always encourage me to try new books and to get outside of my comfort zone. In the summer going into the fifth grade, I was deep in my Harry Potter kick. By deep I mean I was rereading every entry back to back and touching nothing else. My mom found the first Cirque du Freak novel at Borders Books and bought the book in hopes to get me out of my Harry Potter funk. All she knew was that it was about a vampire and the vampire had a pet spider. I was skeptical when she gave it to me, the only horror books I had read at the time was Goosebumps. I was afraid that it would be more of the same, and if I wanted to read horror I wanted something truly scary. But I trusted my mom, and put down Rowling to give Shan a chance…
What a great decision that was and I still tell my mom thank you for finding this author for me. Basic premise of the Cirque du Freak series is a young Darren Shan through a cruel twist of Destiny is forced to become a half-vampire and assistant to legendary vampire Larten Crepsley. It is a twelve book series, so I am not even going to get into all of the details here. But by the end, Shan is a full vampire caught in the middle of a war between vampaneze (“evil” vampires) and vampires (“good” vampires). It is compelling, at times dark, and overall enthralling series. Although the writing is primarily young adult, the concepts and imagery is very much adult. Main characters are killed brutally, gore is described in full force, and the good guys do not always win. For someone who had previously been obsessed with Harry Potter, all of this was new to me and opened the door to horror in writing. I do not know if I would have made it to Stephen King from R.L. Stine. By the time I finished Goosebumps, the writing was too immature and I no longer wanted to be seen reading it. By the time I finished all of Shan’s work, I knew that I wanted more horror books, and I wanted the writing and concepts amplified.
Darren Shan has two more series that I loved. The first was Demonata. This series seemed to only follow around the machinations of Lord Loss, a demon lord. But by the end of the series all of the separate characters from the other stories end up meeting to take on Lord Loss. In this series in particular, the gore and death is amplified brilliantly. It didn’t have the same heart as Cirque du Freak, but it was still great! The second, to me, I was initially against. It is a background series on Mr. Crepsley, and how he came to be the legendary vampire that we first meet in Cirque du Freak. Listeners of the podcast know that I prefer artists to leave original ideas alone. There are exceptions (my favorite Star Wars is Revenge of the Sith, for reasons) but for the most part I truly think once a story is complete, leave the story go. Shan was able to subvert my expectations and ended up writing a great series looking into the vampire. It was compelling, did not rely on the original for call back after call back (although they are there, it was done with respect instead of remember berries) and still had the Shan gore that I had come to love.
So why am I writing about this? For two reasons. First, some of our listeners have kids who are reaching the age where Cirque du Freak is in there wheel house. Our listeners obviously like horror, and if you want to kid your kids into it as well, I would say get them to read Shan and Stine and have them watch “Are You Afraid of the Dark?”. And don’t be too afraid of letting them watch right before bed, sometimes a nightmare is a good thing…. The second reason is that I think Shan is sometimes forgotten as an amazing writer. Cirque du Freak was made into a film, adapting the first three novels of the saga. It is trash. The casting and writing and directing were obviously done by someone who heard from someone else what the story was kind of about. It is shit, and that is coming from someone who loves John C. Reilly, who was horribly cast as Larten Crepsley. I would love to see these books reach today’s audience, because I think that there is a market for a young adult horror series that doesn’t shy away from the evils of the world. So for Halloween this year, crack open “Cirque du Freak” and read it. You will not be disappointed…
Larry