| Book Review | Jennifer Hairfield |
Cirque
du Freak:
Vampire's Assistant
By: Darren Shan
The Vampire's Assistant is the second book in the NY
Times Best-selling series Cirque du Freak. In this
installment we find out that Darren has accepted his fate
and is stuck with Mr. Crepsley, who he hates for what he did
to him. Continuing with the same styling of a memoir, Darren
retells what happens.
In the first book, a Living Nightmare, it leaves the reader
feeling that Mr. Crepsley is unfeeling but in The Vampire's
Assistant the reader finds out that he is actually mad at
himself for what he had done to Darren. He had forgotten
what it was like at that young age and the roll that friends
play in life. In order to make it up to Darren he takes him
back to the Cirque so that he can have people around that
know his secret and not worry about it. The only problems a
vampire has to worry about in this world is that they have
to drink human blood and eat real food to survive. Sunlight
will still make them go poof into dust and a stake in the
heart will kill them too. But as for the rest of the vampire
myths, they don't apply. Darren's only hang up in being an
assistant is that he believes if he drinks human blood he
will become evil and does everything possible not to.
While they are at the Cirque, Darren becomes friends with
his roommate, the snake boy, named Evra Von and a local boy
named Sam who wants nothing more than to become part of the
Cirque. The three boys are like the three Amigos for the
week the Cirque is there in the countryside. While playing
at an abandoned railroad station they meet R.V., an
ecowarrior who's trying to stop a road from being built.
When Darren gets tickets to the show for Sam and R.V. things
go down hill. R.V. takes up arms against the Cirque because
of the treatment of the Wolfman and ends up dead in a very
weird way because of it. But in this world, Vampires can
keep a piece of the essence of mortal friends if they are
dying by sucking them dry before death takes them. Sam's
essence is taken with the Cirque through Darren after a
selfless act of trying to save his friend's life.
This is a great sequel to the first book. It gives the
reader a deeper look into Darren and Mr. Crepsley's
relationship. Plus, we get to have a closer look at the
Cirque and the different people involved with it. The reader
also gets to see the dynamics between those who are
different and those who are "normal". This is definitely
something to pick up and enjoy.