The Vampire's Assistant (Cirque du Freak, Book 2)

Rating:
Summary: An extremely good book
Review: In this second chilling novel by Darren Shan {sequel to the first called cirque du freak} Darren starts on his journey as a vampires assistant. The roads of life are often lonely and hard, but sometimes more for some. Now it's time for Darren to face one of his greatest fears. Will he choose the road of the vampire, or remain faithful to his humanside and face what's coming? Read and find out.
In this exciting novel Darrens adventure starts to unfold. I loved this book and read it more than once. I was captured by this new world of vampires. And lived a new life. I layed reading this taking in every word as if the air I breath. I enjoyed this book immensely even through it's gore.
A spectacular book among all the others. Which held me as if by magic.

Rating:
Summary: Review
Review: The haunting sequel to the Cirque du Freak, Darren Shan is back! If you liked the first book, Cirque Du Freak, you are sure to like this one although it is much more gruesome and definitely a thriller. In this book,the reader is swept into the actual circus where it all began, when Darren Shan becomes part of the Freak Show. You get to meet the freaks in person in The Vampire's Assistant and read about Darren's struggle to remain true to his human heritage even if it means sacrificing himself along with it...

Rating:
Summary: Cirque Du Freak The Vampire's Assistant
Review: This book is the sequel of Cirque Du Freak A Living Nightmare. Darren Shan still has a problem of drinking human blood, and human blood is something that vampire's have to drink once a month, or they will become pale and die after awhile. They cannot just survive off of animal blood. Darren Shan can't play with any of his friends, because he can hurt someone. So he joins Cirque Du Freak. There, he meets many strange humans and creatures such as the wolfman, so dangerous that it has to be locked up in a cage with chains tied to him. There is a boy about the same age as Darren and has a pet snake and is sort of a snake himself. They also meet a boy who lives near by. There is also a nature specialist, someone who cares for animals and the environment. The environmental person hears about Cirque Du Freak and comes to investigate. Then he calls the police. But before he calls, he does a little handiwork himself. He sees the wolfman and starts to clip the heavy chains off the wolfman. Darren sees him and tries to stop him . So Darren sticks the person's hand into the cage and the wolfman bites it right off. He yells, "Where are my hands, what did you do to my hands,where are my hands!!!",then runs off into the woods. The third book is to come out at April and is called, the Tunnels of Blood.
Why I recommend this book is because it is as scary as the first. There are even better cliff-hangers. This book keeps you from doing anything else until you are finished with it. It also makes make-believe characters come to life as you read it. It is also one of the best books that I have ever read in my life. That is why I recommend this book.
My favorite part of the story is when the nature specialist comes to Cirque Du Freak and cuts the chains off the wolfman. Then the wolfman bites the guys hands right off, leaving the bone showing at the elbow, while he yells, "Where are my hands!!!" The wolfman then escapes and runs wild. But Mr. Crepsley, a vampire catches him and put it back in the cage.

Rating:
Summary: Better than the first! **(1 spoiler)**
Review: Well, this is certainly an improvement (even if slightly smaller...) to the first, still some editing issues and inconsistency, however defiantly some more of the originality the series promised when opening...it has more angst and is overall more interesting compared to the slightly ordinary beginning. My favorite in the series (I have read them all).

(*spoiler!*)

I especially liked the part about preserving a person's memory/identity through drinking their blood...interesting also is how the author works that seemingly insignificant detail into the plot later. Shan (the author) shows more planning in this novel, rather than the seemingly very sloppy written first, which seemed like an interesting concept if only for the fact that it needed a few more drafts before being published, it seemed. Anyway!, a great book, as I said, my favorite in the series! :)