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  • Cirque du Freak: A Living Nightmare

  • The Saga of Darren Shan, Book 1
  • Written by: Darren Shan
  • Narrated by: Ralph Lister
  • Length: 5 hrs and 34 mins
  • 4.8 out of 5 stars (101 ratings)

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Cirque du Freak: A Living Nightmare cover art

Cirque du Freak: A Living Nightmare

Written by: Darren Shan
Narrated by: Ralph Lister
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Publisher's Summary

In the tradition of Ray Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes and Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot, New York Times best-seller Cirque du Freak is the first title in the popular Saga of Darren Shan series.

Darren Shan and his best friend, Steve, get tickets to the Cirque du Freak, a wonderfully gothic freak show featuring weird, frightening half human/half animals who interact terrifyingly with the audience. In the midst of the excitement, true terror raises its head when Steve recognizes that one of the performers - Mr. Crepsley - is a vampire!

Steve confronts the vampire after the show finishes - but his motives are surprising! In the shadows of a crumbling theater, a horrified Darren eavesdrops on his friend and the vampire, and is witness to a monstrous, disturbing plea. As if by destiny, Darren is pulled to Mr. Crepsley and what follows is his horrifying descent into the dark and bloody world of vampires.

This is Darren’s story.

©2013 Darren Shan (P)2013 Blackstone Audio

What listeners say about Cirque du Freak: A Living Nightmare

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Lister Kills It!

Interesting tale with some minor tweaks on vampire lore, as a mysterious freak show comes to town and irreparably effects the lives of two best friends. Ralph Lister does an excellent job for Audible. Definitely going to read the sequel.

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    1 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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you will like this book if you are a fan of Harry Potter

As I have never had an interest in reading or watching any of the Harry Potter movies or books I didn’t like this book.

Right after the incident at the circus I started to skip, I got bored, I thought they would be an incident where they grew up and the story continues but I guess that’s part of the series that I didn’t realize I was reading, this book ends on a cliffhanger and I also didn’t like that. It doesn’t keep me even minutely intrigued and wanting to read the other books.

To set up the entire book, 2 kids go to a circus one realizes there’s a vampire he wants to become a vampire, it doesn’t happen, instead, he gets bitten by a spider and ends up in the hospital. the other friend tries to save him, and through a series of events, he ends up dying and becoming a vampire in order to save his friend that is in the hospital. hospital friend recovers and is completely upset that he’s not a vampire but his friend has become one, so, feeling he’s been betrayed, he vows to grow up to become a vampire hunter and kill them all. End of book.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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The book is great as I remember it being

The book is just as great as I remember it being when I read it as a young teen.
The voice actor is wonderful, I enjoyed his voice for Mr Crepsley the most.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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YA Horror Mastery

Darren Shan is a phenomenal author for the budding Young Adult horror enthusiast. This entire series, along with the Demonata series and the Zom-B series sparked my interest in horror books and movies at a young age. They are well written, easily understood, and immersive. The narrator for this series is phenomenal. I had recommended this book, both hard copy and audio, to my classmates as a child, and now to my students as a teacher in my 30s.

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amazing listen

the narrator had a very soothing yet powerful voice,
the characters were portrait as people and less like just objects in a story,

overall I would personally recommend

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old memories once again felt but with new experien

I loved stepping into a book that I read as a child I never got to read all the books it was too gruesome for me and I could not connect with the character at the time but as I look back on it with eyes much older I cannot help but not look at it through Rose tinted glasses but see it for what it was it was a good story and near the end with my new experiences in life I can feel his pain I know there's not much punctuation but voice to text is not very punctual and English has always been my worst subject even after I graduated I recommend this book and all the others that come after it as I will be pursuing the entire series

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

still a great story

I love this book series, I remember reading it as a child and was a little hesitant to get it on audible, as I thought it would have been less immersive, but it was just as good as when I read the book.

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