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I’ve decided that I’m going to post the back blurb of the book that I’m reviewing, especially since I have a tendency to launch right into the review/critique without a recap. At least this way you’ll get to see what made me pick up the book in the first place. So from here on out, summary time.
When fifteen-year-old Clary Fray heads out to the Pandemonium Club in New York City, she hardly expects to witness a murder–much less a murder committed by three teenagers covered with strange tattoos and brandishing bizarre weapons. Clary knows she should call the police, but it’s hard to explain a murder when the body disappears into thin air and the murderers are invisible to everyone but Clary.
Equally startled by her ability to see them, the murderers explain themselves as Shadowhunters: a secret tribe of warriors dedicated to ridding the earth of demons. Within twenty-hour hours, Clary’s mother disappears and Clary herself is almost killed by a grotesque demon.
But why would demons be interested in ordinary mundanes like Clary and her mother? And how did Clary suddenly get the Sight? The Shadowhunters would like to know . . .
That and, uh, the bod on the cover didn’t hurt either.
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.
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 find 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.
Oh to be twelve-years-old again. Reading this reminded me of reading all those Goosebumps stories and Alvin Schwarz’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.
It’s been a long time since I’ve read a book designed for such a young audience. This one would be considered middle grade (I would say roughly ages 8 to 12-ish), based mostly on the ages of the characters, the situations and language.
Anything with Egypt pretty much immediately catches my eye and if I remember correctly, I saw this one on the summer reading bookshelf in Barnes and Noble (I’m constantly surprised by what’s on those shelves and I love looking through them). So I snagged it, read the back cover and I may just have peed a little. While the summary didn’t mimic my childhood exactly, it came pretty close, what with my obsession with ancient Egypt at that very age. I mean, I was reading pop-up books on how to mummify a person when I was 8. Needless to say, I bought it.
What it’s about is the main MC, April, moves in with her grandmother and befriends another girl named Melanie who just so happens to have a crazy love of Egypt just like her. At first April is a little stuck on herself because she comes from Hollywood and can’t get over the faux attitude but Melanie chips it (and her false eyelashes) away and she finally becomes a pretty normal chick. Before long four other kids join their Egypt game and it’s not long before their land of pretend starts to cross the lines of reality.
I thought this was a freakin’ cute book. I was a little disappointed, but self-imposed, because it didn’t turned out to be as fantasy-laced as I thought it was going to be. I was expecting time warps and trips back to the ancient land but everything was very much grounded in reality despite the amount of imagination used in this game.
