Cirque Du Freak

Cirque Du Freak
Darren Shan

The chilling Saga of Darren Shan, the ordinary schoolboy plunged into the vampire world.Darren goes to a banned freak show with his best mate Steve. It’s the wonderfully gothic Cirque Du Freak where weird, frightening half human/half animals appear who interact terrifyingly with the audience. Darren – a spider freak – ‘falls in love’ with Madam Octa – an enormous tarantula owned by Mr Crepsley. Darren determines to steal the spider so that he can train it to perform amazing deeds. But his daring theft goes horribly wrong and Darren finds himself having to make a bargain with a creature of the night.Something out of the ordinary is set against the background of children’s normal lives to chilling effect. Atmospheric, funny, realistic, moving and… terrifying.

CIRQUE DU FREAK

THE SAGA OF DARREN SHAN

BOOK 1

CIRQUE DU FREAK

THE SAGA OF DARREN SHAN

BOOK 1

Madam Octa’s on the web… and so is Darren Shan!

For all things freaky, check out the official

Darren Shan website at www.darrenshan.com

This freakish show could never have gone public but for

the efforts of my hard-working laboratory assistants:

Biddy & Liam – ‘The Gruesome Twosome’

‘Diabolical’ Domenica de Rosa

‘Growling’ Gillie Russell

Emma ‘The Exterminator’ Schlesinger

and

‘Lord of the Crimson Night’ – Christopher Little

Thanks are also due to my feasting companions:

the Horrible Creatures of HarperCollins. And the ghoulish

pupils of Askeaton Primary School (and others) who served as

willing guinea pigs and braved nightmares to make this book

as tight, dark and chilling as possible.

Contents

Introduction

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Four