Saturday 15 October 2011

Cirque du Freak: The Vampire Prince


Level: Teen
Genre: Fantasy/Horror > Vampires
Obtained: Purchased at Borders
Reviewed by: Nic Echo

About the Book:
At the end of Trials of Death, Darren was left zooming down a raging stream to almost certain death. Obviously, he survives. Now he must return to Vampire Mountain again, where he has a sentence to be driven upon a pit of stakes, but he must face them anyway so that he can reveal to them that there is a traitor in their midst who is about to let a good chunk of vampaneze take over.

Rating: 9/10
Wow! Just wow! I seriously could not put this book down and ended up finishing it in four hours. Now that the ball is rolling, Shan has me hooked. Even though I knew Darren was going to survive, I kept turning the page to see how. Plus, Darren still needs to get into Vampire Mountain and tell the Princes what is going on before he is killed. It was a thrilling suspense throughout. Shan also manages to keep up the surprises. I know I was in complete shock at the ending.

I also think Shan did an excellent job at portraying how someone can do a bad thing but still be a good person. The way he puts it out there has many of the vampires (and the reader) wondering whether the traitor is really a hero or a villain. Shan also portrayed killing quite well. I noticed that in a lot of youth and teen books I read, I feel like the protagonist is simply sparing the bad guy's life (or feeling guilty about killing him/her) simply because he/she is the good guy and that is what the good guy is supposed to do/feel. In this story however, I felt that Darren came across this on his own through his trying and emotional journey. It was believable to me that Darren felt guilty about killing a vampaneze and not just because he is the acclaimed good guy.

What I'm Reading Next:   
 

No comments:

Post a Comment