A young boy named 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.
Steve remains after the show finishes to confront the vampire-- 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 the beginning of Darren’s story.
The Vampaneze Lord is the ruler of the Vampaneze. The Vampaneze Lord is decided when a normal human enters the Coffin of Fire is engulfed in flames and comes out unharmed.
″ I was in the bathroom at school, sitting down on the toilet, humming a song. I had my pants on. I’d come in near the end of English class, feeling sick. My teacher, Mr. Dalton, is great about things like that.”
“I began reading the flyer again, immersed in the drawings and descriptions of the performers. In fact, I was so immersed, I forgot about Mr. Dalton. I only remembered him when I realized the room was silent.”
“But Mr. Dalton has a soft spot for Steve, because he’s special. Sometimes he’s brilliant in class and gets everything right, while other times he can’t even spell his own name. Mr. Dalton says he’s somewhat of an idiot savant, which mean he’s a stupid genius!”
“Because freak shows were terrible,” he said. “They pretended to be like proper circuses but they were cesspits of evil. Anybody who went to one would be just as bad as the people running it.”