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zealandrc's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Not what I was expecting - very good
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence and Death
goldenslug's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Blood and Death
booksthatburn's review against another edition
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
CIRQUE DU FREAK: A LIVING NIGHTMARE is the story of how Darren coveted a spider, met a vampire, and found himself in over his head.
Darren pays a lot of attention to people and what’s happening with them. He seems to have a great relationship with his sister, a pretty good (if not always honest) one with his parents, and he has a close-knit group of friends his age. His closest friend is Steve, but it seems like he puts a lot of energy into managing their interactions so Steve won’t get upset and yell at him. Because of the framing of the story we don’t see a lot of Steve’s temper, but given what he threatens and how he follows it up, I’m willing to believe this isn’t the first time he’s drastically overreacted to a slight, whether real or merely perceived. It’s a neat bit of characterization and it works very well.
Given that the entire premise revolves around a kid going to a freak show and finding out that monsters are real, I appreciated that one of the first events in the book is a teacher seeing the flyer for the show and explaining the bigoted and ableist history of them. It allows for the rest of the book to use that as a cover for what’s actually happening with the show, and lets anyone who’d rather not read a fictional version of this know up front what they’re getting into.
There’s a lot of little worldbuilding touches I love, like the descriptions of the freak show souvenirs and concessions. It completely makes sense that a kid would be fascinated by them, and it’s fun to get those descriptions as a more lighthearted moment after some of the tension immediately previous.
The plot is very much the introduction to a much bigger story. It ends on a bit of a cliffhanger, with a bunch of bad things happening and a clear next step that can’t be resolved until later. It introduced a bunch of the major players and made it mandatory/possible for Darren to leave his family so the rest of the series can happen, but if someone stopped after this book it would probably be unsatisfactory. As someone who’s read the series before, it prompts me to keep going, since I like what this previews and I’m ready for more.
Darren pays a lot of attention to people and what’s happening with them. He seems to have a great relationship with his sister, a pretty good (if not always honest) one with his parents, and he has a close-knit group of friends his age. His closest friend is Steve, but it seems like he puts a lot of energy into managing their interactions so Steve won’t get upset and yell at him. Because of the framing of the story we don’t see a lot of Steve’s temper, but given what he threatens and how he follows it up, I’m willing to believe this isn’t the first time he’s drastically overreacted to a slight, whether real or merely perceived. It’s a neat bit of characterization and it works very well.
Given that the entire premise revolves around a kid going to a freak show and finding out that monsters are real, I appreciated that one of the first events in the book is a teacher seeing the flyer for the show and explaining the bigoted and ableist history of them. It allows for the rest of the book to use that as a cover for what’s actually happening with the show, and lets anyone who’d rather not read a fictional version of this know up front what they’re getting into.
There’s a lot of little worldbuilding touches I love, like the descriptions of the freak show souvenirs and concessions. It completely makes sense that a kid would be fascinated by them, and it’s fun to get those descriptions as a more lighthearted moment after some of the tension immediately previous.
The plot is very much the introduction to a much bigger story. It ends on a bit of a cliffhanger, with a bunch of bad things happening and a clear next step that can’t be resolved until later. It introduced a bunch of the major players and made it mandatory/possible for Darren to leave his family so the rest of the series can happen, but if someone stopped after this book it would probably be unsatisfactory. As someone who’s read the series before, it prompts me to keep going, since I like what this previews and I’m ready for more.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief and Blood
Moderate: Ableism, Body horror, Self harm, Violence, Medical content, Suicide, Animal death, Child death, and Death
Minor: Sexism, Excrement, Alcohol, Vomit, and Bullying
lucys_library's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Child death, Grief, Medical content, and Toxic friendship
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