Oh my goodness, the title. It took me finishing this and opening Goodreads and trying to remember what title to search to get the title. Duhhhhhhhh. Spoiler alert except apparently it didn't spoil me (did it younger me get it in 2005? I can't remember.)

I'm so surprised to see so many negative reviews of this book so I'm upping to a 5 to counteract. When I finished this the first time I was so mindblown, so astounded, I marvelled so much. The crafting of universes that Shan had so carefully done was incredible. And even today, while biking and listening to the audiobook as some sort of grownup, I found myself tearing up. I still adore the way that Shan wrapped everything up and kind of made it a little bit cyclical, and the way that he explained destiny, Des Tiny, and the ways in which we can choose our own fates.

This was a really fun reread/first listen through on audio! The series held up better than memory served me.

I had goosebumps almost the whole time and especially the last 20 pages or so just reminded me why I love this series so much.
It was my third time reading the series but so many things I had forgotten from my previous reads that it was still surprising. I think that this book together with the second one is my favorite. Of course there is the Vampire Mountain trilogy which stands above all but besides this, the other two are my favorite.

I wanna thank Darren Shan for having created this (and every other) beautiful and extraordinary world!