Cirque Du Freak: Tunnels of Blood: Book 3 in the Saga of Darren Shan (Cirque Du Freak, 3) Paperback – April 1, 2003

Love love love this vampire-based book series. I am a 58 year old female, however, I have always enjoyed "boy" type, action based fiction books as a reader. What I found about the entire Cirque Du Freak series, however, was that it was not JUST about being a vampire, or a member of a Freak Show. It teaches about loyalty and friendship; what a real 'family' is, even without the blood-relation.In fact, I was so smitten with this series (Mr Shan, are listening?), that I made a gift of all my books to a then 11-year-old friend, because I was confident there was little to no swearing of any consequence, no real sexual content, but a good wholesome and fun teaching story definitely well-worth my time and my young friend's.Hours and hours of good reading fun and miles of smiles afterward. I cannot wait to read more from Darren Shan.

This is my second time reading this series and I love them as much now as beforeBuy the book!!

The Cirque du Freak books are consistently well written, scary in a YA way, and have great character development. I want to read Shan's other books.

My son loved books, always wanted books, always reading. His only problem was that he never read much of any book, only a few chapters then he became bored. I bought him the first Cirque Du Freak because of the monsters, especially the boy with snake like skin, but was very pleased to find he LOVED it. He was about 14 then and at 19, with a kindle, has reread them over and over, sharing them with all his friends, letting people borrow them. Now the paper is worn out and I am buying them for his kindle as a treat. The writing is well done, written by a kid, who uses his own name as the main character. There are vampires, werewolves, and other "monsters" who don't really turn out to be too bad. Of course there is a villian, and just like any good villian, there is no question that he is bad. But the good guys are not always good, they have a bit of a past and can be mischievous. Any moral lessons are subtle enough that the teens aren't bored by them, and none of the vampires twinkle. Don't let the movie fool you, these will grab you and make you want to read the whole series!

Darren Shan continues his addictive series with the tunnels of blood. Shan keeps the reader's interest by adding yet another new wrinkle with mysterious killings occurring. Darren finds a love interest and is able to explore a part of his life he thought died when he became Mr. Crepsley's assistant. Evra the snake boy goes along to show the strength of Darren's friendship with Evra, and their relationship is definitely tested.What is discovered in the Tunnels of Blood only adds to the suspense that consistently builds in this series. EVERYTHING presented in these first books of the Cirque series will be relevant in later books. Fortunately Shan re-visits characters and pieces of plot at exactly the right time.Darren Shan is quite a talented author who writes a series that can be enjoyed by any age group, and this series needs to be made into a film ASAP.The writing is brilliant, yet simple.

Probably this book opens up a new chapter for Darren. Now he faces another group of vampire called vampaneze, the group aparted from original vampires a history ago. I expect there may be a war between vampire and vampaneze in the future.

Originally posted at Fantasy Literature.Warning: This is the third book in the CIRQUE DU FREAK series, so this review will contain spoilers for the previous books. You don’t have to read the previous books because author Darren Shan gives a short but sufficient recap, but starting at the beginning would be ideal.Mr. Crepsley is the only full vampire that Darren had ever met until Gavner Purl, Vampire General, shows up at the Cirque du Freak. After Purl meets with Mr. Crepsley, Darren is told that he and his mentor will be taking a little break from the freak show and going to live in a city while Crepsley takes care of some business there. Darren is allowed to bring his friend Evra the snake-boy.At first the city is fun and Darren even meets a girl who becomes his first girlfriend. But then things start going badly, as they always do. Darren and Evra see a news report which says that corpses have been showing up around town — corpses with the blood totally drained out! Naturally, Darren and Evra suspect Mr. Crepsley and they’re eager to stop his murderous activities. When they start following him on his nightly forays, they discover a new deadly evil.Readers who enjoyed the first two CIRQUE DU FREAK books are certain to enjoy Tunnels of Blood. It’s another short, fast-moving installment that’s gruesome and terrifying. The scariness is nicely offset by some sweet moments of friendship and joy.In each of the CIRQUE DU FREAK books so far I’ve had trouble believing in the events at the plot’s climax and resolution. This book’s plot is the most unlikely so far. Darren sets out a plan that is much more likely to be disastrous than to work, and it’s hard to believe he thought it was a good idea. Another problem is Mr. Crepsley’s unnecessary secretiveness which greatly increases the tension but doesn’t really make sense. Still, the author’s fans are likely to be forgiving of these little issues and, if they are, they’ll find Tunnels of Blood to be another exciting high-stress story.Ralph Lister’s narration is sometimes brilliant and sometimes awful in Tunnels of Blood. I can’t stand his voice for Evra the snake-boy, and his voice for the villain is completely over the top, but Lister’s performance makes the whole thing even scarier. Again, I’d suggest listening to a sample before purchasing.

my sister bought me the first and second book last summer and ever since I've been totally addicted to them. I love these books and will always love them, but I've been reading some reviews.from the fourth book and am afraid of reading it. Well ill find out. This series of books are good for any age. Theres nothing bad about them. I truly recommend them for young ages as myself