Cirque Du Freak: Vampire Mountain

Shan, Darren. Cirque Du Freak: Vampire Mountain. Little, Brown and Company: 2002. ISBN: 0316608068.

Summary:
The world is full of many creatures, not just humans, vampires, half-vampires and vampaneze to name a few. The Cirque Du Freak series is the story of teenager, Darren, a half vampire who is the assistant to Vampire, Larten Crepsley. Book 4, Vampire Mountain is about their journey to Vampire Mountain to present Darren to the Vampire Princes. The journey is long and perilous with Darren making steps toward maturity. The series is about Darren coming of age as a teenager and a vampire. Mr. Crepsley makes a great mentor/parental figure. He realizes that Darren is young, but also sees him as strong and capable.

Evaluation:
Written in first person, we get to know Darren quickly. He is respectful, impatient and open to learning. The plot is pretty simple, a portion of a quest. The author gives enough detail that the story is not boring. The ending is a huge cliffhanger and will have readers starting book 5 as soon as possible. As a girl I enjoyed the book even though there is only one female character. The book has a great appeal to boys and takes place in a male dominated world. Females are not put down or belittled, they just don't choose to be vampires. This book is a paranormal version of the Alex Rider novels by Anthony Horowitz.

Reader's Annotation:
You never know where life's journey will take you.

Bibliotherapeutic Uses:
Teens need adults who believe in them and trust their abilities. Darren shows the readers that even though he is scared, he can overcome and achieve. Darren also trusts the adults in his life. It is important for teens to know that there are trustworthy adults out there.

Genre:
Paranormal

Why I Included This Book:
This books are very popular and wanted to see for myself what they were like.