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Cirque du Freak: A Living Nightmare
- The Saga of Darren Shan, Book 1
- Narrated by: Ralph Lister
- Length: 5 hrs and 34 mins
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Cirque du Freak: A Living Nightmare
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Summary
In the tradition of Ray Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes and Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot, New York Times best-seller Cirque du Freak is the first title in the popular Saga of Darren Shan series.
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. In the midst of the excitement, true terror raises its head when Steve recognizes that one of the performers - Mr. Crepsley - is a vampire!
Steve confronts the vampire after the show finishes - 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 Darren’s story.
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What listeners say about Cirque du Freak: A Living Nightmare
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Dré3k
- 20-02-22
Childhood classic
Loved this series as a early-teen. Even met Mr Shan a few times in bookshops and enjoyed a couple of live readings from him too.
Has been over 15 years since I last read this story and it holds up surprisingly well.
Solid story without too much young adult nonsense to induce cringing. Great all-round performance from the narrator.
Looking forward to the rest.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 25-01-23
Fun but a patchy performance
A slower start to the series than I had remembered, but still fun. The reading performance really put me off at first - much too childish than the material deserves - but it did get better towards the end.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- kim b.
- 26-04-22
Loved this book
Takes me back to my younger days when I read this series. Amazing narrative well done
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Maria Bennett
- 16-01-24
Nostalgia that holds up
I was 7 when I first read this book and started the series over 20 years ago, beyond excited that I stumbled across it on audible. Holds up, interesting characters and very well narrated.
Looking forward to finishing the series again, it’s like meeting up with old friends.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Lord_zack91
- 18-11-21
Great Series
While I love both the saga of Darren Shan and the demonata books I felt the americanisation too jarring .
pounds changed to dollars .. football changed to soccer.
but would still recommend that you give the audiobooks a try.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Leanne Madeley-Jones
- 30-07-22
10yr olds favourite book
My 10 Yr old adores this collection and is now getting to be an acid reader alongside the books on audible. This was exactly what he needed.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Mr. J Dolan
- 04-02-22
Nostalgia
Absolutely loved these books, great audiobook. However… the language has been Americanised (soccer, dollars, etc) which is weird even though the narrator is English. Just sounds odd. Otherwise fantastic
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Christopher Smith-Canning
- 10-07-23
Better the movie
I remember watching the movie this was slightly based off this is so much better
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Louis-Sebastian
- 27-08-16
Stephen King meets Harry Potter
I am so excited to continue this series after this book. The story could trim a little fat and unessesery suspense slows down a otherwise fast paced and refreshing story. I can't say now, but it looks like this is a series I'll be reading for my kids one day, along with lotr and hp series. Give it a go!
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9 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Norma Miles
- 29-06-22
"Real life is nasty, it's cruel."
Simply and very effectively written in the first person from the point of view of young Darren Shan, who secretly goes with his best school mate, Steve, to see the illegal Cirque th Cream when it comes to town. Scared but fascinated, they watch the acts but when it ends, Steve wants to stay behind to speak with one of the performers he is certain he recognises.
The book is read by Ralph Lister, his pleasantly youthful voice well paced and modulated. He sounds just as a young boy telling his story might sound: a fine performance.
This is a great book for young tweenies and teenagers, and pretty good for older readers, too, with a real sense of danger running through it. This was my first encounter with Darren Shan and although not often a lover of horror stories, I enjoyed it enormously: it has the feel of a comic book brought to real life. I will definitely be reading more of the series which can be downloaded for free through Audible +. Thank you, Audible.
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