The Saga of Darren Shan

The Saga of Darren Shan (known in the U.S. as Cirque Du Freak) is a series of young adult vampire novels written by Darren O'Shaughnessy. They tell the story of a boy named Darren Shan who is turned into a half-vampire (blooded) by another vampire, Larten Crepsley. The Saga is made up of four trilogies and there is a film based on the first trilogy.

Vampire Blood Trilogy
Vampire Blood (also called the Cirque du Freak Trilogy) is the first trilogy in The Saga of Darren Shan by the author Darren Shan. It contains the books Cirque Du Freak, The Vampire's Assistant and Tunnels of Blood. These starting books explore how Darren must adapt to his new life, and what that entails. The first book contains the reasons why he became a half-vampire and what he had to give up in order to save his ex-best friend. As well as introducing the character, while the second and third go into more detail about how he has to change and what he will never be able to do. The main theme for the whole of the trilogy is insecurity. He has just been changed into something hardly anyone would accept, and throw in the fact that he's just a child leads into a darker and more unusual way to grow up. Cirque du Freak: The Vampires Assistant is loosely based on this trilogy

Universal Studios have bought the rights to Darren Shan and is directed by Paul Weitz with Chris Massoglia playing the lead role of Darren Shan. The film was released on October 23, 2009.


 * Cirque Du Freak
 * The Vampire's Assistant
 * Tunnels of Blood

Vampire Rites Trilogy
Vampire Rites (also called the Vampire Mountain trilogy) is the second trilogy in The Saga of Darren Shan by author Darren Shan. It contains the books Vampire Mountain, Trials of Death and The Vampire Prince. This trilogy involves more of the various vampires characters, and their beliefs and customs (such as their views on death, life and their views of right and wrong). This trilogy's main theme is religion, compared to the previous one, it brings a whole new take on the vampire way of life and shows the kinder, better side of the vampires involved. These books show a more relaxed character of Darren Shan towards the more gruesome aspects of vampire life.
 * Vampire Mountain
 * Trials of Death
 * The Vampire Prince

Vampire War Trilogy
Vampire War (also called the Hunters trilogy) is the third trilogy in The Saga of Darren Shan by Darren Shan. It contains the novels Hunters of the Dusk, Allies of the Night and Killers of the Dawn. This trilogy continues the war between vampires and vampaneze. Mr Tiny forms a group of three "hunters" - Darren Shan, Mr Crepsley and new character Vancha March, a Vampire Prince who lives in the wild and follows the old vampire traditions, and has unusually pink skin from staying out in the sun too long. They have four opportunities to kill the Vampaneze Lord, or else the vampires will be destroyed. But there is a gruesome twist involving the Vampaneze Lord and Darren's childhood friend, Steve "Leopard" Leonard, who is in fact the dreaded Vampaneze Lord himself.
 * Hunters of the Dusk
 * Allies of the Night
 * Killers of the Dawn

Vampire Destiny Trilogy
Vampire Destiny is the fourth and final trilogy in The Saga of Darren Shan by author Darren Shan. The trilogy included The Lake of Souls, Lord of the Shadows and Sons of Destiny. This series goes more in depth on the Lord of Shadows and the future where he rules.
 * The Lake of Souls
 * Lord of the Shadows
 * Sons of Destiny

Films

 * Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant

Trivia (Contains Spoilers)

 * Darren Shan from the book said he left it strictly anonymous where the saga takes place, as Darren never states where it takes place. This is also supported by the fact that none of the characters show their culture, as none use any terms only familiar to Americans or European.
 * He also says that all the names in the story were fake, "You'll see why later."