Cirque Du Freak

Why do so many kids love scary books? This is beyond my comprehension. Let's just set aside rationale and accept that this is true.

Cirque du Freak (at least book one) is a book that will (1) meet the need for a scary book and (2) not horrify grownups who worry about children reading things that cause permanent damage.

Got that? On the Scare-o-meter, Cirque falls into Scary but not quite Horrifying.

I was never interested in reading that much until I read this book—it was the book that got me into reading.

Back when I was in fifth grade, my older brother bought me this book, saying I would love it. I never touched it for months. However, months later, on his high school graduation day, we had time to kill, and I decided, "What the hell?" I read only the introduction - after that, I was hooked.

The entire book showed vampirism in a way that seemed realistic, and it's written as a twelve-year-old's diary in a verbal way I understood. I didn't look up from the pages for the rest of the night. By the time I finished the book in one setting, I was looking up, seated at my older brother's graduation dinner—I had missed his entire graduation because of this book. How amazing, gripping, and relatable it was.

Years later, it was the book series I introduced both of my cousins to into the genre of horror, and to this day, while I think I have read better, I have mad respect for the series that turned me from a non-book enjoyer to a reading lover.