3 IN 1 MINI REVIEWS books #32-34 || A Living Nightmare, The Vampire’s Assistant, Tunnels of Blood

A Living Nightmare (Cirque du Freak #1) by Darren Shan

The Vampire’s Assistant (Cirque du Freak #2) by Darren Shan

Tunnels of Blood (Cirque du Freak #3) by Darren Shan

Series: Book 1 – 3 in the Cirque du Freak series | Published: In 2000 | Genre: YA, Middle grade, Vampires, Horror  | Pages: 272, 256, 240 | Language read: English | Format read: Audiobooks | Rating: 3 stars 

This is a mini review of the 3 first books in the Cirque du Freak series by Darren Shan. Instead of writing my thought on the 3 separate books, I’ll just write my general thoughts on all of them.

This is a middle grade series I read as a kid. It follows a kid named Darren Shan, who gets into trouble with a vampire when he steals the vampire’s big and deadly spider. The vampire chooses to turn him into a half vampire and make him into his assistant. He now has to leave his family to live with his master. I remember really loving this series, the books were dark and addictive, and the whole vampire setting just intrigued me so much.

I thought it would be fun to revisit this series and see if it was as awesome as I remember. Sadly I didn’t like it as much now when I’m older. I don’t know what my problem with the books was. Maybe I’m just too old for them? They just didn’t grab me like they used to do.

The books are pretty short, so I smashed through them in just a couple of days. I was hoping for them to get better, but when the 3rd book ended I wasn’t sure I will ever pick up the 4th. This series was unfortunately not for me anymore.

Will I recommend these books? Maybe not for adults, but I think younger readers might find them fun and scary to read. The books are fast paced and action packed, definitely something a lot of kids like.

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❤ -Rakel

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3 IN 1 MINI REVIEWS books #29-31 – Station Eleven, American Street, Stalker

This is the first post in my new category 3 in 1 mini reviews. Instead of doing a monthly wrap up with thoughts on all the books I have read that month, I’ll write a blog post every 3 books read. I will still do a monthly wrap up, but it will be more like a overview and not a big post with all my thoughts. I hope you enjoy this new idea, and I hope it will be easier for both you and me. 

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Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

I had really high hopes for this book, since I have heard great thing about it and the synopsis sounded intriguing. I really thought this would be a great book for me. Unfortunately this book wasn’t what I thought it would be. I liked some part of it and found them interesting, but overall it wasn’t my favorite. What really throw me off was all the different point of views and stories. It just felt messy at times and not cohesive, even though everything connects at the end. I wished we got to see more of The Traveling Symphony and The Museum of Civilizations, and not all of the focus on Arthur and his life. 3 stars

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American Street by Ibi Zoboi

This is a great diverse 2017 release that I think every YA contemporary reader should read, or at least know about.

17 year old Fabiola is moving with her mom from Haiti to Detroit USA to live with her aunt and her cousins. The move doesn’t go as planned when her mom is detained in the airport, and isn’t allowed into the country. Fabiola is now on her own without her mom and it cause a lot of stress. She has to get used to living in a new country, with family she doesn’t know well. This book is a really good book about immigration, family, race, a community full of drugs and violent, and the journey to get settled in to a new place far from home. I love this book, and I fell in love with all the characters. It definitely made my emotions rise in me. 4 stars

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Stalker by Lars Kepler

Book 5 in the Joona Linna series

This is the 5 book in a popular Scandinavian crime series. I don’t read a lot of Scandinavian crime books, this was the first in many years. One day I randomly wanted to pick one up, so I choose the most popular one on a list, and this was it. I have previously read the first book in this series many years ago, and I wasn’t over the moon with it. So my expectations wasn’t the highest. To my surprise I really liked this book. It kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time, and I devoured the 14h long audiobook in under one week. If you are looking for a Scandinavian crime book, I recommend this one. I will read other books by the author in the future.

Even though this is book 5 in the series, you don’t have to read the previous ones to read this. I have only read book 1 and 5. 4 stars

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-How do you like my new idea?

❤ -Rakel

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