Cirque Du Freak. Darren Shan

Cirque Du Freak - Darren Shan


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      CIRQUE DU FREAK

      THE SAGA OF DARREN SHAN

      BOOK 1

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      CIRQUE DU FREAK

      THE SAGA OF DARREN SHAN

      BOOK 1

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      First published in Great Britain by Collins in 2000

       HarperCollins Children’s Books is a division of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd

      1 London Bridge Street

      London SE1 9GF

      The HarperCollins Children’s Books website address is:

      www.harpercollinschildrensbooks.co.uk

      THE SAGA OF DARREN SHAN BOOK 1: CIRQUE DU FREAK. Text copyright © 2000 Darren Shan. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

      The author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of the work.

      A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

      All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook onscreen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

      Source ISBN: 9780006754169

      Ebook Edition © February 2011 ISBN: 9780007435272

      Version: 2019-03-06

      Madam Octa’s on the web… and so is Darren Shan!

      For all things freaky, check out the official

      Darren Shan website at www.darrenshan.com

      This freakish show could never have gone public but for

       the efforts of my hard-working laboratory assistants:

      Biddy & Liam – ‘The Gruesome Twosome’

       ‘Diabolical’ Domenica de Rosa

       ‘Growling’ Gillie Russell

       Emma ‘The Exterminator’ Schlesinger

       and

       ‘Lord of the Crimson Night’ – Christopher Little

      Thanks are also due to my feasting companions:

       the Horrible Creatures of HarperCollins. And the ghoulish

       pupils of Askeaton Primary School (and others) who served as

       willing guinea pigs and braved nightmares to make this book

       as tight, dark and chilling as possible.

      Contents

       Cover

       Title Page

      Copyright

      Chapter Nine

      Chapter Ten

      Chapter Eleven

      Chapter Twelve

      Chapter Thirteen

      Chapter Fourteen

      Chapter Fifteen

      Chapter Sixteen

      Chapter Seventeen

      Chapter Eighteen

      Chapter Nineteen

      Chapter Twenty

      Chapter Twenty-One

      Chapter Twenty-Two

      Chapter Twenty-Three

      Chapter Twenty-Four

      Chapter Twenty-Five

      Chapter Twenty-Six

      Chapter Twenty-Seven

      Chapter Twenty-Eight

      Chapter Twenty-Nine

      Chapter Thirty

      Chapter Thirty-One

      Chapter Thirty-Two

      Chapter Thirty-Three

      Other Books in the Series The Saga of Darren Shan

       About the Publisher

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       INTRODUCTION

      I’VE ALWAYS been fascinated by spiders. I used to collect them when I was younger. I’d spend hours rooting through the dusty old shed at the bottom of our garden, hunting the cobwebs for lurking eight-legged predators. When I found one, I’d bring it in and let it loose in my bedroom.

      It used to drive my mum mad!

      Usually, the spider would slip away after no more than a day or two, never to be seen again, but sometimes they hung around longer. I had one who made a cobweb above my bed and stood sentry for almost a month. Going to sleep, I used to imagine the spider creeping down, crawling into my mouth, sliding down my throat and laying loads of eggs in my belly. The baby spiders would hatch after a while and eat me alive, from the inside out.

      I loved being scared when I was little.

      When I was nine, my mum and dad gave me a small tarantula. It wasn’t poisonous or very big, but it was the greatest gift I’d ever received. I played with that spider almost every waking hour of the day. Gave it all sorts of treats: flies and cockroaches and tiny worms. Spoilt it rotten.

      Then, one day, I did something stupid. I’d been watching a cartoon in which one of the characters was sucked up by a vacuum cleaner. No harm came to him. He squeezed out of the bag, dusty and dirty and mad as hell. It was very funny.

      So funny, I tried it myself. With the tarantula.

      Needless to say, things didn’t happen quite like they did in the cartoon. The spider was ripped to pieces. I cried a lot, but it was too late


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