'So what have you been doing since you announced this blog?' I hear you ask. A great many things is the answer, my dear friends. Most forward of which is reading! Over the last fortnight I have demolished the books seen above, the four trilogies brought together and known collectively as The Saga of Darren Shan.
Now before you start, yes they are technically children's books, but at this point in my life I am closer to being a child than middle aged so I'm declaring this a win. Besides what child could fully understand the complexity of being a Vampire? I'll fight my corner to say this is teen fiction, thank you very much!
Now to the point...
It has been almost four years to the day since I picked up the first installment, Cirque Du Freak. Thinking back to that young old age of 18, I was stressed due to exams, had serious relationship issues, and was unsure of what the future held. I remember the day quite clearly, it was a gusty Sunday afternoon, those relationship issues were at an all time high and I had decided to take some time out of all those pressing matters to do something I loved and for the last 2 years of that era was seldom allowed to do. Read. I started off with the sequel to If I stay by Gayle Foreman, appropriately named Where She Went. Promptly after breaking my own heart I decided to let off facing my own horrors of that time and thought I'd drown my sorrows in another book, thus my introduction to this series.
So there's my introduction to Darren Shan. Because I'm a book collector naturally I had a few of his works on the shelf, saved from those who did not want them. But I literally only had Cirque Du Freak at that stage in my life and maybe if I knew then what I know now, perhaps I would have actively sought out this saga of loss to help me get over my own teenage grief. Anyway, a month or so ago I got into the TV show The Originals, leading to a renewed interest in Vampires, so I finished Dracul by Dacre Stoker and J. D. Barker, which I had been reading on and off since my trip to London last December, and decided to seek out other vampiric mediums. And so we come full circle, I bought the set as pictured above and dedicated my spare moments to devouring the pages.
At first it was easy, if you were to ask Sam or Beth what I was doing on that Monday when they checked up on me, they'd more than likely answer 'She read 3 books and worked while sulking.'. Yes, yes I did. I did the same on the Tuesday and by the Wednesday I was just finishing The Vampire Prince and heading into the Green Trilogy. Naturally if I was reading 3 books a day you'd wonder why I was one book behind. This is because of the books finished on that fine Monday, only 2 of them were by Darren Shan. The other was the first in the Amelia Peabody series.
Now I have very few issues with The Saga of Darren Shan. The writing got stronger throughout the series, and considering it was meant for an age range I long surpassed, I cannot have issue with the simplicity of the wording. I can however voice my grievance at certain character developments. The period of these books span roughly over 30 years of Darren's life as a half-vampire. Naturally during this life span we bump into people from the past and other characters are sucked up into this depressing saga along the way. A personal favourite of mine is Harkat Mulds, a little person who was brought back to life and is tasked with being Darren's guardian. Now my issue with characters is not so much their personal development, more their involvement within the plot. Harkat was a superb character with twists and turns all over the shop (especially when we discovered who he was in a previous life!), he was loyal to a T, and was such a 3 dimensional character that my issue is the fact in the last book, around half way through when Destiny's savage plot is foiled (no spoilers, those who know, will KNOW) all those we had learned to love and were now part of this were suddenly forgotten. Now I fully understand we moved onto a new arch, all of a sudden we were void of other characters bar Darren, Evanna and Mr Tiny, and this was crucial. HOWEVER, going forward it was like not a single person mattered up until this point, and thinking about it I suppose this is the problem with having an unreliable narrator, where these books are written from Darren's point of view, nothing previous to this huge event in his life did matter. All I'm trying to say is it would have been nice to have dropped in and be given an extended slither into the aftermath of the War of Scars which at that point was continuing on. Vancha's fate was mentioned, but nothing of Evra Von or Harkat, or even Debbie! The whirlwind love interest thrown in halfway through the series to widen the demographic. We had followed up their every movement up until the last crucial moment to end the War of Scars, and then as soon as that plot point was turned on its head, we have no idea who lived and who died.
I read a review on Goodreads by another very disgruntled fan just before I started reading Sons of Destiny. I accidentally read a spoiler (there is a spoiler warning button for a reason bud, use it), and he is completely convinced that the final book is a waste of space, so much so that he has shunned Mr Shan completely and will never pick up another of this man's novels. Or to that effect. A wee bit over dramatic, and I have to say I panicked, I was hooked and not expecting a happy ending (as Lemony Snicket had once advised these books are not at all happy, and full of unfortunate events, not at all like the Happy Little Elf), but I was expecting a full frontal event of closure which summed everything up just nice, and from what this unhappy gent was insinuating I was not to get it with this weak finale. It is safe to say I wholeheartedly disagree with his standpoint. Although the finale was not at all to my liking, there was indeed a slither of closure and I fully understood all the events that took place, why they had to happen. I just don't like it. At no point did I feel the climax was rushed, it was strategic, and Shan knew exactly what he was doing when he ended a much awaited battle halfway through a book with almost no action. It was intended to be anticlimactic, we forget when we are drawn into this narrative that we are following an unreliable, exhausted half vampire from his own point of view. Pointing the finger at the author screaming "BAD WRITING!" when you don't understand the in depth complications of said style of narration is a d**k move my friend. Nuff said.
What I do take complete umbridge for is unnecessary deaths. I'm in two minds here whether or not to mention names....I think I've kept things relatively spoiler free so far so I may as well continue. The death of a certain mentor which even our narrator feels is cruel and unnecessary due to the circumstances is something I feel very strongly about. Admittedly it seems he resurfaces in a set of 4 other of Shan's novels which I am yet to read, but that was no way to end a devoted character and I am still angry. It could have been avoided although I suppose it was a turning point for Darren's inner self and of course we had some crucial advice to give which would come in handy later (of course being only relevant when shouted from the brink of death), but at this point I feel Mr Shan had gotten a taste of needless murder and perhaps our author is more Vampaneze than Vampire when it comes to killing off people.
Another death I am still not over is that of a young boy. This one takes place just before the original ending of the War of Scars and was needlessly cruel and my god I felt the loss, I commend the writing but not the story.
For those of you who know me from Tumblr, you'll already be aware I like to grade reviews based on marks out of 10. For those who don't, heads up. Although my above points are still raw and I am still angry it doesn't mean I enjoyed this saga any less. There were points where I felt things could have been improved, and characters or narratives shouldn't have been included, and there were twists that were visible a mile off but I didn't mind that. After all it is aimed at kids for crying out loud, even the cleverest of children can't handle their minds being blown. Take it easy. So overall I award the Saga of Darren Shan a safe old 7/10. I neither fear nor despise the creatures of the night and the only horrific part of this mild horror generic book was the cruelty to those I loved. I would however deeply recommend these books to people who want a new perspective on Vampires and the like as well as children who are supernaturally inclined.
Well that just about sums up all I have to say on the matter. Rest assured we will be returning to the works of Darren Shan later on in the year as I have other Saga's to explore. Drop me a line if you want a further debate or have anything you'd like me to review, other than that thanks for reading my essay and peace out!
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