#vampires assistant

I spent too much time on rendering this but I think it was worth it.

It was not that great. The boys acting was either blander than bread or over the top and not in a charming kind of way.

Crepsly played by John C Reily was a minor saving grace but it didnt do much for the movie so Im hoping the books would be better.

Now when I say kid I do mean older kid, minimum I probably wouldn't recommend it to anyone under 10 maybe even 12 (which works as that is the age our protagonist starts as) because it does touch on more kinda mature themes as the books go.

While not as extreme as the Demonata books Darren Shan still gets decently descriptive about things including the more violent scenes plus there is a lot of death. Which might come off as obvious being a book about Vampires / supernatural stuff but he still manages to surprise cause there's no real line between characters who might die and those that are safe from death. Especially as it gets closer to the end and get the feeling maybe not even our dear protagonist is safe.

Like off the cuff only in the second book and a character winds up dead- and they aren't just some rando either. We get to spend time with them and get to know them and okay sure you might get some vibes that this character may not get to stick around with our protagonist having to say goodbye and go their separate ways by the end but I'd say it's also not perfectly clear cut if that will be the case. (Bonus is that the death itself ends up serving multiple purposes even during a part later on)

I would personally be shocked at anyone who could even guess the ending of the book- in a good way. Cause Darren Shan does a great job of sprinkling bread crumbs and foreshadowing here and there so at no point does anything feel like it was just pulled out of thin air but quite often neither is it something blatantly obvious

And even then on the off chance you do figure something out and no the reveal before it happens personally I still find it well written enough that you could believe the characters not having realized X thing yet as well as just the anticipation of when and how will they know.

This series also has an extensive cast of characters and while some are obviously going to end up more developed then others - especially with a lot of those at the Cirque at the same time none of them feel flat or there just because. Sure okay if you really wanted to name a problem there aren't a lot of female characters but personally (as a woman/girl myself) I was never bothered by it. The ladies we do get in the series are fun and decently well written as it is.

Darren Shan also has some of the more interesting takes and ideas on Vampires that I really like.

I love the concept of being able to make someone only half a vampire and that the easiest way to blood someone is by doing it through cuts on your fingers and pressing them together.

Vampires aren't immortal but do age vert slowly thus living incredibly long lives. And while hardly anything new (especially now) I do love them even bringing up and making fun of the idea that obviously a stake to the heart would kill a vampire because that would kill anyone/thing.

Going out in the sun isn't an immediate death sentence but there are limits for how long they can be out.

Being able to use their saliva to heal over cuts if needed.

Even bringing up how while animal blood is an option and they do drink from them but 1) They can not live and sustain themselves only off animal blood thus the need to occasionally drink a humans but 2) not needing to drain a human dry - which is how they've stayed mostly undetected although it does seem pretty implied there are some people here and there who are in the know

There are also some animals of which they cannot drink and is essentially poison.

Which leads into the 3rd point Vampaneze, a group who choose instead to follow you could almost say the old ways and drain people dry and when they feed. And for as twisted and vile most Vampaneze are even they still have their own codes and rules they follow (as you can guess our antagonist group of the series)

The other thing I love is compared to somethings I've watched/ read where a character just ends up going of somewhere and we don't get much on what's going on back home or even just a characters thoughts about all this we frequently get to hear/see Darren thinking about his friends and family, that while he may not regret his choice he does still miss his home, still thinks about them. (Also the way they handle having him leave is great )

Heck to a degree they even become a motivating factor for him in multiple instances from what I recall.

We get a decent enough time line of events - if there's a time skip they make sure to acknowledge it was X amount of days/weeks/months.. ect

But back on the main point is despite having a slightly younger target age range it gets hella dark sometimes, the writing is just so good as well that even as an adult be it in Novel or Graphic Novel form I still very much enjoy it and find myself rereading it.

The author even wrote a sort of prequel series of 4 books following the mentor character of our protagonist- as well as various other characters that appear within that series also making appearances which is cool and it's so good. My favourite part being the way he ties it in right at the end, ending where the Vampire's Assistant books pick up with his introduction.

Id Be a Terrible Vampire Assistant [12]