There have been many manga / young adult novel crossovers in the past few years, some more successful than others. Now the latest entry into this arena brings together Irish author Darren Shan with Japanese artist Takahiro Arai to create a shonen manga version of Shan's bestselling teen horror novels, Cirque du Freak .
With the success of Twilight and Vampire Knight, blood-suckers are the trendy teen novel subject du jour. However, Cirque takes a slightly different approach by removing tragic romance from the equation and ramping up the blood, gore and drama instead.
In Cirque du Freak, two boys with a fascination with horror movies visit a strange circus. At first, they're mesmerized by the show, but later get wrenched from their safe middle class lives into a surreal world of dark secrets and dangerous consequences. Friendships are made and betrayed, demonic bargains are struck and of course, where there are vampires, there's blood and angst.
Check out my review of Cirque du Freak Volume 1 by Darren Shan and Takahiro Arai from Yen Press and see if this creepy shonen manga fable deserves a spot on your summer reading list, or should just collect dust on the shelf instead.
Cirque du Freak is currently being adapted as a feature film from Universal Pictures that's due for release in early 2010. Check out About.com's Horror guide to this coming attraction for photos and more details on director, the stars and the plot of this flick.
Want more goth-y goodness? Check out my list of 18 vampire manga for more tales of these tragic creatures of the night.
Image credit: © Darren Shan, Takahiro ARAI
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