SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

Chapters Read: 1-6

Ah yes and the series continues!

Darren met his first vampire besides Mr. Crepsley of course, Gavner Purl! Gavner is one of the cooler and funnier characters in the series, that's for sure. I enjoyed re-experiencing meeting him for the first time. It was definitely a trippy, nostalgic experience when he was introduced.

This first trilogy is so disconnected from the next nine books in many ways, it's so intriguing. But Darren Shan does a good job at still slowly leaking information in about the greater vampire world.

Gavner is a Vampire General and his shock at learning Mr. Crepsley turned a boy into a half vampire is surprising. Well, I guess it's not that shocking since I mean almost anyone could have predicted that doing so is pretty nuts. But still, it's interesting emphasis on how abnormal doing so was. Especially considering Mr. Crepsley is a vampire of very respected status, and was even on the verge of being vampire royalty, being named a Vampire Prince, until he decided to go a different route in life.

So again, this suggests odd meddling of some sort, as if Mr. Crepsley has lost his marbles. I sort of understood this years ago, but being older now and of course having read this series at least twice, this aspect is much more obvious. Like what on earth was Mr. Crepsley thinking?

I'm also intrigued how Gavner and Mr. Crepsley find it strange that the Cirque currently has a large volume of little people. Hmmmm. I wonder why this is so suspicious? Is it due to the upcoming war?

After a discussion with Gavner, Mr. Crepsley then takes Darren along as he goes on this mysterious, seemingly urgent mission in some random city. Darren gets to take Evra with him which is cool.

It's cool that Darren still enjoys snow and Christmas. I am a sucker for that stuff what can I say!

As Darren roams the city, he encounters Debbie, who is his first romantic interest of course. Romance is relatively rare in this series so it's a nice change of pace.

I know the general detail of Mr. Crepsley's mission, but many of the finer details elude my memory, let's go! This is definitely gonna get creepy though, I remember that much!

I'm pumped! I love how digestible yet immersive this series is.

On a side note, I got some snazzy new Van Gogh bookmarks! It's wild how useful these can be. I'm reluctant to just throw random stuff in between the pages to keep my place, and I'm not about to bend the corners. Lately I was just finding the page by memory. Saving a few seconds with these bookmarks is very satisfying.

These were remarkably cheap on Amazon! It's such a cozy feeling being able to see a nice piece of art as you dive into a good book. I love them!