What an excellent, vivid cover!
SPOILERS AHEAD!!!
Chapters Read: 1-5
Well I stand corrected, I thought none of my future Cirque Du Freak books had the snazzy little graphic at the start of each chapter but I was wrong! I am happy to be wrong though because when I saw the graphic I got so happy! Memories and nostalgia just flood through my brain when I see that simple image! Wild!
Vampire Mountain is a book that I had high hopes for and so far it's delivering. This book surprised me when I first read it as the vibe switch came rather abruptly from my perspective. Suddenly we are thrust into the world of the vampires purely and it's seriously intriguing. The wintry journey there, the vague details about the location of Vampire Mountain, and the interesting details about the population fluctuation of the vampires and how Mr. Crepsley pointed out how there was 100,000 plus vampires at one point when the human population was much lower than it is today has extremely intriguing implications. The vampire-human ratio was once quite different. Nowadays there are 2000-3000 vampires and only 250-300 vampaneze! Nuts! This is all explained super smoothly.
These books are so good to me because they sort of lull you into thinking that perhaps the book is going to be simple or whatnot, meanwhile you are consistently smacked with excellent story telling, deep interesting lore and skillful writing. This book is effortlessly epic, it's so cool. Truly, every detail is more significant than meets the eye in this series.
I'm also struck at how Mr. Tiny can randomly be wise and helpful and not just a raving lunatic? What the heck is that about? Literally Mr. Tiny gave actually decent advice, and quotable quotes and all that. It was rather brief, but super fascinating. I suppose Mr. Tiny does see Darren as a son at times.... weird. I guess Desmond Tiny really is the living embodiment of destiny. It's often cruel, but not always. In fact it's rather interesting and kind of nice that Darren got to live six years peacefully as a member of the Cirque...
I found it odd when Darren says that 'nobody would miss them' when they left the Cirque though. Strange. It's also strange and unfortunate that Evra and him sort of grew apart due to Darren's lack of physical aging. But it is a business at the end of the day, and Evra and him are still homies.
Their trek to Vampire Mountain proceeds interestingly. The Little People that are forced to go along with them are interesting as well. I'm aware that one of them is Harkat Mulds who is/was Kurda Smalt in a prior life but I'm suddenly pretty intrigued about who the second Little Person is. I wonder if we'll get hints as to who that could be.... Is it Steve? Darren? Someone else? Nobody important? I'm also intrigued to see how Kurda and Harkat may or may not interact!
I'm also curious about when Harkat finally will speak! I don't remember when that happens whatsoever.
It was also very wholesome that Darren got to meet a friendly pack of wolves and learn about the connection between vampires and wolves. There's a moment when Harkat and Darren lock eyes when the Little People express a desire to eat the wolves. Darren gets super angry and is ready to fight them. Harkat sort of calms down the tension and gets the other Little Person to back off and again, there's an odd moment where they look at each other.
This series is way more epic than I remember. Well, I always thought it was epic, but I'm struck at just how well it's holding up!
Also, I don't say epic casually. This series is truly the very definition of an epic story in my opinion.
This series truly feels like a whole universe. It feels just perfect.
Eight years having passed since Darren became a half-vampire is so much more interesting now that I have lived life and have a new perspective on time and how swiftly it passes. I remember being so stunned at how many years passed between books when I first read this years ago. He's quite literally an adult now.
I'm remembering all over again why I love these books so much.
This is the bookmark I'm using! Van Gogh's Bedroom.
