SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

Chapters Read: 6-10

Wow ya know, the past decade and a half of my life has been truly nutty. I've made a serious amount of silly decisions and done a lot of stupid things in general. Throughout all of my moving from places here and there, I made it a big priority to keep most of if not all of my books. I've lost a portion of them unfortunately but Cirque Du Freak was always a series I felt a sense of urgency not to lose. I'm very thankful fate allowed me to keep possession of them. These are very important to me.

Darren's second trial went well enough on The Path of Needles. It was clearly very painful and he had a close call but he got through it well and accomplished his second of five trials. Again, I can't remember whatsoever what his third, fourth, or fifth trials are! I'm vaguely aware that vampaneze events get in the way at some point but much of the details elude me.

Reading these books once again it seems my memory about certain events fails me, which I'm surprised by. It's like half reading a brand new series, especially being older now. So taking into account my partial memory of the series, time passing/being older now, the general sense of nostalgia, all in all re-reading Cirque Du Freak right now is pretty equivalent to reading the series for the first time all over again!

What I'm appreciating a lot about this series is it's perspective or like, outlook on time, and one's lifespan. Darren's lifespan I guess. It mixes powerfully with my own sense of nostalgia while reading these books.

Roughly eight years have passed since Darren became a half vampire and I'm aware more chunks of time will pass once again in future books. In addition though, Darren being the narrator of these books, there will often be this sentiment of him speaking on this story like some long forgotten memory, like he himself is examining things after the fact. It's very very subtle and charming and just makes me feel sentimental. Bittersweet but slightly more sweet than bitter.

The books speak on vampire culture in such a fun way. They talk about various traditions, of which there are many, but they don't really like overemphasize it like many fantasy books can do sometimes. These books speak on it, respect it and keep the plot flowing.

I think Vampire Mountain would be a chill place to hang out. I really do. It seems large, mysterious, and old. Just fascinating. The Festival of the Undead seems wicked gritty and fun.

I want to point out that Harkat hanging out with the vampires during the festival I find so wholesome knowing Harkat's identity/past identity or whatever. It's like Kurda is getting another chance to hang with his brethren... Wild. Again, makes me more fascinated by Mr. Tiny as well.

Darren, Seba, Kurda, and Gavner trekking to find the spiderwebs that cure Darren's itchy scratches and scrapes from his trial was a really fun little section. It's an interesting cast of characters as well. Learning more about the Guardians of the Blood just adds a nice bit of lore to the mountain and the story in general. What strange beings!

I'm also for whatever reason intrigued by The Hall of the Final Voyage. The room seems mysterious and just interesting for some reason. It's not a fun place of course but I just find it so intriguing. I also know what happens later in that room which adds to it's mystique. It's like I can imagine the hall existing right now somewhere, wherever Vampire Mountain might be...

I have thought about where Vampire Mountain could be on earth by the way. I feel like it's up in the North Pole roughly. Maybe in very extreme northern Canada or Russia or something....hmmmm. Or even Antarctica. Trippy to wonder... I think it's probably in the north somewhere though because I don't recall them crossing any water. Hmmmm.

I know book five gets nuts soon. Book 5+6 are one of the better books in this series! So many important things happen!

On we go!