Darren is just your average schoolboy – or was, at least – until he and his friend Steve buy tickets to the outlawed, magical and macabre Cirque Du Freak. Packed with wonderfully grotesque characters – including a snake-boy, a wolf-man and, most exciting of all, an enormous performing spider – the boys are enchanted, fascinated and yet terrified by the show.

Darren, a total spider freak, decides to steal and train Madam Octa – an enormous tarantula owned by Mr Crepsley, so that he can train it to perform amazing deeds. But his daring theft goes horribly wrong, and soon Darren is caught up in a web of terror from which he cannot escape – and finds himself forced to make a terrible bargain with a creature of the night?

Atmospheric, funny, realistic, moving and terrifying, Cirque du Freak has been thrilling readers for twenty five years, and is now available in this stunning anniversary edition.

Darren goes to a banned freak show with his best mate Steve. It’s the wonderfully gothic Cirque Du Freak where weird, frightening half human/half animals appear who interact terrifyingly with the audience. Darren – a spider freak – ‘falls in love’ with Madam Octa – an enormous tarantala owned by Mr Crepsley. Darren determines to steal the spider so that he can train it to perform amazing deeds. But his daring theft goes horribly wrong and Darren finds himself having to make a bargain with a creature of the night.

Something out of the ordinary is set against the background of children’s normal lives to chilling effect. Atmospheric, funny, realistic, moving and? terrifying.

Darren joins the vampire, Mr Crepsley, as his assistant and they return to the Cirque Du Freak. There, Darren makes friends with the snake-boy, Evra Von (who knows what Darren is) and a local boy, Sam, and RV, an eco-warrior and animal lover (who do not). Darren begins to enjoy his life among the Cirque performers as the youngest half-vampire in existence, but he defiantly refuses to drink human blood – the whole idea sickens him – and he tries desperately to cling on to the part of him which is human.

Darren comes face to face with pure evil in the form of Mr Tiny, the leader of the Little People who join the Cirque Du Freak, and who eat anything – including human flesh. When he discovers animal bones, RV frees the wolf-man from his cage – and no-one could possibly guess how truly terrible the whole effect would be.