吸血鬼王子

Original Rating: 5 / 5Reread Rating: 4.5 / 5A revisit to my childhood, even though I said I was never doing this again after StormbreakerWhen I first read the sixth booth in the Darren Shan series, it was in a rush, with all the rest of the books borrowed at the same time from the library, and I was running out of town. I know that I loved it but I didn’t remember much of what I read at all. I was engrossed with the first cover that I had, which is the one with the detailing that makes it look almost like a photo, but the cover on this one is also a strong favourite of mine. It is menacing, it’s creepy, and the first time I found it, it gave me goosebumps. This is not my favourite book in the Darren Shan saga. If I had to choose one, then perhaps Trials of Death, or maybe The Vampire’s Assistant. Of course, no one is ever going to make me choose so I can just say for sure that I love this with my heart’s content either way. Let me talk about what I loved in this book first of all. I love the characters we have. Everyone is so fleshed out and beautiful – so fleshed out, in fact, I remembered all the characters by the mere mention of their name, the things about them, what they were good at, etc, and I haven’t picked this series up in years. Each character is so well explained that they all have such a special place in my heart.The plot line develops, so well. Even without remembering what happened in previous stories in this saga, Shan has such a really good way of summarising within the new story, without it being repetitive, annoying and actually helps to develop the story, that really, you don’t need to have read the books before this to just dive into the series (of course, reading the series in order drastically helps). The plot twists. I’ve read this before. I knew what was coming. I forgot. I was shook to my core once more, just like I remember being years ago. I was SHOOK. I thought Shan was going one way and then nooooo he went a whole other way and left me with my mouth hanging open and my Dad asking me if I was okay or if I was about to go into some form of shock.These being said, I do feel that it was a little fast paced at times. Although it was easy to follow, and we had information and some chapters at certain points (Darren and the wolves, for instance), I felt like I was racing in this book to keep up. I’m not sure why, and I definitely don’t remember that happening before. Maybe I’ve developed to enjoy a slower reading pace than what I used to have when I first read this series over. Who knows. Not me. But for this, I knocked off half a star, because I literally felt breathless trying to read this. Still read this all in one day though, sue meAnother wonderful instalment of the Darren Shan saga, and a beautiful revisit to my childhood from the master of young adult horror.