Books like cirque du freak

Cirque du Freak (also known as Cirque du Freak: A Living Nightmare) is the first novel in The Saga of Darren Shan by Darren Shan (real name Darren O'Shaugnessy), published in January 2000. The story begins with Darren Shan and his best friend Steve "Leopard" Leonard visiting an illegal freak show where an encounter with a vampire and a deadly, unique spider forces them to make life-changing choices that neither of them could have ever thought possible.

A feature film adaptation of the novel, directed by Paul Weitz and starring Chris Massoglia, John C. Reilly, Ken Watanabe, Josh Hutcherson and Willem Dafoe was released on October 23, 2009.

Darren Shan starts narrating the story by saying he was always fascinated by spiders. When he was young, he used to bring spiders from the garden and let them loose in his house despite what his mum said about never bringing them in, and at the age of 9, he received the greatest gift of his life: a small tarantula. However, the joy of that gift was crushed when he, after watching a cartoon, killed the spider with a vacuum cleaner. He explains, "life, unlike a cartoon, is naturally evil, doesn't care about happy endings, and is always out to kill you. You just have to be careful." He also explains that everything written is true, except for the names.