Allies of the Night

The Saga of Darren Shan #8

by Darren Shan

Maturing at one fifth the rate of a normal human, Darren has the looks of a fifteen year old, even though he is very much older. Vampire Prince and vampaneze killer he may be, but someone has shopped him to the authorities and it’s time for Darren to go back to school.

But school is not the only thing Darren has to come to terms with: faces from the past, the death of a clan member, a clash with a vampire hunter and blood-thirsty vampaneze mean Darren’s past is catching up with him – fast. It’s time for the allies of the night to join forces. The hunt is on…

Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult, Horror, Vampires, Fiction, Paranormal, Supernatural

186 pages, Paperback

First published November 4, 2002

About the author

Librarian's note: Also writes books for adults under the name Darren Dash. And in the past he has released books for adults under the names D.B. Shan and Darren O'Shaughnessy.

Darren Shan (born July 2, 1972 in London, England) is the pen name of the Irish author Darren O'Shaughnessy, as well as the name of the protagonist of his book series The Saga of Darren Shan, also known as The Cirque Du Freak Series in the United States. He is the author of the series The Demonata, The Saga of Larten Crepsley, and Zom-B. He has also released the stand-alone novel, The Thin Executioner, and the stand-alone short novels, Koyasan, and Hagurosan. Plus, for adults, he released The City Trilogy (originally under the name of D.B. Shan), and Lady of the Shades..

Reviews

[Shawna Finnigan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Easily the best one in the series. Multiple characters from the previous books come back in this one and I was honestly shocked by all of the familair faces. This felt like the perfect combination of the old mysteries in the series and the current plot line. It was perfection. This book left on a massive cliffhanger so I need to read the next book soon.

Also, I still hate the narrator choice for the Audible version of these books. The narrator is a middle aged man pretending to be a character who hasn't gone through puberty yet. It's a great series, but they should've chosen a different narrator.

[Sara Kamjou · Rating 4 out of 5]

به نظرم قوی‌ترین جلد مجموعه تا جلد هشتم همین جلد بود. پیچیدگی‌های داستان بیشتر شده و کمتر قابل حدسه.
------------
یادگاری از کتاب:
وقتی چیزی را شروع می‌کنی، تمامش کن، وگرنه همیشه برایش تاسف می‌خوری.

[Kyle · Rating 4 out of 5]

The hunt for the Vampaneze Lord continues.

Darren and his team of Vampaneze hunters return to Larten Crepsley's home town when they learn that murder victims with all the blood drained from them are piling up. Suddenly, an inspector shows up at their hotel wondering why, after they had enrolled Darren in school, he is not attending and that if he does not begin at once the police would have to get involved. So not only does Darren have to hunt vampaneze, he's got to finish his homework first. Then on top of everything else he has to deal with problems from his past.

Writing as always is quick and clean; definitely nothing fancy. The plot moved quickly with enough surprises to keep me interested. Even though this book ended with the dreaded "TO BE CONTINUED," it still had a great build to it's own climax. So in the end it left me with a satisfied feeling.

[Shannara · Rating 5 out of 5]

First, I’d like to say that this series has got me. I’m so into Darren’s life along with the friends he’s made along the way. Second, I love this one in particular because of a long lost acquaintance or several comes back in this installation.

Third, why the heck didn’t I see that coming?!?! I saw the movie so shouldn’t I have known that this particular event was going to occur?!?! Come on me, pay more attention!!!

So far, I’m recommending this to vampire lovers!!! I can’t wait to get to the end of the series to see it all play out and if I want to change my mind about recommending this to anyone!!! Thanks to audible, I can and have been binging this series!!!

[Narges Amooei · Rating 4 out of 5]

هیجان داستان و پیچیدگی‌ها و رمزورازش بیشتر شده بود.
با فیلمش فرق می‌کنه انگار خیلی و این خوش‌حال‌کننده‌ست که تکراری نیست برام.
آخ و راجع به تصویر روی جلدش؟ خیلی زشت و ناجالبه.

[Whitney · Rating 2 out of 5]

Allies of the Night is the eight book in the Cirque du Freak series. While Darren, Mr. Crepsley, and Harkat are still searching for the Lord of the Vampaneze, mysterious killings bring them back to Mr. Crepsley's home town. But something suspicious is going on. The only thing is, will our heroes figure it out before it's too late?

Plot

Let’s be real: the plot is being drawn out and spread too thin. The whole vampire/vampaneze war is interesting. So is the quest to find and kill the Lord of the Vampaneze. But a half-vampire in school? An entire book full of the protagonists searching for their enemies? These are things that are not interesting. This is the third book in a row that I’ve given two stars to. This is the same problem I had with The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod. The overall plot was interesting enough but it was spread out too much and became boring really quickly. Same thing’s happening in Allies of the Night. Same as with Hunters of the Dusk. It was mostly boring with a bit of action at the end.

Writing

The writing has gotten boring because nothing is going on. It is good quality writing, I give Shan that much. Shan’s writing has always been good, except when there’s no action going on. For the life of him, the man cannot write mundane scenes very well. And this book was full of them, just like the last two.

Characters

I’m starting to dislike Darren a little more. He’s around twenty-five but he’s still making bullheaded decisions. Yes, he’s matured as far as fighting goes, and how he views humanity, but he still makes these naïve choices that are not becoming of someone his actual age.

I like Harkat Mulds a bit more. He’s not afraid to speak up against the questionable things Darren is planning on doing. The relatshionship between him and Darren could have been shown more, though. This book revolved a lot around Darren so I don’t really have an opinion on the other characters.

Things I Didn't Like

The whole school thing was pretty pointless in my opinion and I didn’t like it. I don’t really see a reason for it and it feels like a waste of a book. It was also an insanely easy predicament to get out of. Mr. Crepsley could have said that someone forged all that stuff, which they did. They could have moved out into the woods near the town or travelled to a close town altogether. The school plot is my main gripe.

Diversity

Debbie’s back! So that brings the female and racial diversity count back up to a total of one. Yipee. Downside, however, is that Debbie eventually just becomes the damsel in distress. Take that how you will. That’s about all as far as this section goes.

Overall

This entire book was boring. I cannot put it more simply than that. Nothing really happened except at the end. You can’t have the action happen at the end while making the reader to struggle through three-fourths of the book and expect them to be happy about it. I know I wasn’t. I’ve already read this series once and there’s a reason I couldn’t remember what happened after The Vampire Prince. It’s because between that and The Lake of Souls was too boring to remember! I’ll trudge through the next few books, but if they continue this way then I definitely won’t be happy about it.

Here is a link to my notes.

[Miranda Reads · Rating 3 out of 5]

THIS BOOK DOES NOT have the same feel as the previous three

The last few books were so mentally and physically grueling Darren that I couldn't wait for book 8. I was tired of reading what this poor kid got up to. Finally, some lighthearted adventures.

This one has a somewhat similar feel for Tunnels of Blood - a bit of mystery, a bit of whodunit combined with Darren (the character, not the writer) having to deal with (dun dun dunnnn) high school.

I honestly wish more of the series had this feel to it.

On a side note, anyone else bugged by his age? Every book, I keep trying to place his age but there's never enough clues to get it exactly...

YouTube | Blog | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Snapchat @miranda_reads

[Zahra · Rating 3 out of 5]

.
من فکر می‌کردم استیو ارباب شبح‌واره‌ها باشه. :-"

[Fatemeh Am · Rating 4 out of 5]

تا اینجا بهتر از جلدای قبلیش بود. اینکه بین دوستای قدیمی دارن شک کنی که کدوم یکی براش تله گذاشته. نسبت به جلدای قبلی مخاطبو بیشتر با خودش درگیر میکرد.

[mitween books · Rating 4 out of 5]

این جلد رو کمتر دوست داشتم


اسپویل:



چقدر خوشحالم بالاخره فهمیدم استیو چیکارست 🕴🏻

[Kosar · Rating 2 out of 5]

You can't bring back every character from the past and smash them all into the story. It doesn't work that way :(

[Etienne · Rating 4 out of 5]

3,5/5. Not my favorite of this series! A series I deeply love but this one as some... wouldn't say bad, but definitely not great moment. The beginning as me really worried about the way it might goes. A very casual teenagers school day to day, that goes around for the first 50 pages more or less. And then it pick up some action so it was okay on the long run. It also bring a lot of old characters back in Darren life which is good, but also bring a lot of small emotional/love moment that I'm not really sure about. And finally we do get some action and some back stabbing. So really a good things that always come with a lower ones. The overall story line of the series didn't evolve much in this one and we just not go forward enough for me. I was a bit grumpy reading through it so that might have affect my judgement a little, just want to be honest here. It was alright, certainly continuing the series but probably the lowest one so far.

[Negin · Rating 4 out of 5]

هممم ویراست این جلدم تمومید 0_0
حقیقتاً مشخصه ک ارباب کیه. یه مشت خر دور هم جمع شدن:|
خو عاخه هاااا:|
از پیشگفتار های دارن خوشم نمیاد
همینجوری فقط حرف میزنه خیی سریع هم میگه. ینی اگه یکی یادش نبود داستانو هیچ حسی پیدا نمی‌کرد..:|

[Fanny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kändes lite som en mellanbok men är taggad på fortsättningen som den lagt upp för!

[Jarrod · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, I'd forgotten how much happens in this book! A return of so many old characters, plus love and betrayal? This is a good one. A little odd how much the trio gives in to the trap they're clearly in, but hey, gotta keep it dramatic, right? We're right at the edge of what I remember from my original read-through of the series, so the next few books should be a blast.

[Emad · Rating 3 out of 5]

بالاخره طلسمِ دوستاره‌ای‌ها شکسته شد و این یکی بهتر از آب درآمد.
هرچند قبلاً هم گفته بودم، این اتّفاق می‌توانست بعد از «دخمۀ خونین» بیفتد.
به نظر می‌رسد بعد از این همه صفحه‌خوانی، هرطور شده می‌توان کم‌وبیش با شخصیّت‌ها هم‌ذات‌پنداری کرد و کمی خود را در فضایِ داستان یافت.
به امیدِ این‌که در قسمت‌هایِ بعدی شان حرفش را پس نگیرد. :)

[Natalie Fry]

This book was INSANEEEEE the choice to have Darren Shan, a chronologically 30+ old guy in a teenage body, go back to high school for some reason and RECONNECT WITH HIS FIRST (and only) "GIRLFRIEND" who is now AN ENGLISH TEACHER AT THAT HIGH SCHOOL and STILL HAS FEELINGS FOR HIM FOR SOME GROSS REASON??? Stephenie Meyer could never. Also welcome back to Steve I've been wondering where you've been!

[Kelsey · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yikes. This has probably been the worst one so far, but I kept it up in hopes that the ending would tie it up. Unfortunately for me, the ending was a To Be Continued.

[Jasmin R · Rating 2 out of 5]

I hate Debbie. She’s so freaking annoying. And Darren being so caught up with her is also extremely annoying. It’s so frustrating to read about this.

[Lee · Rating 2 out of 5]

ngl like my least favorite of these purely because i find the story line of darren being forced back into school so cringe

[Vanessa Kiara · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think 3,75 would be more fitting.


I don't know, if I was blind the last seven books before this one, but this one was pretty sexist and it was absolutely unneccessary to aussault Debbie.

Apart from that I enjoyed this read as much as I do any CdF books. I wish I could add more to my personal perception of the book than just "I was intrigued again" and then reciting what happened. But after so many books in a series it gets hard.

Anyways, Darren goes back to school because someone enrolled him there to then later attack him, interesting strategy. There he meets his past time love Debbie but she works there as a teacher so of course they can't be together and also she aged and looks older than Darren.

Life is good, they still don't know where or who the Lord of the Vampaneze is and at some point life isn't good anymore because Paris dies.

Steve reenters Darren's life, they all (Crepsley, Vancha, Harkat, Debbie and Darren plus Steve) plot against the vampaneze, walk into a trap where R.V. is now also a crazy vamp and dun dun duuuun no one would have thought, Steve is a vampaneze.

No one says it but I do have the feeling that Steve is our Lord Vamp.

R.V. kidnaps Debbie, the vampaneze let the vampires run a bit before catching up and Steve is Darren's hostage because, well he berrayed him.

End. We get to see, if they'll live, next time but of course they will, it's still four books.

Now, you might read this and be like "You do not sound like you enjoyed this", well sorry but that's just how it is - you just have to trust me on this.

Let's see, if we get to see our Freaks again, the other vampires and especially... how the war will turn out.

[Emily Krueger · Rating 4 out of 5]

i can’t believe it took until book 8 for steve to come back.

i sooooo wish this was turned into a series like series of unfortunate events.

[Meow · Rating 4 out of 5]

Zase super díl!!! Moje teorie se sice s tímhle dílem rozplynula, ale nevadí, jdeme dál...

[Sabriel · Rating 4 out of 5]

8.14 on CAWPILE

[Blanca · Rating 4 out of 5]

a blast from the past! all i can say is steve, ihy

[Dean · Rating 5 out of 5]

Recensione presente anche su BookLover

Mentre Vancha si trova alla Montagna dei Vampiri, Darren, Harkat e Larten tornano alla città natale di Larten per via delle numerose vittime di Vampaneze. Qui, i tre cercano assiduamente i loro nemici... Fino a quando un ispettore arriva al loro Hotel e comunica loro che Darren deve tornare a scuola. Da qui, le cose vanno sempre peggio.

Man mano che avanzo nella saga, la storia si fa sempre più buia e i pericoli aumentano.
I Vampanaze stanno diventando più aggressivi, e per via degli ordini del loro Signore stanno lasciando da parte il loro onore. Una cosa piuttosto strana, ma capibile: Mr. Tiny ha detto loro che il Signore dei Vmpaneze li avrebbe portati alla vittoria. Ancora non sappiamo con certezza chi è, ma... Insomma, ho i miei sospetti.
Per ora questo secondo tipo di Vamp non mi piace: conosco poco della loro cultura, e sono poco impressionata dalle loro mosse. Poco onorevoli, codarde.
I Vampiri rifiutano di abbandonare l'antica via anche contro nemici che non la rispettano. Mi sento molto vicina ai Vampiri, al loro senso dell'onore e alla loro cultura. Penso che sia una delle "popolazioni" più interessanti che ho trovato nelle mie letture.

In questo ottavo volume ritroviamo personaggi che non avrei mai voluto rivedere, in particolare Hooky, un personaggio che abbiamo incontrato nel secondo libro. Mi è sempre sembrato un po'... sospetto. Non voglio fare spoiler, ma se avete letto il secondo volume capirete.
Ritroviamo anche Debbie, che sinceramente... Non mi sta molto simpatica. È cambiata molto dal terzo volume. Ora è una donna adulta, mentre Darren sembra ancora un quindicenne. Ma a tratti l'ho trovata davvero stupida, anche se devo dare atto del suo coraggio.
E, dulcis in fundo, ritorna anche Steve, l'ex migliore amico di Darren, di cui non abbiamo saputo più nulla dopo il primo libro. È un falsissimo stronzo, passatemi il termine. Non mi piace affatto.
Ovviamente Larten, Harkat, Darren e Vancha non sono cambiati affatto dall'ultimo volume, quindi è inutile parlarne...
Però ho trovato davvero divertente vedere Darren avere a che fare con ragazzini quindicenni a scuola. Mi sono sembrati un po' stereotipati, devo dire. Almeno, io a scuola non ne ho mai incontrati. Da noi il bullismo era più... subdolo.
C'è, poi, un personaggio che mi sta molto a cuore di cui, in poche righe, si parla. Ciò che gli accade non è affatto positivo, ma non voglio fare spoiler. Dico solo che ci sono rimasta davvero malissimo.

Allies of the Night si legge bene come tutti gli altri volumi della serie, è un inglese piuttosto semplice, capibile da chi si appresta a leggere in inglese. Solo, avrei dovuto dirlo prima, non prendete lezioni di grammatica da Darren (il personaggio, non l'autore): fa degli errori molto comuni tra i ragazzini.

Ovviamente, continuo a consigliarvi questa saga, e spero di poter leggere presto il prossimo volume. Anche se ho paura di quello che mi aspetta.

[Viveia94]

Darren and Larten Crepsley went to Mr. Crepsley's hometown to investigate if Vampaneze had set up territories there. Darren was discovered by the police and forced to attend school. People were killed at night and Crepsley and Darren investigated. Darren's English teacher at school is Debbie, his old girlfriend from Tunnels of Blood. Larten Crepsley had to go back to Vampire Mountain again for Paris's funeral. Darren encounters a Vampaneze with a hook and unknown mask wrapped around his face. Darren was attacked by Vampaneze and was saved by Steve. Steve joins Darren for the hunt of the Vampaneze. Darren later reveals himself as a vampire to Debbie. Debbie joins Darren and Steve for the fight. Crepsley comes back later and help Darren pursue the Vampaneze but doesn't trust Steve with him. Vancha also joins again later. They chased the hook Vampaneze to the sewers at night. The Vampaneze led them to a trap. The Vampaneze Lord shows up and Darren and his team were to kill him as their objective. Steve show his true side later betraying Darren and his friends. The hooked Vampaneze was revealed to be RV (Reggie Veggie). Steve joined the Vampaneze as revealed.A fight begins between the Hunters and the Vampaneze. Vancha charges through the Vampets, scattering them and Mr. Crepsley follows, slicing with his nails to bring down many Vampaneze. Darren soon beats Steve and is about to finish him off, but RV uses Debbie as a hostage, so Darren Shan does not kill Steve. RV, Gannen Harst and the Lord soon leave. Darren and his friends took a Vampet and Steve as their hostage and was given a warning by Gannen to leave the tunnels immediately or he'll send Vampaneze to finish them off.

[Undomiel Books · Rating 2 out of 5]

I actually thought this was the weakest book so far in the series, but I seem to be in the minority!

I thought that the whodunnit mystery storyline was way too obvious from the get-go, even for a middle grade/YA book, and the whole Darren and Debbie thing just felt a little weird to me... I get that he is around her age really because of how vampires age, but he still looks like a little kid, and idk it just felt a little icky. Similarly, I didn't like how Debbie, as one of the very very very few female characters, was just a whingey, whiney character who always said silly things and was essentially ridiculed (and literally called a wench) for not knowing the right thing to do, and how she then became the damsel in distress. Some people may think I'm reading too much into it for a kids book series predominantly aimed at boys, but I still think that female characters within those books deserve better representation than the oldest stereotypes known to literature; women being dead weight damsels.

This book just wasn't the one for me, and I hope the rest of the series goes back to its usual greatness!

[Henry Hull · Rating 5 out of 5]

The name of this book should be Deja vu'.

Darren Shan, Mr. Crepsley, and Harket Mulds travel to Crepsely's home town where they hope to find the Lord of the Vampaneze. To their surprise, they learn that Darren has been enrolled at some prep school. Sensing a trap, they decide to spring it by having Darren attend. While there, he discovers that his teacher is none other than Debbie Hemlock, his girlfriend from the third book, who is all grown up now. This isn't the only blast from the past, however, a brutal string of killings occur that has vampaneze written all over it. They are perpetrated by a vampaneze with hooks instead of hands. Finally, Darren is saved from the hooked vampaneze by none other than Steve "Leopard" Leonard, his former best friend, who vowed to one day become a vampire hunter and kill him...

I love how everything from the first trilogy was tied in here. I loved that he had to go back to school; I love that Steve; Debbie; and R.V. (yes he's back too) returned.

All in all, this was just as good as the first two if not better.

[VINH BINH · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first half of the book is weird af.

Getting Darren to go back to school, with both Darren and Mr. Crepsley easily succumbing to this whole bizarre situation without even a fight, is just plain absurd.
Then there’s this stupid romance between Darren, who is still a 15 year old kid (at least in the human eye), and Debbie- a 30-year old teacher- is so so fucked up.

The fight scene at the end is the only redemption this book has, and even it is not that good of a redemption. The whole thing lacks suspense, action, and has too much weird talking and im-letting-you-go-so-we-dont-die shit.
4 against 20, and did the author really allow them to just escape like that. Wow.