Cirque du Freak the first book in a series of novels by Darren Shan, which has been adapted into a 2008 film starring John C. Reilly and Salma Hayek. In the story, a schoolboy is taken under the wing of a vampire traveling in a freak show. The tale does not present vampires as villains, but as generally positive, conflicted characters struggling against inhuman urges. The book contains a narrative twist that could be described as "meta"—the main character has the same name as the author, Darren Shan.