Vampire Mountain by Darren Shan

Author: Darren Shan
ISBN # 0007114419
Publisher: Collins
First Published: 2001
162 pages

The blurb:
Darren Shan and Mr Crepsley make a long and dangerous trek to the vampire's stronghold in the mountains. The trek is a test of skill and endurance one which sees Darren's vampire nature develop, and a new understanding of the mysterious blue-robed servants of the sinister Mr Tiny. Gavner Purl makes a welcome return when he joins Darren and Mr Crepsley, but they face more than the cold on their way to the vampire princes - the vampaneze have been there before them...Will Darren's meeting with the Vampire Princes restore is human nature, or turn him further towards the darkness...

Review:
It’s been a little while since I read the first three books in this gut-wrenching saga, but the stories have stayed fresh in my memory as they were just so well-written – this continued the tale in fine tradition, picking up where the last left off. Shan has a way of plunging the reader straight into the action, creating a whirlwind of mad activity, getting you sitting right on the edge of your seat, and then leaving you dangling with a tremendous cliffhanger that has you begging for more!

In Vampire Mountain, Darren (the character) has done a lot of growing up (not that you could tell if you looked at him, as he hasn’t physically aged much in the eight years he’s been a half-vampire) and his frustration at being stuck as a teenager is something with which all teens can relate (who didn’t wish they were an adult already when they were 14?) and watching him suffer through the trials and tribulations as he struggles to gain acceptance within the vampire community mirrors the problems we all face when we’re young – Shan has a way of capturing those feelings and whacking them all down on the page so that it al makes a strange kind of sense.

I can’t wait to get hold of the rest of the series – I know I’ll be racing through them all, dying to find out what happens next!

Rating: 8