SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

Chapters Read: 11-15

After watching the Blade trilogy it's really nice to get back to Cirque Du Freak. Another of the many reasons I believe books are the ultimate form of entertainment, better than most movies, is because books don't require any reliance on graphics or CGI or anything like that. The graphics in my mind are top notch, LOL.

Each trilogy of the four trilogies in this series have their own flavor and it's so awesome. Each series Darren slowly grows up more and more of course.

The first trilogy was just Darren coping with his new life and learning the 101 of being a half-vampire.

The second trilogy was a much deeper dive into what it's really like to be a vampire. Learning their lifestyle, history, experiencing their politics. It's grittier for sure.

This trilogy is beginning to feel straight up mystical, magical.

Vancha March might be the coolest character in this whole series. Well, that may be a strong statement but he has made a cool first impression. He's one of the coolest characters for sure. I certainly liked him in my first reads of this series but this time I like him a lot more. He's a bit gross but otherwise he's pretty awesome. Funny, tough, and wise. Just a strong individual.

Vancha tries to battle the sun as a vampire, and he often tests his skin against the sun, in a vague effort to beat the vampires' weakness and/or learn of a solution. He's tried for 100 years with no success. The first time I read this I thought he was a tough brute for this. I respected it but found it a bit silly. But now I see how he probably influences Darren in thinking that Darren can and should try to defy destiny and create his own future. Vancha straight up dislikes Mr. Tiny greatly.

I'm starting to see how he's a much more important character than I realized initially as well. I sorta thought that he was a third hunter just to make the series and quest more interesting. Well, I guess there's truth to that but that's not at all what his purpose is. He brings a whole new perspective and he's very important to the plot. He reveals he actually liked Kurda and voted for him to be a Prince. I didn't remember he liked Kurda. In addition he straight up likes the vampaneze other than their deadly method of how they feed on humans.

I know more things about Vancha but if I broke down each reason why his significance to the story is dawning on me, I'd be writing all day. There will be a time and place for that as the series progresses.

Vancha's significance is giving me similar feelings as I did about Kurda as in, there really seems to be several main characters in this series. Especially when it comes to the people who can prevent the rise of the Vampaneze Lord. I guess it's easy to fall into the feeling of Darren being the main character as the story is told in first person. I'm a bit wiser now and I've read the story before. Darren is a major character, but it seems there's equivalent characters to him at the very least. Humbling stuff.

It was interesting to hear that when Vancha said he liked Kurda, Harkat also spoke up and said he also liked Kurda and thought he was treated poorly. Hmmm. It's a bit interesting to me that Harkat would say such a thing. He's unaware that he was Kurda so there is that maybe when he realizes he was Kurda he will do more soul searching. Harkat does say that he thinks Kurda's punishment of death was sound but he thinks that he shouldn't be seen as a villain. Maybe that's the best way to see him at the end of the day. Kurda was basically a decent person that became overly passionate and fumbled the execution. But man, he was ultimately led by fear of Mr. Tiny too though and this Vampaneze Lord prophecy. I know Mr. Tiny is like the most powerful dude ever but I feel as though the vampires shouldn't be as controlled by Mr. Tiny's words. I don't know that's easy for me to say. Kurda may always be a neverending thought provoking subject. I personally can't get over that he was willing to let the vampires become vampaneze and that he betrayed Gavner. Those points are rough when it comes to Kurda.

Further expanding how this series is mystical and magical, this series dropped CRAZY lore and we learn about another magical being in Evanna.

Evanna is immensely important to the series and I realize this more now, similarly to how I realized Vancha's importance. I sort of simply remembered her as another magical being to keep the series interesting, but she's more than that.

Evanna is magically powerful, and she can have KIDS with vampires. She exists thanks to vampire from long ago named Corza Jarn who pleaded with Mr. Tiny for vampires to be able to have kids. Mr. Tiny eventually relented and created Evanna. So Evanna is the only woman on earth that can have children with vampires. She's basically Mr. Tiny's daughter. She has similar abilities as Mr. Tiny in general but is overall much kinder than him although she isn't always very sweet.

But what's wild for me is, I TOTALLY forgot she could have children with vampires. This seems like a pretty substantial, downright massive, part of the plot of this series now that my memory is jogged. How could I possibly have forgotten that?

As I was digesting all of this lore that was sort of dropped out of nowhere, I realized once again how high level this series really is. I swear re-reading this was a great idea now that I'm older. I'm an idiot now yes, but I was SUCH an idiot back then. Well, I do have the advantage of hindsight now but still. I guess I shouldn't say I'm necessarily dumb but I sort of overlooked important plot lines or lessons before in this story that I'm catching now.

But honestly it's so fun!

The amount of involvement of magic is stunning in this series really. Hunters of the Dusk is feeling like a total pure fantasy book more than ever. There's levels to this series man, LEVELS!

Ugh, I wanna rant longer but that's why I'm blogging about this series in sections. I might be doing the deepest blog reaction to this series ever LOL. Who knows.

This section ends with Darren and Larten deciding to follow their hearts as Mr. Tiny suggested. They're returning to the Cirque Du Freak! Let's go!