I haven't discussed the book covers in awhile unfortunately but, this one is pretty iconic!

SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

Chapters Read: 1-5

If I'm being honest, I have tried my best to avoid getting too sentimental about these Cirque Du Freak books besides, ya know, early on in the blogs about the series. If I'm wildly sentimental in each and every post, I guess it starts to feel stale. While I've probably still been very sentimental, believe me, I could have been more so.

But now that I'm in the final book, all bets are off, and I'm likely going to be a straight up cornball. I don't care.

Holding book twelve in my hand, just feels wild. For years, these favorite stories of mine just sit on the shelf, and simply exist. Now that I'm beginning this final Cirque Du Freak tale once again, it's really quite intense for me.

These books mean so much to me, and finishing the series, kinda hurts. It's a serious reminder of how short life is. How many more times will I ever get to read 'Sons of Destiny'? It's sort of similar to when you experience your favorite holiday, or birthday. But for these books, I don't necessarily read them once a year. There's no routine or schedule whatsoever. It is a very eerie feeling.

Every word is a memory. Infinite micro flashbacks come back all the time. I know people say that, living in the past is maybe unwise, but I don't think I am, I don't think it's that simple. Sure, reading these books now reminds me of younger days. But as I say so often, I also digest the story in a whole new way these days. Additionally, whenever the day comes that I read these again, likely years from now unfortunately, I'll be reminded of THIS 2026 me in addition to the even younger me. It's like echoes of me, a time machine.

I mean, re-reading favorite books becomes your own personal mental scrapbook or something. Yeah, I think that nailed it perfectly. It's like a jumpstart. It's as if a shovel digs deep into the mind, and flings out a buried, long forgotten moment. It's truly jarring. I almost feel bad for those that haven't read books when they were younger to an extent. I've yet to experience anything else remotely like this. Favorite movies can sometimes do this, but it's like no more than five percent of the feeling favorite books have given me.

Books require you to sit, and take time. I'm starting to really think that, reading the letters really does have a certain power. The words like burn or sort of mold into your brain. Truly wild. It takes a certain effort or microscopic muscle to really compute the words and register them. So it literally forms a signature memory. It's like a weird teleportation situation.

Anyway, 'Sons of Destiny' is already excellent. The aftermath of Shancus dying hurts a lot more this time around. Again, I sort of forgot he even dies so it was a mini surprise. Just terrible.

I feel for Darius too. This kid's life is extremely confusing. Breaks my heart.

Darren's full circle moment is so interesting. This series is often very unforgiving and brutally realistic/honest. In that way, it's almost cruel that Darren gets this moment to meet his sister and revisit his family home. It's pretty uncharacteristic as this series feels like it often promotes moving on and staying strong through change.

Still, as much as I point that out, it's still bittersweet. Even though Darren gets to return, everything is different. Nothing is the same. His parents aren't there, Annie is a mother, Darren himself is an uncle. As old as I get, that's still rough. Stability is a beautiful thing, to be cherished.

Darren turning Darius from a vampaneze into a vampire was a really nice gesture. Of course it was necessary, not just nice, but yeah at the end of the day, it was cool of Darren. Even in the stress of this situation he was there for his nephew, who literally shares half his DNA with Steve.

Evanna is, well, frankly becoming annoying a bit. I suppose she's just the messenger but eh she still bugs me. In the end, she comes around and become likeable again, but currently in these recent books, she's just been this vague pessimistic mostly unhelpful being. At a certain point I sorta am failing to see what the point of her presence is. She basically just stalks everyone and says over and over to Darren that 'yep you're cooked bro, this is all pretty much pointless.' I typically do like Evanna, but in these very recent installments, she's been a bit annoying.

Frankly, as tainted and dark Darren is becoming, I'm beginning to gain a lot of respect for him lately. He still is consistently several steps behind Steve, but he seems to sorta be handling the stress strangely well at times. He has so many reasons to falter, or give up altogether but his ability to think on his feet and take things one step at a time, is pretty impressive. He's just becoming used to the odds being stacked against him at this point.

Knowing Darren's ultimate fate, it's still so tragic. He has so much to live for, and so many things have been unfair in his life and he really never had a chance at a relaxed, even relatively normal life.

I guess striving for comfort and expecting everything to go smoothly or easily in life is my own flaw. But whatever, I just feel for Darren. He did have a lot of good times in his eighteen years at least. Not every single moment has been dreadful. Living with the Cirque and in Vampire Mountain was of course enjoyable.

I have spent a lot of time being amazed by other characters, and generally overlooking Darren, and he's certainly losing it slowly which is not ideal. But he's starting to display wisdom and strength in a roundabout way.

Again, I understand that he's nearly done some heinous deeds, but he ultimately didn't, and we can all debate intentions and what almost did or didn't happen, but in life, actions are what matters at the end of the day. Results.

Yeah man. This is pretty intense. Sometimes finales to series get a bump in praise due to it being the end of a great adventure. But I'm starting to SERIOUSLY enjoy this.

Fifteen chapters left ugh....