On Saturday I saw the film "Cirque de Freak: The Vampire's Assistant," in which a young boy goes to a shady travelling carnival, meets up with vampires and has his entire life changed. The movie was pretty good, and incidentally, I totally bought John C. Reilly as a vampire. Overall it was a great flick for me to enjoy with my vampire loving 12-year-old. When I think about stories involving travelling vampire shows for myself, I've got to admit, my personal favourite is definitely Richard Laymon's The Travelling Vampire Show.

The Story itself focuses on three young kids, Dwight - our narrator, Slim - his tomboy love-interest, and Rusty - his best friend. The novel is set in 1963 and has a very nostalgic vibe throughout. Basically the three teens hear about this upcoming show, try to sneak an early peak with unfortunate results, and the show itself, featuring a very sexual vampire called Valeria, ends up being the climax of the book. The whole books balances expertly between a nostalgic look at being 16 and a horrific look at the actions surrounding the show - the violence is pretty extreme. I guess this may not be your grandmothers travelling vampire show book.

Richard Laymon died at age 54 of a heart attack in 2001. His works, although critically praised here (both Stephen King and Dean Koontz were fans), were most popular in Europe. I haven't read anything else by him yet, but this novel, along with David Morrell's Creepers, was one of the best unheard of titles I found while reading the Bram Stoker Awards. ( )

This was a realy good book. I was looknig for a vampire book, and while the word "vampire" appears in the title, there's really no vampires in the book. Well, in teh last ten pages there's a possible vampire. It's a coming of age story set in the 60's. Lots of gore, lots of sex stuff, and it's a really quick read. ( )

a fast paced twisted tale that keeps the reader guessing whats going to happen next. Dont expect the typical happy go lucky ending where all the characters are left better for what they have been through.
By far my favorite Laymon work. ( )

It was a good story, I liked Layman's Writing, and I think if there were others about Vampires I would read those too. I liked the characters, and the story line, but it just wasn't as good overall as some of the other stuff that I read. ( )

Not bad, but there are certainly better out there. A coming of age vampire story that wraps things up a bit too neatly in the end. ( )