DARREN SHAN：THE THIN EXECUTIONER

This book was certainly an interesting journey. I picked it because I was curious about Darren Shan, since I have heard much about the Cirque du Freak books but have never read them, and because the description said it was inspired by "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" -- and since I'm a high school English teacher, I have taught that book to my classes, and it is one of my all-time favorites among the classics.

But it arrived while I was deep in another book, and so by the time I got started reading this one, I had forgotten it was connected to "Huck Finn." That turned out to be a good thing, because it helped me to enjoy the beginning: the main character, Jebel Rum, is a young boy who desperately wants to follow in his father's footsteps, but unfortunately he has two older brothers who are much more likely to do so -- and since their father holds the honored place of Executioner for their city, only one of the three can take his place when he retires. The father shames Jebel, leaving him out when speaking in public about which of his sons will take his place as Executioner, so Jebel decides he will take on an impossible quest in the hopes of eliminating the shame of his father's dismissal.