Birth of a Killer

Birth of a Killer is the first book in the series, The Saga of Larten Crepsley written by Darren Shan. It was released on September 30, 2010 in both the UK and the US. Unlike Shan's The Saga of Darren Shan and The Demonata series, this book is told entirely in third person.
Plot
Larten Crepsley is an pre-teen at the start of the book, sharing a bedroom with his multiple brothers and sisters, as well as Vur Hortson, Larten's cousin, whose parents died when the boys were three years old.
Larten and Vur are on their way to the silk factory on which they work in, due to the fact that child labor laws weren't put into effect at the time. The two are living in fear from a man named Traz, the overseer who torments the children working in the factory with harsh punishments. Larten and Vur are identified by the orange hair dye that Traz scrapes onto the children's heads to know who belongs where, explaining Larten's unhealthy orange hair in the Saga of Darren Shan.
At one point, Traz's bosses are coming to the factory to see how the factory is doing. Traz is extremely nervous, treating the children even more harshly than usual.
At one point, he taunts Vur and tells him that Vur's mother was a weaver by day, but a prostitute at a hotel by night. After throwing many silk worms at Vur and calling him horrible names about him and his mother, Vur, in self defense, throws a few silk worms back. Traz, in a blind rage, grabs Vur and drowns him to death.
Larten, confused, angry and upset that Vur was murdered, picks up the first object he sees and uses it to stab Traz in the neck, killing him. Before Larten can stab out Traz's eyes, the other children in the factory are going berserk, trying to arrest Larten for the crime of murder. Larten flees, taking refuge in a nearby mausoleum. While inside, Larten is so hungry that he's forced to eat cobwebs, despite that the cobwebs are grueling and bitter. Doing so, Larten meets Seba Nile, a vampire, who watching him the whole time from the ceiling.
Larten plans to flee, but Seba starts talking to the boy and offers him an apple, which calms Larten down. Larten shares his whole story with Seba, unaware of what a vampire actually is. Seba tastes a sample of Larten's blood in order to see if Larten is evil, which evil blood has a sweetness in it.
Seba offers to have Larten as his human assistant, explaining what he'll be doing for the next few years. Then leaves, planning to hunt, then come back. If Larten stayed, he would be an assistant. If he left, Seba would ignore him and move on.
Larten, at first reluctant, comes to a conclusion that becoming Seba's assistant is the only option he has in order to avoid being lynched.
Later in the story, almost five years after Larten became Seba's assistant. Larten's now stronger, faster and more agile than any other human boy his age, able to kill a panther with his bare hands. Soon, Paris Skyle comes to visit Seba and Larten, offering to make Seba a Vampire Prince. Seba, afraid of power, is reluctant to do so. But, neverless, Seba must travel to Vampire Mountain, leaving Larten to stay with Hibernius Tall at the Cirque du Freak, a freak show.
Larten soon makes his home at the Cirque, befriending many of the performers, learning some of their tricks and gimmicks, and even gets to be a part of the show himself.
Eventually, Larten wanders to a nearby church where the Cirque is settling, horrified to see four cadavers, their bodies drained of blood. The only survivor, a young boy named Wester, vows to track down the monster that killed his father, mother, sister and brother. Larten follows after hearing that no one else will help Wester out of fear.
The boys run over to an abandoned house, where they find the killer in a wine cellar. After knocking Wester unconscious and unsuccessfully attempting to kill Larten, the killer notices that Larten is a vampire's assistant. The killer admits to Larten that he is a vampaneze, showing them of their values and customs. Before the vampaneze leaves, he tells Larten to tell Seba that Murlough spared him.
After Wester recovers, Larten lies to Wester about Murlough in order to prevent Wester from doing something incredibly dangerous. Larten offers Wester a position at the Cirque du Freak, which Wester accepts and enjoys it as much as Larten does.
Eventually, Seba and Larten meet again, this time, Seba offers to take Wester as an assistant also after testing Wester's blood, which is shown to be even purer than Larten's. Seba, Larten and Wester prepare to make the long trek to Vampire Mountain.

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