YMMV / The Saga of Larten Crepsley

• Anti-Climax Boss: The fourth book is titled "Brothers to the Death", which is a huge giveaway of who the villain is. What's more, Larten easily dispatches Wester, focusing more on his emotional distress.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Malora, at least in the Japanese fandom. Many fans wanted the plucky girl and Larten to end up together.
  • Holly-Jane Gallinec, the sole female vampaneze. Not only she's one of the few good-hearted vampaneze, she's a badass too.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: Just like its sequel, the books were incredibly popular in Japan.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: The Vampire's Assistant 2009 film had two unintentional moments.
  • Gavner doesn't look like the Gavner from the novels at all. He's lean, uptight and hates vampaneze. Aren't we sure we're talking about Wester Flack instead?
  • Larten's backstory about his human girlfriend Hester Collins is vaguely similar to Larten and Alicia Dunyck's love story.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Everything about The Saga of Darren Shan became even more painful thanks to The Saga of Larten Crepsley.
  • Most obviously, the fact that Vur Horston was an actual person. Especially when it's revealed he was Larten's gentle cousin, who died when he was just a child.
  • Pretty much all of Gavner and Larten's interactions become this when it is revealed that Larten was a surrogate father to him, but refused to get close to the boy due to his accidental murder of his biological parents, leaving Gavner with huge daddy issues and a desire to be acknowledged by Larten.
  • Murlough's murders were bad enough with the details given, but becomes a lot more bitter with the revelation that he killed Wester's family and it was one of the things that motivated his lifelong hatred for vampaneze.
  • Vancha mocking Larten that "his feelings for one person will endanger the vampire race" (as in, Larten's increasing grudge on vampaneze after one of them supposedly killed his girlfriend). Years later, Vancha does exactly that by refusing to kill Gannen due to his feelings for his brother.
  • At the end of the series, Kurda is hopeful that with the World War II over, vampires will agree to make a truce with the vampaneze. Not only the sequel shows that it doesn't happen, but Kurda ends up dying for trying to force a compromise against both races.
  • Vancha says he and Gannen considered Evanna to be a mother figure, as she adopted them when they were children. This becomes extremely squicky when they impregnate her at the end of the series.
  • Just the fact that Larten is forced to kill his revenge-obsessed friend who commited a Moral Event Horizon and was manipulated by Mr. Tiny. Darren was forced to do the same at the end of his own series. It doesn't help that Larten and Wester are distant counterparts to Darren and Steve respectively.
• Ho Yay: There's a lot of subtext and bromance between the vampires, not helped by Word of God's reveal that most of the vampires in Vampire Moutain are gay or bisexual. Especially Larten/Wester, Larten/Seba and Larten/Vancha.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • Traz brutally murdering Vur out of mere annoyance. It doesn't help that he had an irrational hatred towards the boy.
  • In-universe, Larten considers his massacre of the Pearly Tornado to be this, to the point that's why he refuses to get close to Gavner, as he killed his biological parents.
  • Wester killing Alicia and putting the blame on a vampaneze in order to spark a war against vampires and vampaneze.
  • Also Mr. Tiny, who was the one that gave Wester said idea in the first place.
• The Woobie:
  • Being forced to leave his hometown after getting revenge on the man that murdered his cousin, Larten becomes a vampire's assistant. Annoyed with the vampires's Honor Before Reason customs, he becomes a rebel vampire trying to live his own life. This results in him massacring the crew of the Pearly Tornado after they killed his assistant Malora. Horrofied by what he's done, Larten tries to commit suicide and is cold to the young Gavner Purl, whose parents were victims in the Pearly Tornado massacre. Just when things start looking up to him and is about to marry Alicia Dunyck, he's outed as a vampire and forced to leave her. His attempts to give Gavner a normal life are All for Nothing after Tanish Eul makes the boy his assistant. To make things worse, Alicia is murdered by a vampaneze, leading Larten on a wild goose chase for 30 years trying to find the killer. And finally he finds out the one who killed her was his best friend Wester, who wanted to spark a war between vampires and vampaneze. At this point, Larten is done with everything, saying that Alicia, Vur and Malora were "too good for this sinful earth" and that wretched people often get away with everything.
  • Vur is a huge Stepford Smiler whom despite being very cheerful, ended up snapping after being abused by Traz all his life. His attempt to stand up to Traz ends up with a slow and painful death that Larten is forced to watch.
  • Wester was the sole survivor after Murlough massacred his family, becomes obsessed with getting revenge which results in a grudge against all vampaneze and Seba and Larten are forced to watch as Wester becomes consumed with revenge over the years, to the point of trying to spark a war against vampires and vampaneze. Even though he adores Larten as a brother, Mr. Tiny convinces him that he has to kill Alicia in order to push him to his cause. To make matters worse, Larten decides to forget all about Wester after he kills him.
  • Gavner had it rough since birth, his biological parents dying in a vampire massacre and almost being left to die as a baby by Larten. Despite seeing Larten as a father, he's cold towards the boy, due to his involvement in his parents's deaths. After Larten is forced to leave France and blaming his surrogate mother for it, Gavner latches on to Tanish Eul, who makes him a vampire. He's then forced to watch Larten killing Tanish, suffers a mental breakdown when he finds out why Larten is so cold to him, and just when he's happily reunited with Larten and Alicia again, she's killed in mysterious circumstances that he never finds out. The poor guy has gone through a lot.
  • Alicia is a kind woman who grows to love Larten and adopts Gavner as a son, encouraging the shy boy to come out of his shell. Not only she's separated from Larten after he's outed as a vampire, but Gavner becomes distant with her due to Tanish's manipulations. And just when things start looking up to her, she's killed by Wester in an attempt to spark war against vampires and vampaneze.