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3.62 AVERAGE
3.62 AVERAGE
Interesting plot. The writing leaves a lot to be desired. I felt like I was reading a movie script.
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
i'd rather reread the entire twilight saga again. worse than the maze runner books. just don't.
This was a fun summer read for me. Different twist on the overdone vampire stories that kept me turning page after page. This probably had more to do with the style of writing, that comes in short quick bursts, which allows you to flow through the story. There easily could have been more depth given to this book and story line, but like I said, a good quick summer read. So, go ahead and get this book, sit back, and enjoy for a few days.
Del Toro and Hogan write a serviceable thriller. It's not the revolution in vampire fiction some of the book blurbs would have you believe. At first it seems as though the authors are going with a strictly biological route in their version of vampirism, but they hedge their bets and include a few supernatural touches as well, specifically related to mirrors and telepathy.
It's very apparent that it's the first in a trilogy, as there are numerous plot threads left dangling in the finale, not least of which is just what purpose the four "survivors" of the plane are supposed to serve.
What's good? Well, the action set-pieces are very well written. It can be hard to write interesting action sequences, and on this score, the authors succeed. They also paint some gruesome pictures of the vampire virus, and there are plenty of decent "splat!" moments for lovers of the gooey stuff.
What's not good? Character development. Specifically, the lack of it. The only character who gets any real development time is the old Jewish vampire hunter guy. The main character is a bore. His main deal is he really really loves his son. His love interest gets literally NO development. All we really learn about her is that she's nice, good at her job, and she and the main dude occasionally have sex and feel guilty about it afterwards. Perhaps in later books we'll get to know these people a little better. At the moment, its all just surface stuff. I doubt The Strain will be added to the canon of Vampire classics.
At least its better than Twilight.
It's very apparent that it's the first in a trilogy, as there are numerous plot threads left dangling in the finale, not least of which is just what purpose the four "survivors" of the plane are supposed to serve.
What's good? Well, the action set-pieces are very well written. It can be hard to write interesting action sequences, and on this score, the authors succeed. They also paint some gruesome pictures of the vampire virus, and there are plenty of decent "splat!" moments for lovers of the gooey stuff.
What's not good? Character development. Specifically, the lack of it. The only character who gets any real development time is the old Jewish vampire hunter guy. The main character is a bore. His main deal is he really really loves his son. His love interest gets literally NO development. All we really learn about her is that she's nice, good at her job, and she and the main dude occasionally have sex and feel guilty about it afterwards. Perhaps in later books we'll get to know these people a little better. At the moment, its all just surface stuff. I doubt The Strain will be added to the canon of Vampire classics.
At least its better than Twilight.
Del Toro said he was sick of teen-pop romantic vampires. So, he sat down to make (not write, note) a scary, realistic vampire novel. First of a trilogy, it succeeds in realism (weird to read a novel referring to the credit meltdown and foreclosures already) and non-cuteness (lots of fecal matter etc). I just wouldn't call it scary. The idea's there (I assume that's Del Toro's contribution) but the writing is lacking (I assume that's Hogan's part) never really taking off. Still, I'll read the next one to see it where it goes and it really is very nice to have vampirism as a rampant disease instead of a sexy (or worse, sparkly) romance.
what an amazing traditional vampire book! My review: http://obsessivebookworm.wordpress.com/2012/06/18/book-review-the-strain/
The book was fairly interesting, often sentimental, and very disgusting in parts. I wasn't especially impressed with the writing itself. As for the story, they've taken a modern/biological approach to vampires and kind of tied it into a zombie-like story. Setrakian is definitely just another version of Van Helsing, the old experienced guy who tells everyone what to do and how to stop them. Their research was kind of strangely presented, just sort of plopped into the paragraph instead of perhaps having it spoken about by a character, particularly their research about rats. I'd be reading along about some rat situation, then several sentences of fun facts about rats would follow. It was particularly amusing that I noticed this because at the end of the book it says, "The authors strongly recommend reading:...." and it's the book on rats that they got their random fun facts from. And since this is only the first book of three, the ending was rather underwhelming. It also seemed to take them forever to get to the point. They kept building the suspense, building the mystery, but they built for a little too long. It got a little tiresome.
Made it half way through the book bored to tears and hoping it would get better. it seemed so promising but just really doesn't captivate me like I expected it would.