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3.62 AVERAGE
3.62 AVERAGE
dark
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
adventurous
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Sometimes “Bad TV” can come from a good novel. Thankfully, this is not the case with Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan’s The Strain (good tv and good book). This novel basically says F#ck you “Sparkly Vampires” and drags the vampire back to its dark and sinister coffin full of native dirt. Because Mr. del Toro does firstly work in a visual medium, the descriptions of the scenes are excellent, with just the right amount of tension.
Mr. del Toro wrote this series as a TV series or movie in 2009 and when it was not picked up collaborated with Mr. Hogan creating a trilogy of novels. After being forced to watch all 1,687 Twilight movies by my tween girl, I found The Strain,<\u> to be a refreshing change. The weird part of that statement is that to be perfectly honest, there was not all that much original characterization. The main characters were all clichés. The Doctor no one will listen to with his ex (sort of)-lover assistance, the battle scared old man who knows what is going on (Think Gandalf in TLOTR), The Mexican Gangbanger with a heart of gold, the Russian immigrant Rat catcher (Ok I admit that one is unique), the drug and sex obsessed Goth rocker. On the plus side, the science of disease vectors and the exponential spread of a virus through a closed system rings true. I enjoy novels where the author takes the time to get it right. Working in the medical field does that to me. I also loved that some of the mythos of the vampire was kept by the authors. Crucifix and holy water; useless. Silver weapons, mirrors, and the inability to cross water; true. Go figure.
I don’t know what to tell you, I liked this book. In spite of all the flaws I tore through this novel and found myself cringing in all the right spots, encouraging the main characters and hoping they would make it through the next page. Now is this an award winning novel? No. But it made me interested in the next novel in the series (It’s called The Fall and I am user 8 on the wait list of my digital library) but it has also made me curious about Chuck Hogan. So he is probably the big winner in all this.
Mr. del Toro wrote this series as a TV series or movie in 2009 and when it was not picked up collaborated with Mr. Hogan creating a trilogy of novels. After being forced to watch all 1,687 Twilight movies by my tween girl, I found The Strain,<\u> to be a refreshing change. The weird part of that statement is that to be perfectly honest, there was not all that much original characterization. The main characters were all clichés. The Doctor no one will listen to with his ex (sort of)-lover assistance, the battle scared old man who knows what is going on (Think Gandalf in TLOTR), The Mexican Gangbanger with a heart of gold, the Russian immigrant Rat catcher (Ok I admit that one is unique), the drug and sex obsessed Goth rocker. On the plus side, the science of disease vectors and the exponential spread of a virus through a closed system rings true. I enjoy novels where the author takes the time to get it right. Working in the medical field does that to me. I also loved that some of the mythos of the vampire was kept by the authors. Crucifix and holy water; useless. Silver weapons, mirrors, and the inability to cross water; true. Go figure.
I don’t know what to tell you, I liked this book. In spite of all the flaws I tore through this novel and found myself cringing in all the right spots, encouraging the main characters and hoping they would make it through the next page. Now is this an award winning novel? No. But it made me interested in the next novel in the series (It’s called The Fall and I am user 8 on the wait list of my digital library) but it has also made me curious about Chuck Hogan. So he is probably the big winner in all this.
This book blends three horrors - viral outbreak, zombies and vampires - and makes something new out of them.
A plane lands in New York, and shortly thereafter goes completely dark. No one knows why. There were no calls for help. The CDC's "canary" team, named after the birds that warn miners when the air goes bad, is sent in to investigate. What they find makes no sense.
An old pawn broker who survived World War II has seen this before, and wants to help Eph's team, but to a modern mind he's spouting nonsense and superstition.
A plane lands in New York, and shortly thereafter goes completely dark. No one knows why. There were no calls for help. The CDC's "canary" team, named after the birds that warn miners when the air goes bad, is sent in to investigate. What they find makes no sense.
An old pawn broker who survived World War II has seen this before, and wants to help Eph's team, but to a modern mind he's spouting nonsense and superstition.
I tried so hard to get through this book but after 6 months I’ve dnf’d at 50%.
I’m so bummed because I loved the show but I just feel like the book is trudging along and I’m not excited to continue.
I’m so bummed because I loved the show but I just feel like the book is trudging along and I’m not excited to continue.
The plot was repetitive with the most flat and lack-luster characters imaginable, but the monsters were so compelling I couldn't put the book down.
I love that Del Toro is trying to make vampires horrifying again (and is mostly succeeding because parasites are also the thing of nightmares), but the writing gives this book such a cookie-cutter "we made this with TV character tropes in mind!" feel that I'm left feeling a bit disappointed.
It starts out great and you really feel the suspense, but bouncing between all of the characters which inevitably have the same result (surprise, they're vampires and they're eating their families) gets incredibly repetitive. The book has a solid 100 pages of unnecessary gore fluff and the end had me groaning with "Oh god it's a series and this isn't over."
I love that Del Toro is trying to make vampires horrifying again (and is mostly succeeding because parasites are also the thing of nightmares), but the writing gives this book such a cookie-cutter "we made this with TV character tropes in mind!" feel that I'm left feeling a bit disappointed.
It starts out great and you really feel the suspense, but bouncing between all of the characters which inevitably have the same result (surprise, they're vampires and they're eating their families) gets incredibly repetitive. The book has a solid 100 pages of unnecessary gore fluff and the end had me groaning with "Oh god it's a series and this isn't over."
Perhaps I don’t read enough of these types of books to be an accurate judge—I generally stay away from any forms of entertainment that involve gruesome monsters killing people—but I was almost literally enthralled by THE STRAIN. It’s a meticulously written, seat-of-your-pants suspense novel and will horrify both your psychology and physiology.
One thing I’ve noticed about this genre is that characters are usually stock characters, and the focus of the book tends to be more on the plot and premise. Normally this bothers me, but for this genre, I don’t really mind, especially because the combined power of Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan has really given us a frighteningly detailed picture of the worst monster that could foist itself on our lives. The science aspect is well done, the vampires explained in such a way that I could very much believe they can exist.
The narrative jumps from character to character and always seems to end juuuust before the horrible, violent thing occurs, leaving us antsy in our seats, as we know what happens and yet need to take it upon ourselves to imagine the worst. Perhaps that is now a cliché for this genre, but I guess I’m a noob enough to be able to enjoy it. Recommended to those with a hardy stomach and a slightly crazy fascination with the darker side of vampiric natures!
One thing I’ve noticed about this genre is that characters are usually stock characters, and the focus of the book tends to be more on the plot and premise. Normally this bothers me, but for this genre, I don’t really mind, especially because the combined power of Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan has really given us a frighteningly detailed picture of the worst monster that could foist itself on our lives. The science aspect is well done, the vampires explained in such a way that I could very much believe they can exist.
The narrative jumps from character to character and always seems to end juuuust before the horrible, violent thing occurs, leaving us antsy in our seats, as we know what happens and yet need to take it upon ourselves to imagine the worst. Perhaps that is now a cliché for this genre, but I guess I’m a noob enough to be able to enjoy it. Recommended to those with a hardy stomach and a slightly crazy fascination with the darker side of vampiric natures!
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No