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3.62 AVERAGE
3.62 AVERAGE
I had such high hopes for this one - mainly because I'm a huge fan of his films, they're basically artworks! - but this book just didn't live up to my expectations. I gotta say I don't read a lot of crimenovels, they bore me to death (no pun intended)so I hoped the vampire aspect would keep my attention - but the vamps in this book are kinda like mindless zombies roaming the streets (actually made me think of Resident Evil). I prefer my vamps to be seductive, evil and actually have a brain.
All in all - too doomsday for my taste and you just don't sympathize with the main character.
All in all - too doomsday for my taste and you just don't sympathize with the main character.
You know a book is good when you buy the second in the series before even finishing the first. I really liked this book and the virus/infection idea that Del Toro decided to use. I've always thought of the Vampire curse as being sort of a blood pathogen, just like the Zombie plague, but the level of detail, and the use of a CDC specialist as the hero, really drives it home.
Those first several pages as they get ready to board the plane are filled with more suspense than I would have thought possible. I was filled with dread at what they would find, even knowing before hand what they would find. Hogan did such a great job of building the fear that one would ACTUALLY feel if this happened. I look forward to reading other books by Chuck Hogan and don't know why I haven't.
All in all a great read. That said, I feel that only Dr. Goodweather was fully formed character. Everyone else, while not 2-dimensional, never felt fully real. Compared to some of the other horror books I've read it didn't stack up. This is my only complaint and the only reason I don't give it a full 5 stars. Also, I couldn't help but imagine the vampires as being similar to the ones that Del Toro directed in Blade 2, the unhinging jaw and extruding sucker (here described as more of a stinger). Though that's a plus not a minus (I love all his films even that one).
A great book for fans of non-sparkling vampires.
Those first several pages as they get ready to board the plane are filled with more suspense than I would have thought possible. I was filled with dread at what they would find, even knowing before hand what they would find. Hogan did such a great job of building the fear that one would ACTUALLY feel if this happened. I look forward to reading other books by Chuck Hogan and don't know why I haven't.
All in all a great read. That said, I feel that only Dr. Goodweather was fully formed character. Everyone else, while not 2-dimensional, never felt fully real. Compared to some of the other horror books I've read it didn't stack up. This is my only complaint and the only reason I don't give it a full 5 stars. Also, I couldn't help but imagine the vampires as being similar to the ones that Del Toro directed in Blade 2, the unhinging jaw and extruding sucker (here described as more of a stinger). Though that's a plus not a minus (I love all his films even that one).
A great book for fans of non-sparkling vampires.
Excellent start to what should become a powerful trilogy. This is a true vampire story, none of that silly sparkly woe-is-me brooding vampire stuff that has been so popular lately. The story is gripping, interesting and well written. I am excited to read the next installment to see what happens.
It’s almost reminiscent of classic mass virus infections like Outbreak, yet so much more.
Read this book.
It’s almost reminiscent of classic mass virus infections like Outbreak, yet so much more.
Read this book.
I might come back to this book at some point, but I just can't seem to get into it right now.
My friend recommended this book to me as she knows I like the horror/vampires/whatever supernatural things and I loved it. It was written so it was incredibly creepy without like really creepy things happening. I tried reading some in a dark room late at night and had to put it aside cause...it was just getting to me which normally I do not get scared like that. That in and of itself was enough to make me love it! The story itself is also really intriguing - it is vampires, but not normal vampires - more like aliens. The whole time it is just building up and it is written kind of like screenplay where I could just visualize this as a movie and I would love to watch that.
Updated 7/14/14
In celebration of The Strain TV show premiering tonight I thought I would re-read the book. I remember the first time I read it I loved it! The first and only book I have read that creeped me out. I remember trying to read in bed one night, but I didn't want to get up and turn on the light, so book light it was. Well that lasted like 2 paragraphs before I was like nope, this is not going to work. Need more light, too creepy. Awesome.
I had forgotten a lot of the details of the story. A plane lands at JFK and then is found just sitting out on the tarmac completely dark. No lights, no noise, nothing. All the shades are drawn on the windows, everything is still and silent. Very strange. So what happened? What is going on? Why is no one moving? Why have there been no phone calls or anything? The way it is written is just so perfect. Everything is just so intense, makes you so on the edge of your seat waiting to see what will happen. So great.
Ephraim is the lead CDC person in charge. Him and his team are trying to figure out what is happening. What killed the people aboard the flight. The first part of the book is pretty detailed about them trying to figure everything out. Quarantining the survivors, looking at the deceased, etc. All of it was so cool! Looking at the autopsies of the dead bodies was so interesting! I loved the details of what is happening and how it works. Yes, from the synopsis you know it is vampires, but these are not like any vampires you have seen before. Yes, they drink blood but man...they are so much worse than normal vampires! They are so cool! I love it. I love how everything is just so different from what I have read before.
Ephraim collects a bunch of misfits to help him fight out this vampire attack. There is one in his group who knows what is going on which is good for all involved. His back story was quite interesting and was a great addition. I loved seeing how different people reacted to what was happening, and seeing everything just spiral out of control quickly. I can't wait to re-read the second book to see what happens next! One of the best creepy books I have read.
This review was originally posted to Jen in Bookland
Updated 7/14/14
In celebration of The Strain TV show premiering tonight I thought I would re-read the book. I remember the first time I read it I loved it! The first and only book I have read that creeped me out. I remember trying to read in bed one night, but I didn't want to get up and turn on the light, so book light it was. Well that lasted like 2 paragraphs before I was like nope, this is not going to work. Need more light, too creepy. Awesome.
I had forgotten a lot of the details of the story. A plane lands at JFK and then is found just sitting out on the tarmac completely dark. No lights, no noise, nothing. All the shades are drawn on the windows, everything is still and silent. Very strange. So what happened? What is going on? Why is no one moving? Why have there been no phone calls or anything? The way it is written is just so perfect. Everything is just so intense, makes you so on the edge of your seat waiting to see what will happen. So great.
Ephraim is the lead CDC person in charge. Him and his team are trying to figure out what is happening. What killed the people aboard the flight. The first part of the book is pretty detailed about them trying to figure everything out. Quarantining the survivors, looking at the deceased, etc. All of it was so cool! Looking at the autopsies of the dead bodies was so interesting! I loved the details of what is happening and how it works. Yes, from the synopsis you know it is vampires, but these are not like any vampires you have seen before. Yes, they drink blood but man...they are so much worse than normal vampires! They are so cool! I love it. I love how everything is just so different from what I have read before.
Ephraim collects a bunch of misfits to help him fight out this vampire attack. There is one in his group who knows what is going on which is good for all involved. His back story was quite interesting and was a great addition. I loved seeing how different people reacted to what was happening, and seeing everything just spiral out of control quickly. I can't wait to re-read the second book to see what happens next! One of the best creepy books I have read.
This review was originally posted to Jen in Bookland
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-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:
Yes
Oh dear.
What a let down.
I was really looking forward to this one. And now I feel just... let down.
I've read some great books recently: emotional, lyrical, beautiful. I wasn't expecting any of that from The Strain. I was looking forward to an enjoyable, rollicking horror vampire fantasy in the style of del Toro's Mimic, Hellboy or Splice. If I was lucky, it could have been as powerful as the wonderful Pan's Labyrinth.
It wasn't either.
It was... lazy. Somehow.
Pedestrian.
The basic plot revolves around the arrival of a mysteriously darkened plane into New York JFK Airport. Once opened, the plane is found to be full of dead passengers and crew. Not a bad premise and I imagine deliberately reminiscent of Bram Stoker's Dracula's arrival into Whitby on the crewless Demeter.
We are led through the investigations into this dead plane by Ephraim Goodweather, a CDC epidemiologist. He is our main protagonist and del Toro and Hogan succeed in investing him with almost no personality. There's a somewhat limp attempt to create a personal back story: he is separated from his wife and fighting to retain partial custody of his son. The writing here was almost embarrassingly pedestrian:
Poor Nora. She was sidelined so far she was barely on the same page.
She was even made to stay home to babysit Zack whilst the men went out to hunt the vampires. She was no Mina Harker!
Just flicking back through the book, nearly every page has ridiculous language. It's not even tongue in cheek, so-bad-it's-good... It's just badly written. I mean, take this as an example:
Oh. Oh dear.
Now, let's turn instead to the vampires. I suppose they didn't sparkle in the sunlight. They had a retractable proboscis-like stinger which darted from the mouth instead of fangs. Why? I imagine the intention was to ramp-up the visceral icky-factor. But, again, the ready appellation of stinger was applied and all the descriptive power dissipated. It could have - should have - been a depiction from a nightmare, dripping, oozing, moist and phallic... But it became just a stinger.
The physiology of the vampire was explained in tedious detail: blood worms transmitted the virus which converted the human physiology into a vampiric one. Cancerous growths on the organs take over and subvert them. After a day and a night, those bitten become stumbling new-born vampires. They have more in common with zombies than vampires: uncoordinated, shuffling and rather easy to kill.
And, seriously, worms?
It felt almost as if del Toro and Hogan didn't agree on how to portray the vampires. Are they supernatural deriving from the blood of an Archangel? Are they infected with parasitic worms? Are they infected with a virus? It just feels messy. There is patently a larger story than is contained in this novel and it may be that these confusions are resolved later. But I'm not sure that I'm prepared to give my time to those books to find out.
A number of reviews on Goodreads compare this favourably with The Passage by Justin Cronin. That, I don't see. The Passage was a wonderful, vivid and mythic reinvention of the vampire. The Strain Is everything I worried The Passage might be: dull, tedious in its violence, superficial in its characterisation and pedestrian in its language.
There is a TV show of the book.
I'm not inclined to watch.
What a let down.
I was really looking forward to this one. And now I feel just... let down.
I've read some great books recently: emotional, lyrical, beautiful. I wasn't expecting any of that from The Strain. I was looking forward to an enjoyable, rollicking horror vampire fantasy in the style of del Toro's Mimic, Hellboy or Splice. If I was lucky, it could have been as powerful as the wonderful Pan's Labyrinth.
It wasn't either.
It was... lazy. Somehow.
Pedestrian.
The basic plot revolves around the arrival of a mysteriously darkened plane into New York JFK Airport. Once opened, the plane is found to be full of dead passengers and crew. Not a bad premise and I imagine deliberately reminiscent of Bram Stoker's Dracula's arrival into Whitby on the crewless Demeter.
We are led through the investigations into this dead plane by Ephraim Goodweather, a CDC epidemiologist. He is our main protagonist and del Toro and Hogan succeed in investing him with almost no personality. There's a somewhat limp attempt to create a personal back story: he is separated from his wife and fighting to retain partial custody of his son. The writing here was almost embarrassingly pedestrian:
"For a lot of other guys Eph knew, men in a situation similar to his own, their divorce seemed to have been as much from their children as from their wives. Sure, they would talk the talk, how they missed their kids, and how their ex-wives kept subverting their relationship, blah, blah, but the effort never seemed to be there. A weekend with their kids became a weekend out of their new life of freedom. For Eph, these weekends with Zack were his life."It seems bizarre that a filmmaker with such a vivid visual imagination felt the need to tell rather than show. The same awkward gauche approach is applied to Eph's relationship with his almost silent colleague, lover and fellow vampire-hunter, Nora Martinez.
Poor Nora. She was sidelined so far she was barely on the same page.
She was even made to stay home to babysit Zack whilst the men went out to hunt the vampires. She was no Mina Harker!
Just flicking back through the book, nearly every page has ridiculous language. It's not even tongue in cheek, so-bad-it's-good... It's just badly written. I mean, take this as an example:
"Eph too had been turned. Not from human to vampire, but from healer to slayer."
Oh. Oh dear.
Now, let's turn instead to the vampires. I suppose they didn't sparkle in the sunlight. They had a retractable proboscis-like stinger which darted from the mouth instead of fangs. Why? I imagine the intention was to ramp-up the visceral icky-factor. But, again, the ready appellation of stinger was applied and all the descriptive power dissipated. It could have - should have - been a depiction from a nightmare, dripping, oozing, moist and phallic... But it became just a stinger.
The physiology of the vampire was explained in tedious detail: blood worms transmitted the virus which converted the human physiology into a vampiric one. Cancerous growths on the organs take over and subvert them. After a day and a night, those bitten become stumbling new-born vampires. They have more in common with zombies than vampires: uncoordinated, shuffling and rather easy to kill.
And, seriously, worms?
It felt almost as if del Toro and Hogan didn't agree on how to portray the vampires. Are they supernatural deriving from the blood of an Archangel? Are they infected with parasitic worms? Are they infected with a virus? It just feels messy. There is patently a larger story than is contained in this novel and it may be that these confusions are resolved later. But I'm not sure that I'm prepared to give my time to those books to find out.
A number of reviews on Goodreads compare this favourably with The Passage by Justin Cronin. That, I don't see. The Passage was a wonderful, vivid and mythic reinvention of the vampire. The Strain Is everything I worried The Passage might be: dull, tedious in its violence, superficial in its characterisation and pedestrian in its language.
There is a TV show of the book.
I'm not inclined to watch.
Didn't get good until around page 450, but the payoff was worth it. It's the first part of a trilogy, so that may be why it was so slow to take off.
This was good. A unique take on vampire/zombies. I just know if someone high up in the CDC told me to get out of town I WOULD GO!