1.36k reviews for:

The Strain

Guillermo del Toro, Chuck Hogan

3.62 AVERAGE

thegoodmariner's review against another edition

4.0

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Vampires are not sparkly, teenage Morrisey wannabes. They are not whiny Victorian dandies waxing ontological, they are not Southern Gentlmen, 80s bikers, or dub-step-grinding club kids. They are scary, gruesome monsters.

Thank you, Guillermo del Toro for getting us back there. I love you.

adamrbrooks's review against another edition

4.0

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Good, creepy, gross, fun stuff. Though I was disappointed to realize about halfway through that this was just the first book in a trilogy. Sometimes, I really wish authors could just give me a good story without asking me to dedicate years of my life.

**SPOILER ALERT** I'm not quite sure why there was such a focus on taking down The Master. That wouldn't stop the spread of the infection, would it? Our protagonists got side-tracked, if you ask me.

nikzbookcorner's review against another edition

3.0

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So after I read the reviews, come to find out that this was originally pitched as a TV series. And to be frank, it kinda read like one. Sometimes the reading got a bit over-informative, using 10 pages to describe the character's plight toward impending doom which, quite honestly, would have sufficed with just 3. Don't get me wrong, I love details. Although sometimes, less is more. BUT (yes there is a but!) I will say that it was highly entertaining. Offering up the prefect amount of horror with a great side of creepy. It kept me turning the pages wanting more.

cocci's review against another edition

3.0

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I liked the story, but felt like writing could have been better. Still gonna read the rest though.

hickie33's review against another edition

4.0

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Loved this book. Definitely since it was a different take on vampires.

lindseysparks's review against another edition

3.0

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Interesting take on vampires. No sparkles here.

library_of_sinead's review against another edition

4.0

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Okay so I finally picked this up after many years of it being on my TBR shelf and many years of my husband begging me to read it. I was kind of over vampires then I read Jay Kristoff's new book and it gave me renewed want to consume vampire novels so this seemed like the perfect book to pick-up.

The Strain is set in New York City when a plane is grounded at JFK and everyone on board is dead. The beginning of this book was fantastic. It was written with this sense of urgency and tension and I sped through it. However, it really did begin to slow down towards the middle and I got a bit bored with certain aspects of it. It definitely starts to pick up again towards the end so I do think this is a great book. It jumps through a lot of different perspectives so be aware of that and can be quite hard to follow sometimes.

Overall, this is a great read and a very interesting take on vampires.

4 stars.

erika_is_reading's review against another edition

3.0

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Yet another novel that takes the dark approach to vampires (see, e.g., The Passage), i.e., the Anti-Twilight (and Thank God for that, I say). And, again, similarly, vampire as virus, or something along those lines. The premise was interesting, but I think not compelling in its novelty. Characters were . . . thin, too thin. Scenes were too drawn out. It made for an acceptable read in the passenger seat on a 4-hour trip to the mountains -- and that's about as long as it took. But it ain't literature, and it ain't The Passage.

wintertier's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

trisha_thomas's review against another edition

3.0

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equal parts gross and fascinating, I did this as an audio book and I'm not sure if that helped or made it worse.
The story is good, well done even, but there are a lot of people that are mentioned and it got a little convoluted

but I did enjoy it