Reviews - The Strain | The StoryGraph

1.34k reviews for:

The Strain

Guillermo del Toro, Chuck Hogan

3.62 AVERAGE

mhuxley's review against another edition

5.0

Wow. Bold, italicized, underlined, all caps, 32 point font, WOW.

garethgraves's review against another edition

4.75

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

faeward's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

ragainsth's review against another edition

3.0

I'm not much for horror, but this book read a little to much like an abbreviated television script. Considering its origin as exactly that... I appreciated the vampire-as-plague idea. All of that was very clever. I just found the writing to be a bit too spartan.

moistforchoice's review against another edition

4.0

4 stars. Fantasy elements - monsters, fighting, war - are not my thing, so I did get bored halfway through the book, and skipped one or two fight scenes in preference for the explanatory scenes. I'm rating this book objectively, assuming that I liked the genre. It was a easy, fast, exciting read, with a well-thought out storyline and good worldbuilding. The build up from the start of the book steadily paced, and the author tells the story from different character perspectives throughout, giving the reader a view of the situation from all angles. Even though it was technically fantasy, the morphing of human to monster after infection is very realistic and thoroughly enjoyable - from a non-medical point of view, anyway. The descent into apocalyptic chaos is nicely written.

There are two more sequels in the The Strain trilogy. It looks like there will be further development into the war between the different monster clans (?), with humans as mere pawns caught in the middle of battle. War bores me, unfortunately; I might pick up the second book, but I'm not expecting to finish it.