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A review by brea_by_the_beach
The Passage by Justin Cronin
3.0
It is exactly six months since New Jersey instituted state wide Covid-19 shut downs to deal with a global pandemic. Things are still uncertain in the sense that schools are still mostly distance learning based, I’m still doing my legal appearances remotely, and the prospect of a vaccine for this thing seems miles away. I’ve managed to read a number of dystopian/virus themed/doomsday books the last few months, perhaps for obvious reasons. What I liked about this one was the tie in between a virus and vampirism.. which only makes sense if you consider how infection is transmitted.
This book, which is a trilogy, has some fantastically creepy moments. Particularly in the first third of the book, I was engrossed. The concept of the government being responsible for the creation of this virus, it’s unplanned spread, and potentially it’s beneficial opportunities provides all kinds of leeway for fantastical plot devices and theory and politicizing. This book doesnt do that yet. It sticks to some great narrative and character development. That was my favorite part.
BUT.. at 700 plus pages... it’s bloated and got confusing, and quite frankly, I was ready for it to be over.. and I LOVE vampire related stories.. so, I am trying to figure out where this story took a detour. I think, personally, it may have just had too many characters up front, and the arc of deciding who was the hero here, got lost in the thread.
Edited to add.. as creepy and fun a read as this was for the first third, I don’t have any desire to keep reading it through the next two books. Maybe that means editing my stars? Who knows.. but there it is.
This book, which is a trilogy, has some fantastically creepy moments. Particularly in the first third of the book, I was engrossed. The concept of the government being responsible for the creation of this virus, it’s unplanned spread, and potentially it’s beneficial opportunities provides all kinds of leeway for fantastical plot devices and theory and politicizing. This book doesnt do that yet. It sticks to some great narrative and character development. That was my favorite part.
BUT.. at 700 plus pages... it’s bloated and got confusing, and quite frankly, I was ready for it to be over.. and I LOVE vampire related stories.. so, I am trying to figure out where this story took a detour. I think, personally, it may have just had too many characters up front, and the arc of deciding who was the hero here, got lost in the thread.
Edited to add.. as creepy and fun a read as this was for the first third, I don’t have any desire to keep reading it through the next two books. Maybe that means editing my stars? Who knows.. but there it is.