A review by allisonarthur12
The Passage by Justin Cronin

4.0

I didn't realize The Passage was the first book of a trilogy, but now I don't know how I'm going to wait for the second book to come out in 2012. The only reason I don't rate this book 5 stars is it's length. It's 768 pages, so brace yourself. Wait for a long weekend or a very long plane ride. The story jumps back and forth between points in time and different, and there's about a million characters to keep track of as well.

Basically, it's about a government experiment that goes wrong. Men are turned into creatures (my friends insist they're zombie-like, but I argue that they're more similar to vampires), and the human population gets practically wiped out.

A hundred years later, some humans, thinking they probably are alone in the world, begin to put pieces of the puzzle together and go off in search for not only other colonies but also a way to end the creatures for good. They discover that they are somehow connected to people born decades before them and join together to discover the creatures' secrets.

It's difficult to explain more about the story without giving anything crucial away. The line was great, but what I found most fascinating was the way that Cronin took several different writing styles and incorporated them into his book.

Great read. Highly recommended, if you have the time.