A review by alyssagildea
The Passage by Justin Cronin

4.0

Early on in my reading of this book - I thought for sure it would be a 5 star. Instead, I almost dropped it to 3.5, but will stick with 4 for now. Maybe 3.75. Ha!

There is a lot I really like about this book and the story is superb! However, I found that by the end of it, I felt... exhausted. I felt a bit beaten over the head as it were by the sheer volume of detail and description of every miniscule thing - much of which did not add to the story or overall plot. To me, this book FELT long, even though the 760 pages of the Kindle version is actually not that long. I think a lot of irrelevant details could have been dropped and left this closer to the 550-600 page mark.

This book is very character driven. So if you're solely looking for action... you'll likely not enjoy this too much. There is definitely action and moments that I wondered if I would be able to sleep after reading, but these moments are not the bulk. If you are not into heavy character development and ALL the details in long-winded paragraphs (not only is he sitting and drinking tea, but while he's drinking the tea - how his foot feels because his sock is bunched in his shoe and the color of his shoe is a reminder of that one time..... and the light bouncing off the tea in the glass that is shaped like this... the light shines on that thing on the wall that was given to him by...... -you get my drift), this is not for you.

I know I'm nit picking above, because overall, very good book! I really did enjoy it and Cronin is a fantastic writer. Just wish it was SLIGHTLY more concise at times, which is rarely something I wish for.