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A review by mollylooby
The Passage by Justin Cronin
5.0
Blurb
Amy Harper Bellafonte is six years old and her mother thinks she's the most important person in the whole world. She is. Anthony Carter doesn't think he could ever be in a worse place than Death Row. He's wrong. FBI agent Brad Wolgast thinks something beyond imagination is coming. It is.
Unaware of each other's existence but bound together in ways none of them could ever have imagined, they are about to embark on a journey. An epic journey that will take them through a world transformed by man's darkest dreams, to the very heart of what it means to be human. And beyond.
Because something is coming. A tidal wave of darkness ready to engulf the world. And Amy is the only person who can stop it.
My Review
I have to say first of The Passage that it's a huge commitment. But once committed, there's no turning back. The book is mammoth - 950 pages - and it took me four weeks to read it. And I'm a fast reader. But it was worth every minute I put into it.
The Passage had been on my shelf for a couple of years and I've always been terrified to pick it up based on its hugeness. But I thought, I'm ahead of my book target this year. (At this point I'd read 9 books in 6 weeks - but quite a few of them were my own books) So I could afford a few weeks of not finishing a book.
What struck me first was how different The Passage was from books I normally read. Those of you who read this blog regularly or know me, know that I read teen fiction almost exclusively. But since discovering this book a few years earlier, I knew I wanted to break my usual genre. Though nothing like anything I'd ever read, I fell into The Passage with ease. The narrative was complexly woven and I wanted to keep reading to find out how these characters fit together.
At first I thought it'd be difficult to separate all the characters from one another because the whole thing's so wildly ambitious, but it was surprisingly easy - not trouble free, but most of the time I knew exactly who everyone was and how they were related to everyone else.
All the characters, be them huge major characters like Amy or tiny minor characters, felt so whole, round, and real, I was blown away. It really felt like every single character had a story. And what's more, the story was relevant. Nothing was irrelevant in the whole book. I ate it up. Everything. As it went on I just fell further in love with it.
Masterfully crafted and filled with action, I only have one more thing to say about The Passage. Jane Austen has never been more correct. "If a book is well written I always find it too short." At 950 pages, the longest book I've ever read, this is still true of The Passage. I just didn't want it to end.
Evaluation
Overall 9/10
Would I recommend it? Yes. It was just incredible on so many levels I don't know how I wouldn't.
Would I look up the author? Yes. But I don't fancy the sequel to The Passage. I'm happy with the ending I was given in book one.
The Passage was an incredible journey I didn't want to end.
Amy Harper Bellafonte is six years old and her mother thinks she's the most important person in the whole world. She is. Anthony Carter doesn't think he could ever be in a worse place than Death Row. He's wrong. FBI agent Brad Wolgast thinks something beyond imagination is coming. It is.
Unaware of each other's existence but bound together in ways none of them could ever have imagined, they are about to embark on a journey. An epic journey that will take them through a world transformed by man's darkest dreams, to the very heart of what it means to be human. And beyond.
Because something is coming. A tidal wave of darkness ready to engulf the world. And Amy is the only person who can stop it.
My Review
I have to say first of The Passage that it's a huge commitment. But once committed, there's no turning back. The book is mammoth - 950 pages - and it took me four weeks to read it. And I'm a fast reader. But it was worth every minute I put into it.
The Passage had been on my shelf for a couple of years and I've always been terrified to pick it up based on its hugeness. But I thought, I'm ahead of my book target this year. (At this point I'd read 9 books in 6 weeks - but quite a few of them were my own books) So I could afford a few weeks of not finishing a book.
What struck me first was how different The Passage was from books I normally read. Those of you who read this blog regularly or know me, know that I read teen fiction almost exclusively. But since discovering this book a few years earlier, I knew I wanted to break my usual genre. Though nothing like anything I'd ever read, I fell into The Passage with ease. The narrative was complexly woven and I wanted to keep reading to find out how these characters fit together.
At first I thought it'd be difficult to separate all the characters from one another because the whole thing's so wildly ambitious, but it was surprisingly easy - not trouble free, but most of the time I knew exactly who everyone was and how they were related to everyone else.
All the characters, be them huge major characters like Amy or tiny minor characters, felt so whole, round, and real, I was blown away. It really felt like every single character had a story. And what's more, the story was relevant. Nothing was irrelevant in the whole book. I ate it up. Everything. As it went on I just fell further in love with it.
Masterfully crafted and filled with action, I only have one more thing to say about The Passage. Jane Austen has never been more correct. "If a book is well written I always find it too short." At 950 pages, the longest book I've ever read, this is still true of The Passage. I just didn't want it to end.
Evaluation
Overall 9/10
Would I recommend it? Yes. It was just incredible on so many levels I don't know how I wouldn't.
Would I look up the author? Yes. But I don't fancy the sequel to The Passage. I'm happy with the ending I was given in book one.
The Passage was an incredible journey I didn't want to end.