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undulateabyss5 's review for:
The Strain
by Guillermo del Toro, Chuck Hogan
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Written by award-winning director del Toro and thriller author Hogan, the story begins when an airplane lands JFK Airport and suddenly becomes silent with one light on and the window shades down. It’s not long until the CDC is called to control the plane, with now-divorced epidemiologist Dr. Eph Goodweather and his fellow doctor associate Nora tasked to study the plane’s mass casualties that are beyond mysterious. As the small handful of survivors are examined for any chance of finding answers to the plane, Eph and Nora believe that an enormous detailed box in the cargo area might be the possible reason for it all. Yet an elderly but intimidating Holocaust survivor knows what is happening when he hears about the incident, and it’ll quickly turn into a dangerous situation that will be a matter of life and death.
“Strain” is a very tense and suspenseful horror novel that can get a bit much and slow. The whole storyline is the most compelling part for me as it definitely feels like a zombie infection outbreak with the first few chapters, but then it gets surprising when vampires are the real topic. There’s no small of tenseness in our main characters’ plot lines and the plane survivors, with a few unsettling moments that might make you squeamish. The flaws, of course, are the novel’s pretty-slow pace at times and how the vampire moments can take a long while to happen. Its cliffhanger also obviously shows that it’s only the beginning.
It’s still a solid start to something that’s a near-great modern “Dracula” that likes to take its storytelling slow with its compelling heroes. A nice bite of horror. <b>B+ (83%/Very Good)</b>