REVEW: The Passage by Justin Cronin

 

This book has been around a while and is a repeat for me, although I read it a long, long time ago. This novel has been accurately described as medical thriller, post apocalyptic and horror all in one, which is not inaccurate. The novel is split into three sections: medical thriller (in which we learn about how the apocalypse came to pass), post apocalyptic and then action.

The most interesting sections for me were the first and second sections. I enjoyed learning, in the first section, about the history of the events and being introduced to 6 year old Amy, who is the main, very much Christ like savior of this book (and the rest of the series).  The pace is quick and sucks you in, which I appreciated and enjoyed.

 In the second section, which is 93 years after the events in the second section, we learn that most of the world's population is dead or infected (making them vampiric). There is a colony of survivors living in a compound in California on borrowed time, utilizing crossbows and battery operated lights to  keep the "virals," as the infected are called, at bay. A completely new set of characters is introduced and I had to chart it out because there were only a few families, meaning that there were a lot of characters with the same last name. The pace is slowed down tremendously so that Cronin can give a picture of how life is different in this time. Life changes dramatically when Amy of the first section, barely older physically, appears at the Colony. 

In the third section, a handful of the Colonists elect to leave and make their way to various other parts of the country, including Colorado and Vegas, on foot culminating in an epic battle with one of the virals.

I enjoyed this book generally speaking; however the last section of the novel seemed like a slog to me. It took me a longer period of time  to get through it and wasn't very interesting to me, which is probably going to be an unpopular opinion. I really liked Cronin's writing style generally speaking and his character development was on point. It's not your typical horror novel, but is more of a look at what motivates people to do the things that they do.