17 August, 2012Daily Archives

Summary from GoodReads:

First, the unthinkable: a security breach at a secret U.S. government facility unleashes the monstrous product of a chilling military experiment. Then, the unspeakable: a night of chaos and carnage gives way to sunrise on a nation, and ultimately a world, forever altered. All that remains for the stunned survivors is the long fight ahead and a future ruled by fear—of darkness, of death, of a fate far worse.

As civilization swiftly crumbles into a primal landscape of predators and prey, two people flee in search of sanctuary. FBI agent Brad Wolgast is a good man haunted by what he’s done in the line of duty. Six-year-old orphan Amy Harper Bellafonte is a refugee from the doomed scientific project that has triggered apocalypse. He is determined to protect her from the horror set loose by her captors. But for Amy, escaping the bloody fallout is only the beginning of a much longer odyssey—spanning miles and decades—towards the time and place where she must finish what should never have begun.

My Review:

I think I am one of the minority in my rating of The Passage by Justin Cronin. I’m not sure why this book didn’t work as well for me as it did for so many other people – people I trust and have followed for a long time in their own book reviews.

Let me start by saying what I did like about The Passage. I thoroughly enjoyed, and was engrossed in, the first section of the book – before the virus. I devoured that story, was connected to the characters, and experienced tingling that told me what I was reading was going to be a nail-biter. I was so excited about it. I loved the set-up that Cronin did, from the emails to the personal story of a little girl abandoned by her mother. I loved how intimate everything was – getting inside the heads of convicts, feds, and ordinary people. I loved seeing the conflict of ethics and good/evil inside of people I’d written off throughout the process of the story. But then things shifted.

With the massive change from past to present, Cronin tried to re-create what he did in the first half of the book. But I felt so lost that I began to lose interest in the book. I dreaded the idea of picking it up because I felt as if I was in mourning for the people in the first half. I couldn’t establish a connection with these new characters and I read about their lives in an impassive, detached way… simply because I did not have the energy to get invested again. And to be honest, I felt sort of gypped. I wanted to know more about the characters in the first half, and see the entire thing play out as it happened – but I was denied that and, instead, moved to another period of time totally different than what I had been used to.

So while I can appreciate that there were good things happening in the latter half of the book, it did not affect me as profoundly as the first half did, and I was disappointed by that. That said – maybe in a few weeks I will be able to pick it up and start reading at the change and develop those bonds, now that the confusion has passed. But for me – this book with it’s introduction to brand new characters halfway through what had been an already difficult story to sort through, did not work well.

Don’t just take my word for it! Check out what these bloggers say!

Hey Lady| Presenting Lenore | League of Extraordinary Writers