Review : The Passage
The Passage by Justin Cronin
Pages : 766
Genre : Fiction, Vampires, Horror, Post-Apocalyptic
First in a series
My Rating : 
In short : Post-apocalyptic setting involving zombie-vampires, a bunch of survivors and a 100 years old teenager.
From the Back of the Book :
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.
“Not another review of The Passage!” is what you’re probably thinking if you haven’t read the book, aren’t planning on reading it or read it and didn’t enjoy it much.
Well, I’m sorry, really, but the book is really huge and is making my “to be reviewed” pile look twice as big as it actually is!
So.
I didn’t love The Passage as much as I wanted to. The premise had everything to grab my attention, but sadly the actual reading wasn’t as captivating as I had hoped it to be.
It’s not bad; many loved it and I can see why. First, I found Cronin’s writing to be really good. He has a distinctive voice and I found that to be refreshing. He also clearly has a huge imagination and a talent for detailing – which is a big part of the 766 pages. Lots of detailing. I enjoy details in descriptions, action, characters and I felt Cronin gave me everything I needed to recreate the scenes in my own mind. The precision was such that it felt a bit like watching a movie.
I love the idea of a vampire apocalypse; Cronin’s monsters really are monsters, and there’s no romance or other glittery feelings motivating their actions. They are all hunger and thirst and teeth, menacing creatures you wouldn’t want to meet in a dark alley. Or anywhere else, for that matter. The horror was present through every stage of the story, setting for the characters a terrible world where the key word is survival.
Now even though I could talk in length about the characters (which I mostly loved), I’m going to skip to the most negative part of the review, because sadly there is one. You see, I could have really, really loved The Passage. The story was reminiscent or early Stephen King and I love stories of epic length, especially when the characters fascinate me so. Sadly, the “epic length” was just too much; I felt, especially in the middle, that the story was dragging a bit. After a captivating 200 pages at the beginning, I felt let down. It doesn’t help that the story cut from the present to one hundred years in the future, and even though I had read about that fact in other reviews, I still had a hard time connecting with the new characters. I think the book could easily have been a 100 pages shorter with a better pace.
Also, the back of the book is partly misleading, as all this happens in about the first 200 pages of the book. After that, the story moves into that dark, horrific dystopian setting with a different group of characters.
From what I heard, book two will be out in 2012. I’m hoping that by then my disappointment with The Passage will have faded a little and that I’ll love the memory of the book more. It was a good story and I am curious to see where it leads to, but I really wished I could have given it five big stars.
Okay,,,,at least you were able to finish this one…not me. Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us Kay.
I have to admit, the more I hear about this book, the less I want to read it.
I think Devourer of Books was also somewhat disappointed. I have this queued up on audio next. Hopefully my expectations not being very high will help.
I have no idea how I feel about this book in terms of whether I want to read it or not! Generally I don’t love books that are so long for the reason you mention: they always wind up dragging in the middle and I always wonder why 200 pages couldn’t have been cut!
This is one I may read someday, but probably not any time soon…
actually when your review popped up, i thought “congrats you managed to finish that monster of a book!”
i don’t think i would have the persistence to read the book once it starts dragging. it’ll take me months to finish it because i’ll probably read five pages at a time and move on to another book. but on the bright side at least you’re still interested in the sequel. hopefully it won’t be as long.
Bummer!
I had high hopes.
I think I’ll get this from the library.
Great review.
Thanks for the honesty.
Sorry to hear it wasn’t as amazing as you had hoped it would be. However, your review makes me feel better about my decision to skip this one.
Looks like you’re making good progress in your Chunkster Summer!
I’m intrigued by the premise of this one, but the length is just so daunting. I struggle to finish 300-page books most days; how can I read one double that length, especially when it’ll probably freak me out?!
Diane : I’m sorry to hear that! I have to admit that when the book changed setting, I really had to push myself to read forward. It’s a bit unsettling.
Amanda : Haha! I felt a bit like that at some point, but it was already in my TBR pile so… I’m glad I read it, but in my very, very humble opinion, it wasn’t a stellar read. It’s a very good exploration of character in a survival setting though.
Literate Housewife : Yes, I remember reading Devourer’s review just before reading the book! It actually helped me lower my expectations a little, so maybe you’ll enjoy it more by hoping less from it. I’m looking forward to hearing your thoughts on it!
Steph : I completely agree! Often long books are unnecessary long, and this was the case. Since there was some repetition in the descriptions, I felt it could definitely have been shorter.
Toothy : Haha! It was a monster of a book and a book of monsters! I read the book in a week but it felt like three, so I definitely get what you mean. Sadly “The Passage” is so filled with details that I think I would have felt completely lost if I had interrupted my reading.
Juju : I think getting this from your library is a good idea; then if you really enjoy it, you can always get a copy for yourself!
Alita : Yes, 1 in 3 read, it’s going great! I’l probably end up reading my third book in September but it’s okay, it will still be summer!
Meg : Daunting is the word. I actually love long books, but they have to be even greater than a regular length book to keep my attention! And I did find it a bit terrifying, but it’s a feeling I love. But if you scare easily, I really don’t know if you would like it. Maybe you could borrow it and give it a try instead of putting your money on it!
I know this book is huge right now, but I don’t think it’s for me – especially after reading your review.
I’m hesitant to commit to dig into this epic. But I’m so curious that I’m pretty sure I will eventually. But probably not a while. I’m waiting for the hype to die down a bit. I feel like a lot of books that run over 500 pages usually have some piece that could be cut. Its unfortunate that the book disappointed you a little, but it sounds like it still did have a lot of merits. I’ll keep that in mind as I ponder the painful question: what to read next.
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