Book Review: Justin Cronin - The Passage

There was a moment in The Passage when my reading of it went from quality enjoyment to "Oh my, I really cannot put this down."

I can't tell you exactly when that moment was (I'd wager a guess it was right around page 200), but I can tell you that not enough books do that to me.  Even books that I would gladly say I adore are usually ones where, if something different were to come along, I could put it down for a few days and come back.  This is true of nearly everything I read.

Not so with The Passage.

I've read plenty of dystopian, post-apocalyptic literature in my day, and thought I had read the true apex with two vastly different novels:  the thin, taciturn and claustrophobic The Road by Cormac McCarthy and the expansive, verbose and vast The Stand by Stephen King.  These, too, were books that had captivated me and demanded my attention; any other books in the genre, while many were good, seemed to pale in comparison to these two giants.

However, The Passage holds its own in a bout with those two, and has the benefit of not being done - it's the first book in a proposed trilogy, and after debuting at #3 on the New York Times Bestseller list last week, it's almost sure to be followed by the sequels - and I couldn't be more excited for the prospect of delving back into this world.

Without giving too much away, the novel deals with a man-perfected virus designed to create super soldiers that gets loose - creating a sea of vampire-like creatures.  However, there is one little girl who may have the answer to this horrible question, and it tells the tale of the FBI agent who vows to protect her.

And then the novel jumps a century ahead, and amidst the temporal and tonal shift, things really get going.

If you're a fan of post-apocalyptic literature, do not hesitate to pick up a copy of this book.  And even if you're not, pick it up anyway.  The thing I liked the most about it is the ways it's not like a Stephen King book - because, for all his talents in creating a story, Mr. King is not the best author.  Mr. Cronin, however, is a very talented literary writer, and weaves an amazing story with a stellar prose style.  This novel is utterly captivating.

Final verdict: Adore it
This is the best new fiction I've read in a long time.  I was trapped in the world this book created for three days, and I've only now been able to surface for air.  It's a fascinating novel, and one that demands attention and deserves every bit of it.