Wow. November 13th was my last post... I am so sorry for all of you that have followed my blog. I did not die, I had a baby {a healthy 6lb 9oz adorable baby boy}! Yep, from November - February I was reading TONS of "preparing for baby" books and no fiction what-so-ever. Then after he was born in March I never had any time between poopy diapers, spit up, and learning to be a Mommy {along with running my business, and being a wife}. Now that we are settling into a routine I have some more time to read and now I am just finding time to blog. I have read quite a few books in the last few months. I bought a Kindle so reading is much easier now that I have to have one arm to hold the little guy. Luckily most of the books I have read recently have all be spectacular {only one FAIL among them}. So in the next few days I'll try and crank out some reviews so you can read and discuss! First on the agenda is The Passage by Justin Cronin...
Oh. My. Goodness. This book knocked my socks off!!! Dystopia, vampires {not the sexy glittery kind, but the terrifying bat like kind that suck you dry or turn you into a monster}, survival, adventure; I was riveted from page one. The book starts off with a series of emails between two scientists discussing a trip to the Amazon {I believe}, then the emails take a turn as one of the scientists heads out on this trip and bad things start to happen and everyone dies or nearly dies {death by bats - the flying kind not the Louisville Slugger kind}. Then the book jumps to a private investigator that is commissioned to finding death row inmates and giving them the option to die by the needle or to be used in a military experiment. Then you jump to a chapter in the eyes of a little girl that is left in a convent. Then finally the P.I. and the girl cross paths because the P.I. gets the job of picking up this orphaned little girl at the convent so the military could do the same experiments on a child {newly orphaned, no paper trail, very shady, you get the picture}. Then we jump to the military base where these experiments are taking place and we learn that the scientist from the beginning of the book is helping the military create an indestructible soldier, however the experiment has gone totally bad and the inmates/bat people {i.e. vampires, kinda} break out of their labs and start killing everyone or at least changing them into the vampire-beast things too. Well it doesn't take to long before the United States is infested with these beasts like the plague and then the Nuclear Bombs drop.
OK now we jump 100 years into the future after the Nuclear fallout to this little settlement of survivors. They have created this little settlement and have been happy and well for years but as always there is the question "is there anyone else out there?", plus lights what were created to keep the vampires out are starting to fail, so they have to head out into the wilderness in search of help or a new power source. Well that is the rest of the story. They set off to find the answer in this vampire-beast infested world. And let me tell you it makes for an amazing read! And even though this book is nearly around 800 pages you just want more when the last page is finished, but have no fear this is the beginning of a TRILOGY!! Woot woot!!
Something else I have to mention is that the writing is out of this world. The wording, the details, the cadence of the whole book is perfection. There were times that I got so caught up in the flow of the writing that I had to go back and read it again to get the content. And characters are very fleshed out, the prose are deep, and the mix of everything makes this one of the best books I have read in the last couple years. This book has landed on my top 5 books of all times.
I don't think this book is for everyone though. There is a lot of scary bits where I had to stop reading and wait for the day to come to read some more. And there is a religious undertone that was very interesting that some may not get or very much like {but I enjoyed}. I really really want my book club to read this so I can discuss it with someone because there is a lot to discuss in this book. So if you want to chat with me about the book in the comment section please do! Just let people know in the beginning of your post if you are including a spoiler.
All in all this is a must read if you are into scary, thriller, dystopia kind of stuff. If you are more of a light hearted, fluffy, unicorn kind of person steer clear of this one it may just scare the dickens out of you.
RATING: 5 Stars
3 more reviews of The Passage:
The Passage by Justin Cronin
{Purchased on Amazon.com for my Kindle}
ISBN 0345504968
Pages 784
If you liked The Passage by Justin Cronin than read The Road by Cormic McCarthy
