Review : The Passage by Justin Cronin

Title : The Passage Author : Justin Cronin Reading Dates : 28 Jul - 31 Jul 2011
The Passage
Books in the series: The Passage The Twelve The City of Mirrors
From goodreads :
“It happened fast. Thirty-two minutes for one world to die, another to be born.” 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. With The Passage, award-winning author Justin Cronin has written both a relentlessly suspenseful adventure and an epic chronicle of human endurance in the face of unprecedented catastrophe and unimaginable danger. Its inventive storytelling, masterful prose, and depth of human insight mark it as a crucial and transcendent work of modern fiction.

Book Review of The Passage.

I loved The Passage and can’t wait to read the next books in the trilogy. In fact, immediately after finishing The Passage, I had to restrain myself from re-reading the book.

Aside from a few chapters early on which seemed overly wordy, the rest of the tale grabbed my attention and wouldn’t let go until the end. And even those parts, could be due to my impatience to get back to what was happening with the main character, Amy.

Amy is a mystery which isn’t fully resolved, even at the end of the The Passage. Sure, the group that sets out with her in an attempt to save their colony, finds out the truth of the virus which destroyed their world and possibly how to save it. But that doesn’t fully explain Amy because she’s obviously something more than that. And with everything that she has endured, it is amazing how she could still be the person she is.

As for the story, I couldn’t possibly describe everything that The Passage made me feel. There were so many parts where terrible things happen, which made me worry and root for the people in it to survive. The ending of the world especially, was haunting. I could picture everything in my mind and also the awful sadness and inevitability of it all. And still be amazed at what people are capable of during such times, not just the bad but the good as well.

My favorite moments though are probably the short interlude Amy had with her surrogate father. No matter how brief the time they had, I believe that those were probably Amy’s happiest memories. And the end, when it comes, somehow makes everything worth it all.

I’m definitely looking forward to reading the next book in the trilogy, The Twelve.

My conclusions :

• Would I re-read the book ? Definitely.
• Would I want to read the next book in the series ? The next book is now on my wish list.
• Would I want to own my personal copy if I didn’t already own it ? Yes, this one's a keeper.
• Who would I recommend this too? In particular, those who like dystopian stories.
• For those looking to read the book, would I recommend buying or borrowing the book? Buy it. This is that needs to be read again and again.

Read another review on the book by :

• Book Journey
• Reading with Tequila
• The Crowded Leaf

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