September 17, 2011

Review : The Passage by Justin Cronin


Title : The Passage
Author : Justin Cronin
Reading Dates : 28 Jul - 31 Jul 2011
The Passage: A Novel
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 :

Books alluded to :
The Devil and Daniel Webster (Penguin Classics)DraculaA Midsummer Night's Dream (Wordsworth Classics) (Wadsworth Collection)The TempestTwelfth Night (Folger Shakespeare Library)King LearHenry IV , Parts One and Two(No Fear Shakespeare)Moby DickTreasure Island (Oxford World's Classics)Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea: Premium EditionRiders of the Purple SageThe Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High AdventureThe Hostage BrideA Lady At Last (de Warenne Dynasty)Where the Wild Things AreCharlie and the Chocolate FactoryOliver TwistA Christmas CarolTo Kill a Mockingbird (slipcased edition)Anne of Green Gables (Modern Library Classics)Wild Iris

7 comments:

  1. I loved The Passage. It was probably my favorite read last year. I can't wait to read the next book! I wasn't aware it was called "The Twelve". That's pretty exciting.

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  2. I loved it too. I may need to reread before the next. I don't remember a lot of details.

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  3. @Jennifer
    I found that on the web recently. LOL.

    @Heather
    My thoughts exactly. I'll probably need to re-read again if the next book takes too long :-)

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  4. Oh I loved it too! I had no idea the third book was out! I have to go look now!

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  5. @Sheila
    Actually no. From what I read, it'll be a few years yet before it is released :-(

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  6. How much is this one of the best books ever! I loved it too. First time I read it I struggled a bit with the transition from the modern day to the future, but once I got used to the change I couldn't put it down. I read it for the second time a couple of weeks ago and it was even better second time around because I noticed all of these additional things that I didn't see the first time around. PS. This is the second review of The Passage I have read today!

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  7. When I first saw this book I really hoped it would be a good one. It is a very long book and would have been a hard slog if not interesting. By the time I had read 15 or so pages I was totally hooked. It was just impossible to stop reading. Can't wait for the next volume.

    The book is really several in one, which accounts for its size. The time covered is over a hundred years. So the settings change as time moves on.

    The future is blighted by a military weapon attempt that goes horribly wrong. People attempt to survive and over the years they forget a lot and have to adjust to lacks and dangers and form new ways of living. Characters are many and some are more memorable than others but the story is the main focus and definitely keeps you on the edge of your seat for the whole book.

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