The Passage by Justin Cronin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
It’s hard for me to decide what to say about this book. I listened to the audio version, and I feel quite certain that if I’d been reading print, I would have given up partway through. However, since audiobooks let me multitask, I’m a bit more forgiving, and I did keep listening. The author takes a very big risk structurally with this book, in my opinion, and it was at that point, less than halfway through, that he nearly lost me.
That said, I did become re-engaged with the book and ended up really enjoying it. Although it’s the first of at least two (and maybe three, I’ve heard) in a series, I haven’t decided yet if I’ll read the others. The end of this book leaves many things unresolved, and yet I can imagine the characters into an ending I’d like, if I want. So, we’ll see when the next one comes out.
The book offers a number of very strong characters, and a solid storyline. I think it could have been somewhat shorter, and there’s a lot of passive voice (which I’m surprised survived the editing process), but overall the writing is good and flows very well in audio.
I suppose it’s a “vampire” novel, and yet it’s not, either. Worth trying out if you can overlook the few flaws, and persevere past the jarring timeshift (I don’t consider mentioning this to be a spoiler; it happens less than halfway through the book, and honestly I would have preferred to know it was coming).
