from Jordan:

I should begin by saying that I didn't finish The Passage by Justin Cronin, which is a remarkable occurrence for me: it's extremely rare for me not to tough it through and finish a book. The Passage, however, is 912 pages, and I feel justified in the fact that I read 450 or so of those pages.

There's also something they don't tell you in the summaries of the book: it's about vampires. Some people may find this to be a reason to read it, but vampires are on my growing list of tired genres, settings, and plot devices. In its defense, it is a more interesting use of vampires than the tired tropes of Dracula, Anne Rice, and Twilight.

The characters and style of the story vary with such frequency that my brain was feeling whiplash. Every handful of pages, I had to start getting invested in characters or plot points all over again. The detail of the setting is overly lavish and the micromanaged minutia of descriptions is distracting and drags the pace of the novel to a crawl. The characterizations of the characters is, initially, well conceived, but the characters don't grow or progress. For as much time and patience as you have to invest in the book, I was yearning for some of the needless descriptions to be replaced by character development.

I wish I liked it, especially given the time I invested in it, but I just couldn't. That said, it has pulled in some awards and has become a best seller in some circles. Maybe my tastes are too limited and my patience too short, though it doesn't feel like it at this point. ( )

Couldn't finish it. ( )

Style agréable à lire mais vraiment trop long, très gentil par moment et la fin est plutôt anti-climatique. Plutot 2,5 que 3/5. Dans la table des matières il y a une post face de la page 1257 à 1267 mais en fait le livre s'arrête a la page 1248... OK ( )

Three and a half stars. It was an enjoyable read, enough to keep me reading all day--as in eat-dinner-while-reading kind of day. It is not particularly original (must the vampires glow) and by the end, I was struck by a resemblance to Resident Evil Apocalypse. But, hey, that could be because after a while, aren't all end of the world stories kind of the same?

One possible limitation, depending upon the reader, is that an atmosphere of horror and fear isn't given the chance to grow. I have to agree with another reviewer who thought the vampires weren't all that scary. Maybe instead of so much prologue, more time showing how people coped, how communities were wiped out or tried to make it without lights would have built the tension. Sure, the vamps rip people open with a slash and move amazingly fast, but really, don't cheetahs as well? Then, of course, were the one or two times when Cronin was doing an adequate job of building tension during a confrontation, then threw in the "looking back..." paragraph that lets you know our main people are going to survive. However, he still does an adequate enough job that I wasn't always sure how it would come out.

I could have lived without the mysticism as well, first exemplified in Amy at the zoo. By the end, however, I was feeling the Alice (R.E.) vibe, when Alisha becomes super-powered kick-ass, and Amy makes the decision there shouldn't be any more 'like her.' Except, of course, there never were really any like Amy, since who goes to the zoo and causes animal riots?

Pick up the next book? Sure--from the library. ( )

I really liked the first third of this book. Good character development, great plot and intrigue. I felt like I could see the characters and cared about what happened to them.
And then, it was AV. I felt like I'd picked up some other book. It wasn't believable to me that people would have changed (reverted?) as much as portrayed in this story. I tried twice to get into it again, but it feels like a fantasy, which is not my cup of tea.
The first part of the book would get 5 stars. ( )