Book Review:: The Passage by Justin Cronin

It starts with men on death row.

Convicted of horrible crimes, these 12 men are recruited to a program that gets them away from the needle, but they will have to give up their very identities for this to happen.

It also starts with a six year old girl known only as Amy, and her protectors–a weathered FBI agent and a nun.

The 12 criminals, Amy and her protectors are all tied together in this story that spans impossible amounts of time.

After hearing a lot of buzz regarding The Passage, I decided I wanted to give it a try. I heard the writing was great. I heard there were vampires–real vampires, not the sparkly ones. And then I saw it on my local library’s overdrive media program (free epub files for a week to two weeks depending on what timeframe you select when you ‘check it out’)–I had to sign up for it.

At 829 pages, it took me the better part of 2 days to read it. It was captivating but also read like a drier version of Stephen King’s The Stand in some parts–with vampires! The timeline, for me, was a little hard to follow at times, but this also reads more like a satisfying techno-thriller. Though, at times, the line in the fight between good and evil is sometimes blurred.

This book is a solid 4 out of 5. Good writing, epic story…but in parts it felt drawn out.