The Passage: Justin Cronin

January 19, 2011

I finished the book! All 766 pages- I don't think I have ever been more engrossed in a novel. Justin Cronin has created a fantastical world centred around an ambitious government experiment gone wrong. Giving an alternative reality to the Twilight series, Cronin explores the darker side of blood-hungry monsters and revels in the details of their past. Twelve criminals waiting on death row kick-start the worldwide outbreak of a viral infection that is to test the softened survival instincts of a 21st Century world. The apocalyptic nightmare hooked me like a fish in the water, I was constantly thinking 'how would I handle this hell on earth?'

Babcock. Babcock. Babcock.

Cronin's characters are water-tight, all of them have made believable journeys and all demonstrate the power of humanity at its strongest- and its weakest.

Babcock. Babcock. Babcock.

OK, so some parts are pretty gory and you do get an overall idea of the biological composition of each character at any moment in time, limbs, warts and all, but this is the wonderful nature of Cronin's writing. He makes it so easy for your mind to drift into his world. In fact you don't even notice it until you have to put the book down to go to work and then your mind starts to wander back to his viral creation. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to escape the hum-drum days of January, especially those who like to be kept on their toes. As with all great thrillers, it is, in some form plausible- after all, who knows what government funded experiments happen in the vast deserts of America or the plains of Russia? So it really only leaves one question.

Where will you be when the lights go out?