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The Strain (The Strain Trilogy #1)

by Guillermo del Toro, Chuck Hogan

3.66 · rating details · 12,510 ratings · 2,385 reviews

The visionary creator of the Academy Award-winning Pan's Labyrinth and a Hammett Award-winning author bring their imaginations to this bold, epic novel about a horrifying battle between man and vampire that threatens all humanity. It is the first installment in a thrilling trilogy and an extraordinary international publishing event.

The Strain They have always ...more

Hardcover, 401 pages

Published June 2nd 2009 by William Morrow & Company (first published January 1st 2009)

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Nov 09, 2010

Kemper rated it

Shelves: horror, vampires

Imagine that you’re reading one of those Twilight books as Edward is whispering chaste sweet nothings into Bella’s ear, and it was oh-so-romantic-and-couldn’t-you-just-die-OMG-OMG-OMG. Suddenly Edward’s head flips back and his throat opens up like he just became a Pez dispenser. A six foot stinger/sucker thing flies out, and it zaps that silly girl right in a major artery and drains her dry in about twenty seconds while parasitic worms take over her corpse and turn her into a mindless bloodsuck...moreImagine that you’re reading one of those Twilight books as Edward is whispering chaste sweet nothings into Bella’s ear, and it was oh-so-romantic-and-couldn’t-you-just-die-OMG-OMG-OMG. Suddenly Edward’s head flips back and his throat opens up like he just became a Pez dispenser. A six foot stinger/sucker thing flies out, and it zaps that silly girl right in a major artery and drains her dry in about twenty seconds while parasitic worms take over her corpse and turn her into a mindless bloodsucking meatbag.

And that is why Guillermo Del Toro will never direct one of the Twilight movies. Too bad because I’d pay good money to see that.

Del Toro, who directed several horror movies as well as the critically acclaimed but extremely gruesome Pan’s Labyrinth, apparently was tired of the vampires being castrated by hordes of adoring teenage girls and set out to make them monsters again. And he does a pretty good job.

A Boeing 777 lands in New York but most of the passengers are dead. Before you can say 'Bela Lugosi', a CDC doctor is getting lessons from a Van Helsing wannabe named Setrakian on the best way to deal with the vamps, which are essentially a parasitic virus run amok with a Master bloodsucker as the main villain pulling the strings to launch a full scale vampire apocalypse.

The book had a fresh take on the vampire story and Del Toro and co-author Chuck Hogan do a good job of mixing some Old World vampire mysticism with 21st century science and tech. Especially creepy is the way that Manhattan is soon being quietly overrun during the initial outbreak. It’s got a Stephen King ‘Salem’s Lot vibe in those descriptions.

However, Del Toro borrowed liberally from some of his movies, most noticeably Mimic and Blade II. The characters are B-movie thin, especially the hero who is also saddled with a bad sub-plot of a custody fight for his son. (His ex-wife and the social service worker can’t understand why a potential viral outbreak might cause a CDC doctor to have to reschedule an appointment or two.) The opening set-up with a plane load of dead passengers has been used twice before that I know of in Nelson DeMille’s The Lion’s Game and Fringe in its pilot episode.

So the story seemed overly familiar in a lot of ways, and the writing isn’t especially great, but it’s got a lot of momentum and is loaded with enough gore and ultra-violence to make vampires nasty again. It’s the first in a trilogy, and it was enough fun that I’ll be checking out the next two.
(less)

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Oct 14, 2011

Becky rated it

Shelves: horror, vampires, 2011, mystery-and-thrillers, nook, reviewed, science-fiction, ww2

3.5 stars, with a slight nudge toward 4.

I have had this book on my To-Read list for a while, but never got around to reading it until now. I'm glad that I read it because it was pretty good, and parts were very creepy. I didn't find it scary and had no problem sleeping or anything reading it, but there were parts that had a higher than average creep factor, and it was nice.

I liked that this book had a realistic baseline, and felt like it could truly happen. Don't get me wron...more3.5 stars, with a slight nudge toward 4.

I have had this book on my To-Read list for a while, but never got around to reading it until now. I'm glad that I read it because it was pretty good, and parts were very creepy. I didn't find it scary and had no problem sleeping or anything reading it, but there were parts that had a higher than average creep factor, and it was nice.

I liked that this book had a realistic baseline, and felt like it could truly happen. Don't get me wrong, I like the traditional vampire lore that is based on a curse or some evil or something, a changing of the soul that's manifested in the body, if you will... but this was different and I really liked the concept, as well as the science behind it.

There were things that I felt could have been stronger, and more fleshed out, mainly the characters. There were a few references that didn't really bear out in behavior, and some behaviors that didn't quite match the information that we had, like Setrakian's stamina, or Ephraim being a recovering alcoholic of less than a year and not craving a drink... but it was enjoyable nonetheless. I mostly didn't have any trouble liking or caring about these characters, so the little inconsistencies didn't become issues for me. Also, I feel like there were one or two unresolved issues in the story (or maybe they were resolved, but not exactly clearly?), but they didn't detract too much from the story, and could still be addressed in later books.

I also liked the writing for the most part. It had a sort of "For Everyday Use" feel, but then some parts were written in such a way as to just feel like they were more. Again though, there were sections that, for lack of a better term, tried too hard and felt a little forced or out of place. For instance, this line: "Like smoke rising up a chimney, we must force him to the roof." This, in the middle of a vampire vs human battle... I just feel like the first part of the line makes it awkward and takes me out of the story. I think of myself as if I were in the story: I'm fighting my ass off to stay alive here, I see my target, I communicate my intention in the shortest possible command to save my breath, to not waste time, to not give anything a chance to kill me while I'm waxing poetic. "Force him to the roof!" or at the most, "We must force him to the roof!". Who has time for similes in life or death situations? Sure the hell not me.

Anyway, I'm curious where this story is going to go... there was an interesting development at the end that has me intrigued...

Horror October 2011: #5(less)

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Jan 24, 2012

Heather rated it

Shelves: 2010

Hmmmmm. My thoughts on this one are a bit flustered, so I’m afraid that my review is going to take the form of a pro/con list.
Pro:
It reads like a movie, which is a refreshing treat as I detest slogging through useless detail, description, etc. that is so prevalent among adult fiction. I like to bottom line it, which is why I love most young adult fiction. However, when stories read like a movie, the characters tend to suffer, and as I can read a completely crap book and love it if I...more

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Jan 20, 2012

Elisa rated it

· review of another edition

First off, I have to say that I am not the kind of person that enjoys writing bad reviews. I love books, all books pretty much, and I’m really easy to please. Yet this book was a letdown of utter proportions and I can’t contain my frustration with it. I had been eagerly awaiting The Strain for months, I had heard nothing but good things from all the book related cites I visit and all of the catalogues I receive, not to mention the raving reviews it got everywhere else. The one question I have fo...moreFirst off, I have to say that I am not the kind of person that enjoys writing bad reviews. I love books, all books pretty much, and I’m really easy to please. Yet this book was a letdown of utter proportions and I can’t contain my frustration with it. I had been eagerly awaiting The Strain for months, I had heard nothing but good things from all the book related cites I visit and all of the catalogues I receive, not to mention the raving reviews it got everywhere else. The one question I have for all of the people who said how amazing it was is: Did you and I read the same book? My second question: Do Richard Matheson and Stephen King know that their work is being compared to this?

I think I need to explain step by step why I really disliked this book and why I think it’s so misleading. Here I’ve copied the synopsis, it’s nearly identical to what is on the back of the paperback edition:

They have always been here. Vampires. In secret and in darkness. Waiting. Now their time has come. In one week, Manhattan will be gone. In one month, the country. In two months—the world.

A Boeing 777 arrives at JFK and is on its way across the tarmac, when it suddenly stops dead. All window shades are pulled down. All lights are out. All communication channels have gone quiet. Crews on the ground are lost for answers, but an alert goes out to the CDC. Dr. Eph Goodweather, head of their Canary project, a rapid-response team that investigates biological threats, gets the call and boards the plane. What he finds makes his blood run cold.

In a pawnshop in Spanish Harlem, a former professor and survivor of the Holocaust named Abraham Setrakian knows something is happening. And he knows the time has come, that a war is brewing...

Sounds pretty freaking amazing, eh? Then, inside the cover of the paperback edition, are five –yes, five– pages of reviews going on, and on, and ON, about how fantastic The Strain is, how it’s a masterpiece that has redefined the vampire myth, how it’s “an unholy spawn of I Am Legend out of Salem’s Lot” –at this point, I started to gag a little bit.

Can you say ‘misleading’?

(view spoiler)[The only saving grace of this book is the characters Eph, Setrakian, Zach, and Fet (the Exterminator). They were honestly the only real reason I kept reading. Eph is a newly single dad who was married more to his career than to his wife, so she left him. She wants full custody of their child Zach because she 1) wants to ruin Eph’s world, and 2) she’s jealous and kind of petty. Setrakian is a holocaust survivor with more bad memories and nightmares than anyone should carry around. None of which is surprising given the snippets, or “Interludes” as they’re called in the book, of his time in a death camp as a Jewish Pole. He’s got the longest history with the monster, and he’s the acting team leader for the most part. Zach is an incredibly smart and caring young boy who is much too aware of the world around him and a kid that just wants to be with his dad –the only person who gets him. And Fet, oh Fet, the Russian rat exterminator. I think he’s my favourite character, he’s tough, mean, and knows how to kill vermin. What else could you want in a guy? But I digress.

I think by far the most annoying things about this book are that it is 200 pages too long in the beginning, the structure of the prose, and the fact that it was utterly predictable. I want to know what horror formula the writers followed.

I’ll start with the prose. It seems to me that the authors tried their hardest to find the most convoluted vocabulary they could and put it together in such a way that it’s just stilted and difficult to understand. The Thesaurus can be your friend, but it can also be your enemy. Don’t get me wrong, it’s an easy read, but I had to read half of it twice because I had no idea what they were trying to say or describe. Also, the way that they integrated facts (to make their vocabulary make sense) was idiotic. It would have been smoother if they had added a glossary at the end and bolded all the key terms. My primary example: the Occultation. From page 107 to 112 they proceed to tell me ALL about how a “solar eclipse” is really a misnomer, it should in fact be called an occultation because the moon passes between the sun and the earth, it doesn’t pass into the sun’s shadow, etc, etc. At first it’s a neat fact, by page 112 you just want to know what their bloody point is. And this is only one example. It happens a lot.

Second, the predictability. There was absolutely not one single surprising thing in this novel. There were parts that freaked me out because the vampires are honestly creepy –I’ll give them points on the biology of the creatures– but aside from that, it was kind of a yawn fest.

My final complaint: the ending. Needless to say, the big bad evil gets away at the end. I expected that, however, how he gets away is so utterly stupid I was swearing at the book. The old guy has a heart attack in the middle of the big fight (we learn in the last 50 pages he has a bad heart). Dr. Eph is the main contender in this fight since he has decided he’s the one who gets to kill the monster (you know, because he’s been personally affected so he has the right to the evil’s head, as opposed to the guy who has been hunting this thing for three quarters of his life). Being the doctor that he is, he runs to the old guy’s assistance IN THE MIDDLE OF THE MAJOR FIGHT SCENE. Hmm, jee, what’s more important: slaying the thing that wants to destroy mankind or running to the aid of the 80 year old? Did it occur to him he could play doctor AFTER killing the thing since he already had his sword at its neck? Nope, of course not. How else would the monster escape? This is pretty much how book one of the trilogy ends.

At this point I was completely fed up. I couldn’t stand the sentences, I couldn’t stand the predictability, I couldn’t stand the whiny victims who wouldn’t stay in the hospital and then bitched about how bad they felt after surviving a mass freak phenomenon, I couldn’t stand the word for word definitions the writers tried to pass off as their writing on the science and language crap they were trying to explain, I couldn’t stand how the new guy waltzes in and starts playing leader while fighting his internal struggle of going from healer to slayer –cry me a freaking river. And I don’t even get a good ending to redeem all of my struggling! (hide spoiler)]

Needless to say I’m bummed out. I’m going to read the second one because I want to see what happens and I’m hoping they’ve fixed a few things. It’s smaller than The Strain, so that’s already a positive for it.

End of whine-off.(less)

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Oct 19, 2011

Lou rated it

A thrilling story of a race against time for the human populace as a virus strain like no other before has landed in the USA and the living become turned, the scary part is they head home and come after their loved ones first. There is a master of the dark set to dominate the underworld of the vampires that leads the story on to next novel. A action packed race against the spread of vampires, forces of good and evil, survival and death, would make a good movie.
For interview and trailers c...more

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Oct 07, 2011

Trudi rated it

Shelves: horror, apocalyptic-types, science-fiction, vampires, series, 2011, october-country-2011, infection, on-my-kobo, survive-this

I liked this book a lot. There is a nice slow build while the tension and suspense are allowed to simmer and tightly coil, ready for the great “unspringing” if you will. That nice slow build is balanced by some manic action sequences, which are in turn balanced by some beautifully rendered scenes of epic creep. (view spoiler)...more

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Apr 29, 2010

Rusty rated it

Shelves: vampires, 2000, horror, read-in-2010, recommendations, east-coast, series

This is probably a great book, if you’re in the mood for it. I was not. I was not in the mood for a “whole new re-imagining” of the vampire mythos. I’ve seen plenty of “re-imaginings” lately, and that’s not what I was looking for. Nor was I in the mood to wait until the second half of the book to see some action. I understand setting the stage, building tension and whatnot, but this was a little much. So if you’re going to read this book, do yourself a favor; keep in mind that something my...more

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Oct 06, 2010

Craig rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: should-have-been-better-than-it-was, horror

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Seems these days if you want to make a buck, write a vampire story. Don't get me wrong. I've enjoyed many vampire books out there but think the sub-genre has all but been bled dry. So along comes a book co-authored by visionary Guillermo Del Toro, a favorite movie director of mine, that claims to turn the concept of the vampire story on to its head. So yeah, I had high hopes for the book. It's too bad that after the promising first few chapters it simulated the experience of watching a bad ...more

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Oct 21, 2010

Kelly Leigh rated it

Shelves: grrr-vamps-nary-a-sparkle, horror

First of all, I love me some vampires. I love the sultry bedroom eyes, lustful, sex-crazed vampires. The Angels and the Spikes (with or without a soul). And this should go without saying, but I prefer my vamps not to be Bedazzled. I'm crazy like that. So the fact that I was thoroughly enthralled with The Strain struck me as a bit odd. The vampires within this novel are not what I described above. Nope. A big fat negative with the sultriness and the lust. Not in the least. You get the hint. The v...more

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Nov 24, 2009

Robyn rated it

· review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Sep 03, 2009

Dorsi rated it

Shelves: fantasy-paranormal-witchy, owned-by-me

I read somewhere that this book was not your typical vampire book, and it was not. I also read that it was scary as hell, I didn't agree. It didn't have the "raise the hair on your arms" factor. The vampire/zombies were just a touch boring. Once turned, the vamps lost all personality. That would have been okay if they had been more scary. They just seemed kind of blah. The premise behind the story was good. The characters were likable & well developed. I was just so looking forward to ...more

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Sep 11, 2009

Ben rated it

Shelves: read-with-my-wife, horror, fiction, read-2009

This just isn't very good. After a promising and creepy opening, it devolves into repetitive ridiculousness. The writing is also just not good and sometimes laughable, providing such gems as this:

"Eph too had been turned. Not from human to vampire, but from healer to slayer."

I did somehow finish it. My wife did not. I'm sure del Toro will eventually make a movie out of this and it will be one of the rare occasions that the movie is better than the book.

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Feb 08, 2009

Ron rated it

Shelves: horror, medical, science-fiction, vampires, trilogy

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Slick, very slick. A very efficiently calibrated commercial thriller--imagine a post-9/11 cross between 'Salem's Lot and the first third of The Stand, with liberal borrowings from Bram Stoker's Dracula. The back half in particular becomes a string of violent set-pieces depicting the rapidity with which the vampirism spreads over four of Manhattan's five boroughs. (Staten Island: free!) There's a semi-scientific explanation for the vampirism as a hyper-nasty virus, but like Del Toro's film Mimic ...more

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Nov 14, 2011

Rebecca rated it

Extremely pedestrian retelling of a vampire tale. If you read "Salem's Lot" don't bother with "The Strain". You'll be doing comparisons in your head constantly and thinking, "man, this just doesn't measure up."

I love del Toro's movies but it's clear he doesn't know how to translate his story telling ability into the printed word. A book is not a film. You can't shift into another character's viewpoint every five paragraphs without leaving the reader adri...more

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Feb 14, 2011

Jessi rated it

Shelves: it-scared-me

This was good, really good I have the sequel waiting at home for me and can't wait to start.
There are a lot of characters so it did take time for me get everyone straight.For whatever reason everytime Gus come around I was like "who the Hell is Gus" and had to sort of go back and get reaquainted with him. I appreciated that this was shorter then The Passage(what isn't? am I right?)It seemed like Hogan and Del TOro got everything right for me, the length,not too much gore, lots o...more

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Feb 26, 2011

Gavin rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: horror, sci-fi

(Music fades.)

Me: Welcome back to the studio everyone, we have a wonderful surprise for you. Joining us for a few minutes on the airwaves today are two men that have transformed the vampire world: let’s welcome Chuck Logan and Guillermo Del Toro.

Let’s start with you Chuck. You are the recipient of a 2005 Hammett Award for your novel PRINCE OF THIEVES, and are the bestselling author of numerous others. I have to admit, I just saw Ben Affleck’s version of your novel PR...more

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Jan 27, 2011

Philip rated it

Shelves: favorites

A modern take on Dracula. ...I noticed it's still missing from a lot of your shelves.

So you have Guillermo Del Toro of Pans Labryinth fame (by the way, if you've never seen the movie... you may consider it if you're not squeemish... it's fantastic) who, along with Chuck Hogan have written this killer, (literal and figurative) no-sparkles, apocolyptic vampire world domination book in the era of Twilight and Marked and Vampire Loves... I'm a little embarassed that I'm reading this r...more

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Aug 27, 2009

erin rated it

I've read a lot of vampire-stuff. It's fun: I like the stories, the different mythologies, and the characters. But this book...This book had a section that just filled me with dread. Not just "ew, that's awful," but the "I am not going to turn off the lights, oh my god!" churning in the pit of my stomach kind of dread. I thought that I'd have to stop reading the book entirely; fortunately, a few story elements developed and the clouds lifted a bit for me to continue to the en...more

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May 28, 2009

Cheryl rated it

When Abraham Setrakian was just a little boy, his grandmother told him about a story of a man named Jusef Sardu. Jusef was born with a disease that left him weak and having to rely on a cane to walk. You could tell when Jusef was near as you could hear the pick-pick-pick of his cane. While out hunting, Jusef's father vanishes. A search party is formed and slowly one by one of Jusef's cousins and uncles also disappear till only Jusef is left.

Jusef finds his father's body as well as ...moreWhen Abraham Setrakian was just a little boy, his grandmother told him about a story of a man named Jusef Sardu. Jusef was born with a disease that left him weak and having to rely on a cane to walk. You could tell when Jusef was near as you could hear the pick-pick-pick of his cane. While out hunting, Jusef's father vanishes. A search party is formed and slowly one by one of Jusef's cousins and uncles also disappear till only Jusef is left.

Jusef finds his father's body as well as all of his cousins and uncles bodies, near a cave. Jusef vows to kill the monster. That was eleven weeks ago. No one has heard or seen from Jusef since then. Till one day Jusef reappears, a changed man. He no longer requires the use of a cane and has become nocturnal. Abraham once had an encounter with Jusef. Now many years later, Abraham still can't get the sound of the pick-pick-pick out of his head.

Present Day

Something has happened at JFK airport. A huge Regis 777 has landed and is just sitting on the runway. All of the lights have been turned off as well as the shades and doors locked. A group of airport officials gather by the aircraft. As they are trying to figure out how to enter the plane, the rear door opens. They enter and what they find is cause enough to call the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Dr. Ephraim Goodweather and his team arrive. Inside the aircraft, it seems all two hundred passengers have dead but as Dr. Goodweather and his team are about to start removing the bodies, they find four survivors.

The survivors have no clue about what transpired. The only clue Dr. Goodweather has at this time lies in the cargo area of the plane. There he finds what looks to be a coffin. All of the bodies have now been transported to area morgues. Before Dr. Goodweather can check out the coffin in more detail, it disappears. When Abraham hears about what has took in place at JFK, he closes up his shop and heads to Dr. Goodweather. He has something to tell him that he believes Dr. Goodweather will be very interested to hear about.

For anyone who loves vampires, then you have got to get your hands on a copy of this book. Dr. Goodweather may seem like the silent quiet type but he is very intelligent and has a fighting spirit in him. Also beware old men who walk with a cane or you will find yourself at the business end of a very sharp sword. I dare you not to get sucked in. Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan are a dynamic duo. The Strain will leave you craving more. My only regret is that I finished this book so quickly and now I have to wait till next year for book two in this trilogy. The Strain is the classic story of good vs. evil. (less)

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Jul 16, 2009

S.D. rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: horror

An interesting apocalypse book featuring my favorite -- vampires. An airplane lands at JFK, begins to taxi to the gate, then stops. The lights are out, all shades pulled down, engines are off, all communication has ended. Crews on the ground find everyone dead. They bring in the CDC and haul away the bodies but are at a loss to explain why the bodies aren't decomposing and are still warm. Naturally, if there was one flaw it was the intelligence of the CDC who, upon finding a casket with dir...more

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Aug 05, 2010

Chrissy rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: disappointing, awful, horror

This book lacks absolutely all the qualities one might expect from Guillermo Del Toro. Eerie atmospheres, vivid imagery, moments of fearful anticipation, and anything resembling good story-telling are all thrown out the window in favor of a mountain of clichés, a woefully obvious narrative, cardboard cut-out characters without a single believable thought or action, and 300 pages of exposition leading up to a sad excuse for a climax. Finished off with the fact that any moment which COULD HAVE con...more

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Sep 17, 2011

Vincy rated it

Shelves: apocalyptic, epic, vampires, war, arc

This book started off rather slow. So slow, in fact, that I was worried I would not be able to read the whole thing. Yet those few chapters in the beginning were needed for me to understand and grasp the entirety and nuances of further chapters. Which were extremely good.[return][return]The novel is heart-pumping, edge-of-your-seat thrilling. It describes vampirism as a disease using extremely realistic descriptions of the virus and the modifications it makes upon the human body. This made it fe...more

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Jan 31, 2012

Christina Boulard rated it

Let me be frank here...This is NOT a book about sparkly, romantic vampires.
These vampires are horrible, nasty, blood-sucking freaks and they WILL scare you.

The only book I can think to compare it to is Stephen King's Salem's Lot, although, sadly, this book isn't as good.

It sucks you in from the first, with an airplane sitting on the tarmac at JFK airport. There are no signs of life from the people on board. All the window shades are pulled down, all the lights are off an...more

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Jan 25, 2012

Jana rated it

I cannot get into paranormal vampire fiction because, in my book, vampires are not to be nice or heroic or cuddly/sparkly. The Strain is a great re-telling of the mean, all-powerful, abominable Dracula story, set in the world of the 21st century. It’s gory. It’s terrifying. There’s definitely at least one conspiracy afoot. And by the look of it, the world as we know it is doomed. To summarise: this is a wonderful book. The vampires here are not sexy. Seriously. Fully evolved, they don’t even hav...more

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Jan 18, 2012

Jane rated it

This is a vampire story of the old-school variety. They do not glitter in the sun, there is no heart of gold underneath a hardened exterior. There be monsters in del Toro and Hogan's world.
Perhaps it's del Toro's touch that allows the story to unfold like a movie, the scenes are clearly delineated and the characters simply but effectively drawn. I never found myself flipping back a few pages because somehow I'd lost the plot. In fact, I almost never put the book down. The pace and story are...more

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Jan 15, 2012

Lady Journal Zombie Girl Review rated it

Shelves: read-then-review, favorite

** LADY JOURNAL REVIEW ***
*****5 Stars

Ok people tell me who is in the mood for a real horror story? Who is ready for the real deal page turning nonstop thriller?? I have to warn all that I am not liable for nightmares after reading!! You will go to sleep with the lights on and double check everything after reading this! Believe me reader’s Lady Journal would never steer you wrong? Trust me when I say...more ** LADY JOURNAL REVIEW ***
*****5 Stars

Ok people tell me who is in the mood for a real horror story? Who is ready for the real deal page turning nonstop thriller?? I have to warn all that I am not liable for nightmares after reading!! You will go to sleep with the lights on and double check everything after reading this! Believe me reader’s Lady Journal would never steer you wrong? Trust me when I say, I am the Queen of horror! So when I tell you this is Real Horror, it is. Now if you haven’t read this yet, get it now!! Guillermo is so good he is right up with the all time Legend Stephen King! This guy also wrote don’t be Afraid of the Dark that is in the Theaters’ now! He is the visionary creator of The Academy Award-winning Pan’s Labyrinth. (For those of you who aren’t familiar)
This awesome novel is about a horrifying battle between man and vampire that threatens all of humanity!! In just one week Manhattan will be gone!
In one month the country!
In two the whole entire world! ! !
When a plane is lands at JFK airport, everyone noticed all the blinds in the windows are shut tight. There is no sign of anyone coming out, no communication at all. Everyone is clueless is to what had happened here! Suddenly when an alert goes out about some biological threat? Then they began to try to board the plane, to see what has happened. What they discover is something to make anyone’s blood curl.
On another side of the city a character named Abraham senses something is changing within the city rapidly, I bet he never imagined in his dreams that a virus is breaking out among the city that is rapidly spreading threw mankind!! That virus causes you to turn …….. Into a vampire!

This Vampire is unlike that sexy smart alluring vamp like in twilight, we all love! Let’s say it’s really horrifying, almost zombie like. With this spreading everywhere in to everyone! All that you know is gone and changed!! There is nowhere to hide; you must get out there & fight back to survive!

Read more at : http://zombiegirlreveiw.blogspot.com/(less)

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Jan 13, 2012

Mark rated it

The Strain is a very good book. It's about a man who has to find out how to stop a certain disease to spread throughout through New York. He discovers that the disease is the cause of the peoples' deaths throughout New York. The man finds a person who knows everything about the disease and how it occurred. With the help of the person the man finds out that the disease comes from the Master who makes people die and come back as his servants to exterminate the human race.

The theme of th...more

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Dec 20, 2011

Eddie Hodges rated it

This is the first book in a trilogy or series (not sure which) of a really good science fiction take on vampires. There are interesting characters, one or two of which are more complex than they first seem. I thought the idea of treating vampires as the ultimate 'disease' by having members of the CDC become involved was pretty novel. It actually makes sense though, in fact, prior to reading The Strain I read that for fun some medical classes occasionally use vampires or zombies as examples as...moreThis is the first book in a trilogy or series (not sure which) of a really good science fiction take on vampires. There are interesting characters, one or two of which are more complex than they first seem. I thought the idea of treating vampires as the ultimate 'disease' by having members of the CDC become involved was pretty novel. It actually makes sense though, in fact, prior to reading The Strain I read that for fun some medical classes occasionally use vampires or zombies as examples as to how quickly a highly contagious disease can spread. There were also lots of interesting takes on the reasons behind many vampire myths such as why silver and sunlight will destroy them and how they became associated with wolves and rats. In the past while reading vampire novels set in the present it always struck me that if 'supernatural' vampires really existed they wouldn't be that formidable. What I mean by that is that if they were discovered to be real; once people adjusted to the idea, they would be regarded as more of a nuisance, a dangerous nuisance to be sure like rabid animals or wild animals who occasionally attack humans such as bears, wolves or large cats. After all, 'supernatural' vampires have so many weaknesses; they can't cross running water, can't enter a home uninvited, are allergic to silver, sunlight, crosses, holy water, wood stakes, wild rose and hawthorne plants, consecrated ground, mirrors and even a garlic pizza that it seems humans actually have the edge! However, few of these affect science based vampires, so in The Strain they come across as much more dangerous. Especially since, given these vampires nature, they can still turn you into a vampire, or infect you, even after they're dead!

There were a few nits to pick; the biggest to me is that the vampires seemed to easily overwhelm secondary characters when they attacked them, but when the main characters fought them they were much easier to beat. I also thought it was a bit of a cheat when something we were told over and over was very deadly to vamps barely affected the master vampire at one point. And the cliché of everyone refusing to listen to our heroes, even though some of them are highly respected scientists, was annoying. None of these detract that much from what is an otherwise good read thought the book would have been better without them.

Still, if you like horror novels; this is a good one!
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Dec 05, 2011

Angela rated it

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Shelves: adult-fiction, horror, read-2011

A good friend of mine sent me this in the post a couple of years ago and it's just been sitting on my bookshelf ever since collecting dust. I totally forgot that I even owned it until another friend was talking to me about it, so I eventually picked it up to read.

Modern vampire books worry me ever since ‘Twilight’ became so inexplicably popular but thankfully this reads more like a Stephen King vampire concept (see 'Salems Lot) than Meyer's sparkling stalker. This is how vampires are...moreA good friend of mine sent me this in the post a couple of years ago and it's just been sitting on my bookshelf ever since collecting dust. I totally forgot that I even owned it until another friend was talking to me about it, so I eventually picked it up to read.

Modern vampire books worry me ever since ‘Twilight’ became so inexplicably popular but thankfully this reads more like a Stephen King vampire concept (see 'Salems Lot) than Meyer's sparkling stalker. This is how vampires are supposed to behave – basically as evil fuckers.

Del Toro and Hogan have written a novel which adds a new dimension to vampire lore. I loved the concept of the vampire acting more as part of a hive as opposed to being an individual. I also loved how the vampire is viewed as a contagious virus and the description of how this virus is spread (view spoiler).

This book took me about 100 pages to get in to it as the beginning is extremely slow paced, and quite frankly dull. The writing is not particularly good either, but then I was expecting that as the friend who sent me the book had kindly put a note inside the covers telling me this was a trashy read but fun. He was correct; this IS a trashy, fun read and one that horror fans would lap up as there are some definite creepy moments in it. One element of the writing I loved were the flashbacks with Setrakian; an excellent use of storytelling and added a whole new level of menace to the novel in general.

A few things concern me though, and I am putting this down to bad writing. There are gaping holes in the plot which I find difficult to overlook. (view spoiler)[ all but four passengers on the plane are killed but then the ones who ‘died’ on the plane come back to life in the morgue and then head home to their Dear Ones. Ok fine, however it was mentioned previously that when the Ancients fed, they made sure to kill their prey so they wouldn’t reanimate and become ‘turned’. When I first read this I assumed that that is what had happened and the four who had survived were spared to serve a purpose. I’m confused as to why four would be apparently spared and the rest ‘killed’ when they are ALL going to end up the same – a newly turned vampire.

Also, while I’m mentioning the plane, at no point does it become obvious or is it explained how every single passenger on the flight succumbed to the one vampire at exactly the same time. I've discussed with a friend and he could offer no definitive answer, and he's read the full trilogy.

Now on to the survivors. Three out of the four survivors are explained and investigated further by Del Toro and Hogan about what happened to them apart from the lawyer. The co-pilot is killed fairly early on, Ansel is killed in his shed, Bolivar becomes some sort of bodyguard slave to the Ancient/Sardu – where the fuck is the lawyer?
About two-thirds of the way through the book her husband returns home, gets attacked, escapes and runs up the road. That’s the last we hear of him. What the hell has happened to him? Did he escape? Did he survive the night? We don’t know.
About halfway through the book, the lawyer’s children are rescued by the housemaid and taken to her place, but yet again nothing else is mentioned of them after this so we, the readers, are just left wondering. It’s frustrating to say the least.

It could be argued that these characters were overlooked and not really mentioned again for a number of reasons: one could be that the action had really started at this point with Eph and Setrakian hunting the vampires so mentioning a menial character at this stage would slow the action down; another reason could be that they are going to resurface in the sequel. If that is the case, it is a shoddy technique by the authors’ and one that should have been slapped down by the editor (hide spoiler)].

I will read the rest of this trilogy as overall I did enjoy this book. I know it’s not that well written or thought out. I know there are gaping holes in the theme and plot that need to be addressed by the authors’. I know all of this, but I still enjoyed it because every now and then I need to read a book that doesn’t take itself too seriously. If I went to this book with expectations of anything other than it being a ‘trashy but fun’ read, then I would probably be disappointed, but as it stands, it is exactly what I was promised by my friend.
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Nov 27, 2011

Chris Morey rated it

An exciting and entertaining vampire novel that will give you a great ride, but leave you yearning for the tale to be told by more experienced hands. Del Toro is a creative visionary, but his inexperience in creative writing is constantly a reminder thanks to the sometimes terrible, awkward dialogue, flat characters and cheesy B-Movie situations and alterations that will have you rolling your eyes, even if you hate making the gesture. Whenever Chuck Hogan took back the reigns I found myself si...more

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Wicked Witches of...: The Strain by Guillermo del Toro	9	6	Feb 02, 2012 07:14pm
The Strain	12	73	Dec 30, 2011 12:46pm
Does anyone know when the third book comes out?	9	85	Dec 01, 2011 11:28am
Lush Library: The Strain	5	9	Nov 17, 2011 01:28am
Stephen King Fans: The Strain by Guillermo del Toro & Chuck Hogan- MARKED SPOILERS	79	50	Oct 22, 2011 09:34am
Apocalypse Whenever: The Strain	40	35	Sep 15, 2011 05:23pm

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About Guillermo del Toro

Guillermo del Toro is a Mexican director mostly known for his acclaimed films, Pan's Labyrinth,The Devils Backbone and the Hellboy film franchise.His films draw heavily on sources as diverse as weird fiction, fantasy and war.Del Toro released his debut novel, The Strain, which he co-authored with Chuck Hogan. It will be the first part of a vampire trilogy. The second part, The Fall, was released o...more

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The Night Eternal (The Strain Trilogy, #3)

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“...to all the monsters in my nursery: May you never leave me alone.” — 30 people liked it

“What you fought was a dead man, possessed by a disease.' - Setrakian
'What--like a pinche zombie?' - Gus
'Think more along the lines of a man with a black cape. Fangs. Funny accent. Now take away the cape and fangs. The funny accent. Take away anything funny about it.' - Setrakian” — 5 people liked it

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