When a scientific expedition in South America is attacked by vampire bats, you get a pretty good idea where this book is headed. When the army tries t...moreWhen a scientific expedition in South America is attacked by vampire bats, you get a pretty good idea where this book is headed. When the army tries to militarize vampirism, you know it will end badly. Six year old Amy gets snatched from a convent to become the next test subject, because the army needs a child, and Amy’s as anonymous as they get. Amy’s kinda weird before the vampirization process, having already caused a riot at the zoo, among the animals.
Amy survives the ensuing vampire holocaust, which wipes out all but a handful of humans, who survive in well-lit walled compounds, powered by failing batteries. A hundred years later, Amy shows up at one of those outposts, and a few people decide to return her to Colorado, in hopes the army, which created her, can save them.
Writer’s Workshop alum Justin Cronin takes his time, showing events, but only explaining them, obliquely at that, hundreds of pages later. He goes thru lots of characters, and multiple points of view. The Passage is the first of a trilogy, which is probably years from completion. I’ll be waiting. --John
This is a mean, nasty book about four bad kids, who, in the course of recovering a stolen bike, steal a pound of meth, getting in over their heads wit...moreThis is a mean, nasty book about four bad kids, who, in the course of recovering a stolen bike, steal a pound of meth, getting in over their heads with some even worse people. That gang, the Arroyo brothers, is run by an even worse guy, Geezer, who (despite his comic affliction–what’s the word? Aphids? Asia? Aphasia!!) is one of the scariest characters in recent memory. There’s someone even Geezer is afraid of tho, and that’s the father of a couple of the bad kids.
The level of violence here justifies the cover blurb by Stephen King. The dialog is spot on, profane, nasty. The characters work, even if we only side with some of them coz they’re just kids The story’s escalating badness builds momentum, as it explores the past. I couldn’t put it down, but I wanted to shower when I finished.
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