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The Strain

(The Strain Trilogy #1)

Guillermo del Toro,

Chuck Hogan

3.78 · Rating details · 81,020 ratings · 6,584 reviews

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. Ephraim "Eph" Goodweather, head of their Canary project, a rapid-response team that investigates biolo ...more

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Hardcover, 403 pages

Published June 2nd 2009 by William Morrow

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Start your review of The Strain (The Strain Trilogy, #1)

Oct 27, 2009 Kemper rated it liked it

Shelves: vampires, horror

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 bloodsucki 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 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.
...more

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Jun 24, 2014 Wil Wheaton rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: horror

What if vampires were real, ancient, and spread their vampirism like a virus? That's the central premise of The Strain, and I was on board from the first page. Ultimately, it was a disappointment for me, and I won't be reading the other books in the trilogy.

This book starts out with so much promise. It's a taught, intense, compelling thriller that gradually introduces compelling characters that it's easy to care about.

Then, in its middle third, it starts to wobble a little bit. The characters st ...more

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Dec 03, 2010 N.K. Jemisin rated it liked it

Shelves: trainwrecks

This is a terrible book. Nearly all of the characters were caricatures straight out of Central Casting, or TV Tropes. We had the Wise Old Guy, the Street-Smart Shitkicker, The Brain, and The Chick. Oh, and speaking of The Chick, there were two: the love interest of the Brain and the nagging, irrational Ex-Wife -- because Ex-Wives must never be charming and smart -- mother of The Wesley Crusher son of The Brain. The whole book reads as though somebody figured out how to do Novel-By-Numbers and ma ...more

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Oct 03, 2018 Melissa ♥ Dog/Wolf Lover ♥ Martin rated it liked it

Shelves: horror-gothic-etc, library-book, audio, halloween-reads

It was alright. I kinda got lost. Zero stars for the dogs!! And the milky stuff - ewwwww. I hate milk and this made me want to gag! I still have to fight gagging when watching the first Alien for the millionth time 😂

Happy Halloween 🎃

Mel 🖤🐺🐾 ...more

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Dec 14, 2012 Fabian rated it liked it

This is a striking example of what is officially called literatherapy. So tired from finals (finishing a semester-long draft--ending with 322 pages [!] plus a non fiction piece PLUS grading... [This is sooo irrelevant,) but a good assessment of this reviewer's desperate mindset whilst reading the novel]) I REALLY had to do something about the overstimulated brain, to lull my senses significantly and inspire me to finally do something to chillax--so I got this from the library, deciding that del ...more

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Sep 27, 2010 Craig rated it it was ok · 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, you gotta 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 ...more

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Aug 31, 2009 bsc rated it did not like it

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

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. ...more

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Apr 13, 2009 Will Byrnes rated it liked it

Shelves: horror

This is the first of a planned trilogy. The director of Pan’s Labyrinth and an award winning mystery author brings their vision to the vampire tale.

description

Del Toro and friend - from Geek Nation

The Strain is a fast, entertaining read, with a twist to the rationale for vampirism that is fun, if a bit derivative. In fact a lot of this book is derivative, cobbling together elements from a host of books and films. There is a scene that is reminiscent of the haunted ship sequence in Dracula. In the origina ...more

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Aug 22, 2009 Stephen rated it it was amazing

Shelves: ebooks, horror, signed-first-or-limited-edition, audiobook, 2006-2010, gorrific, 6-star-books, fang-bangers

6.0 stars (this one may make it onto my "All Time Favorite" list). This is instantly on my list of the top five Vampire stories I have ever read (or in this case read and also listened to on audiobook). I am not a "vampire" book reader in general meaning I do not buy every new vampire story that comes out. I do read a lot of SF/Fantasy/Horror and so I do come across them on a fairly typical basis. For me, what makes a great vampire novel is when you can create a completely original (or mostly or ...more

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Aug 04, 2017 Jilly rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: thrillers, sci-fi, vampires

If you have found yourself reading vampire fiction and thought, "You know what this needs? Vampires urinating and defecating on their victims. Also, tongues that shoot out of their necks with stingers on the end. And, make sure that they have worms crawling out of their milky white blood."
Then, boy, do I have the book for you!!

As for me:

You need rubber gloves to touch this book, it is so gross.

This book is so disgusting that I need a bath in bleach right now to clean off the yuckiness in my brai ...more

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Aug 02, 2010 TK421 rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: horror-thriller, 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 PRINCE OF THIEVES, renamed The ...more

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Nov 09, 2012 Dyuti rated it it was amazing

Shelves: ebook, horror, favourites

Security Question: Please answer the following question to proceed with the review.
What is your idea of a vampire?
a.A sparkly 'Monster' like this:
description

b. A vicious, stinger flaring Monster like this:
strain

If you answer (b), read on. Else, you might find this review a little offensive.

The First Bight:
When I saw that Guillermo del Toro had written a book, I simply could not wait to read it. Reason: He's the Master of dark fantasies. No no, not paranormal eroticas, which people try to pass off unde ...more

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Dec 19, 2013 Erin *Proud Book Hoarder* rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: a-own-book-form, movie-seen, bought-from-bandit, first-in-series, horror, part-of-series, 2-star, reviewed, movie-was-better, vampires

“...to all the monsters in my nursery: May you never leave me alone.”

While the Strain may deliver a nifty TV show, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a great book.

While that may sound contradictory, trust me, that’s the way it read. Guillermo del Toro is used to making movies and you can feel the sense of 'scene changes' in the book. You can tell it's for the sake of reading the story and plot rather than reading through character's experiencing story and plot. Lots of tell, little show, there is ...more

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Jul 24, 2019 Ammar rated it it was amazing

I thoroughly loved this book
A take on the classic vampire tale
A twist of biology
Mythology
And ancient lore
And the human fear and shortcomings

Can’t wait to read book 2

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Jan 31, 2010 Becky rated it really liked it

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

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 wrong, I like the tradit 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 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 ...more

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Apr 12, 2018 Evelina | AvalinahsBooks rated it liked it

Shelves: books-of-2018, dark, biblioteka, horror, dystopia, fiction, problematic

This series was very problematic, in my opinion. Please read the full review for the series here on my blog.

Book one was the only book truly worth the attention. Like I said, it started out quite original, like any catastrophy or epidemic story, and I have to say, it was very cinematic! No wonder, it's co-written by Guillermo del Toro. The book reads pretty much like a show – in scenes. Most things are indeed tell, and not show, which put you in the middle of the action. The tension is ...more

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Mar 02, 2020 Jenna rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, horror

Action-packed and gory, this book kept me on the edge of my seat!

4.5 stars rounded up

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Sep 04, 2011 Apatt rated it really liked it

A nice and breezy read, though nice isn't quite the right word and the breeze is a bit fetid! The Strain is an increasingly rare (ahem) strain of badass vampire novels. There are no well-coiffed, sexy, maudlin vampires in this book, they just "vant to suck your blood" (without the Lugosi style Euro-accented declaration). Of course talking about how de-fanged, lame and sparkly vampires have become since the advent of Twilight has become a trope for vampire books review so I just want to get it ou ...more

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May 30, 2009 Danielle The Book Huntress (Back to the Books) rated it liked it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Vampire fiction fans

Recommended to Danielle The Book Huntress (Back to the Books) by: I like the Del Toro's movies

Shelves: vampire, library-checkout, ww2, audiobook, horror, 2011-reading, multiple-narrators, part-of-a-series, monster-hunters

This was probably a 3.5 star read for me. It was good, but it could have been better. I think the writing lacked a certain polish, although I did like some of the imagery. And it definitely was scary!

Story:
The vampires in this book were both disgusting and fearsome. I admit that thinking about the vampires and their nasty stinger and how they would excrete their waste products gave me the shivers (both in repulsion and fear). I liked the scientific angle employed in this story, taking an ancient This was probably a 3.5 star read for me. It was good, but it could have been better. I think the writing lacked a certain polish, although I did like some of the imagery. And it definitely was scary!

Story:
The vampires in this book were both disgusting and fearsome. I admit that thinking about the vampires and their nasty stinger and how they would excrete their waste products gave me the shivers (both in repulsion and fear). I liked the scientific angle employed in this story, taking an ancient evil, and giving it a scientific explanation. The potential for exponential and catastrophic spread of the vampire plague in this novel gives me the shudders. Books like this make me glad for the light of the sun, which is what a good vampire novel should do. This book touches both on my primal fear of ancient evil and infection, so it really did push my buttons.

Characters:
There were some characters that were so beautifully written that they spoke to me. Others were too cardboard for me. Abraham Satrakian, the elderly Jewish Shoah survivor was a wonderful character. He was like Van Helsing, with even more credibility, having earned his slayer status deep in the trenches. Hearing about his horrendous time in the Treblinka concentration camp added a deeper sense of horror and anguish to this story. He's one tough old guy, and he's definitely my favorite character in this novel. Ephraim is a pretty good character. At times, his narrative seemed a little half-baked. Over the course of the book, he gained a little more life and authority in my mind. I think his co-worker Nora was woefully under-used. I wondered what the purpose of her character was, other than being a soundboard for him. I felt very badly for Ansel and his situation, with his wife Anne-Marie. I didn't really care for the lawyer woman Luss, although I want to see what happens with her perceptive, Haitian nanny and the kids she saved from their mother. I like Fett, the ratcatcher a lot. He's a smart guy, street smart, intelligent, and resourceful. He knows how to handle himself. He is a huge asset to the small vampire slaying group that Abraham forms with Ephraim. The Master Vampire, well, I'm kind of undecided about. He wasn't in this book enough for him to resonate with me. I think Abraham is a much more powerful, and iconic character. The Master is more like Patient Zero to me, just a disease vector, one who comes around and sneers into the camera. He didn't really establish a lot of credibility with me as the Great Villain or the Big Bad. We'll see if that changes with the other books in the series...

Overall Thoughts:
This was a suspenseful, scary book to hear on audio. I was definitely sucked in. My aunt (who was riding with me on Friday) also got sucked in. Unfortunately, I think the characterization could have been more even-handed. There were a bit too many storylines, and I felt like some were dropped prematurely. I know this is a three-part book, so I guess I will have to keep reading to see where things go. As far as being scary and gross and keeping a reader invested, this is a Class A read. I think that work on the characters and the plot would have made it a stronger read over all. Ron Perlman was a really good narrator. He has a great voice, and he did a good job with the accents. I would definitely listen to other audiobooks read by him. If you find this available on audiobooks, and you are a vampire fan, I say check it out.

...more

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Jul 03, 2009 Elisa rated it it was ok · 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 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 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. ...more

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Apr 19, 2018 Bark | Ladies Of Horror Fiction rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: horror, audiobook

I have not seen the show created from this material. I DVR’d it but the thing got full and it was deleted. That may have been for the best . . .

The Strain begins when a passenger plane lands with its windows all darkened and none of its 199 passengers getting off the plane. Is it a terrorist attack or something even more insidious?

I’ll give you a hint. It’s the second one and this part of the book is so very creepy!

There was something on that plane that is now wreaking havoc on the family membe ...more

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Oct 02, 2017 Brent rated it it was ok

Shelves: horror, kindle

Although I like Del Toro and really enjoyed Trollhunters, no amount of admiration can salvage this book. When it comes to scary stuff, the gold standard in my book is Stephen King. The two main talents that make King horror royalty are:

One - Intense characterization - He can quickly introduce characters and within a page you feel you know them, you are rooting for them, and - when you turn the page - are devastated when they comes to a terrible end. The authors of this book lack that ability, ev ...more

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Aug 25, 2009 James rated it it was ok

Shelves: modern-fantasy, thriller

The Strain Is a Disappointment: Or, 4 Reasons Why Twilight Is a Better Book than The Strain

I confess that I am a newcomer to vampire fiction. It was the buzz surrounding Meyer's Twilight that dragged me into the genre and I found myself pleasantly piqued to see what else it had to offer. You can imagine, then, my immense pleasure at discovering Guillermo Del Toro's remarkable essay in the New York Times about why we hunger for monster fiction generally and vampire fiction specifically. The essay ...more

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Jul 13, 2014 Mike (the Paladin) rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: horror, urban-fantasy

* Note: I reviewed this some time ago but updated it today (1/8/18) to fix a typo.

Well....I like this book, though it's got some really annoying parts. I vacillated from 5 stars to 3 stars.

This is another take on the vampire legend. Those are a dime a dozen now of course, but this one isn't bad. (It's not a spoiler to let you know that the religious remedies don't work again...as usual now). This time vampirism is spread by a virus. Not a new idea, but it's done well here. The book may put you i ...more

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Nov 09, 2010 Jessi rated it really liked it

Shelves: it-scared-me, so-this-is-a-series

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 of eerie creepy ...more

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Oct 19, 2020 Frank Phillips rated it it was amazing

Heck yes!! This book was legit the perfect combination of action, suspense, science fiction, horror, drama, it had it all!! I've been a huge fan of the TV series for a long time now and decided to re-watch the entire series during the month of October, which got me wondering how the novels read in comparison. I will say that book one covered about half of the first season, but it read very much the same as the show and there weren't really any changes that I noticed, so it will be very interesti ...more

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Jan 02, 2020 Sarah rated it really liked it

Shelves: sci-fi-horror

I read this last year and apparently never marked it as read or even currently reading. Sigh.

Anyway! I actually really enjoyed it. Thought the audio was well done, it was a newish take on an old trope.

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Jun 05, 2014 Leah Polcar rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: apocalypse, horror-or-close-enough, highly-recommended, vampires, read-in-2014, audio-book

This review refers to the audiobook version.

4.5 -- but I am going with the 5 above because, you know, I am usually really mean and it is the holiday season.

First, I am shocked and appalled, well actually just shocked, that my most trusted Goodreads reviewers only gave this an average of about 3.5 stars. Usually I feel like I am the one who is too critical and won't give a novel that isn't on some book award list somewhere more than 3 stars. Nonetheless, I loved this book despite the rousing okay ...more

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Aug 01, 2014 Carol rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: thriller, horror, vampires, sci-fi, read-2014, trilogy

"Dead Airplane + Solar Eclipse = Not Good"

This thriller of a read begins when an arriving Boeing 777 stops dead in its tracks on the runway with zero communication from within, and continues amidst the darkness of a solar eclipse with a virus from hell and "Thriller"- like zombies threatening to infect you with their disgusting oral stingers at every opportunity.

Book One of this vampiric trilogy is action-packed with convincing characters and an interesting storyline. Definitely recommend if you

...more

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May 20, 2010 Lou rated it really liked 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 click li ...more

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About Guillermo del Toro

Guillermo del Toro

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Guillermo del Toro is a Mexican director mostly known for his acclaimed films Pan's Labyrinth, The Devils Backbone, Crimson Peak and the Hellboy film franchise. His films draw heavily on sources as diverse as weird fiction, fantasy, horror, and war. In 2009, Del Toro released his debut novel, The Strain, co-authored with Chuck Hogan, as the first part of The Strain Trilogy, an apocalyptic horror s ...more