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The Passage (The Passage, #1)

Justin Cronin

Start date: June 12, 2013

Finish date: July 1, 2013

Discussion: Books of the Month

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What Members Thought

Jan 16, 2016 Jen Ifer's Inklings rated it it was amazing

Shelves: audio-books, library, popsugar-2016-reading-challenge, read-in-2016, 5-star-reads

My only complaint is that this book took forever. There is a lot of detail and a lot of backstory. None of which are bad things in a story, but I felt like this book would never end. This is a series, and I'm not sure if I'll continue it or not. ...more

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Mar 10, 2013 Logan rated it it was ok

Shelves: borrowed-library, borrowed-ebook, paranormal, dystopian-post-apocalyptic, 2013-books-read

*EDIT 3/20/13 - No sooner had I given up and returned the hardcover library copy than I received an email that my ebook library hold for this title was available. I took it as a sign to push on and see if I could finish, so I'm back into this today.

*EDIT 3/21/13 - Finished! I actually liked the ending, and I'm curious about the sequel now. I think taking a break to read something quick and fun was a good idea, because I came back to this without the boredom slowly beating me to death as before. *EDIT 3/20/13 - No sooner had I given up and returned the hardcover library copy than I received an email that my ebook library hold for this title was available. I took it as a sign to push on and see if I could finish, so I'm back into this today.

*EDIT 3/21/13 - Finished! I actually liked the ending, and I'm curious about the sequel now. I think taking a break to read something quick and fun was a good idea, because I came back to this without the boredom slowly beating me to death as before. Final verdict is: great beginning, good end, horrible middle.

ORIGINAL REVIEW 3/16/13:

Well, I made it through 540 of the 766 pages in this behemoth. What a disappointment.

The first 200 or so pages were terrific. I didn't mind the slow pace because the characters were interesting and the story was intriguing.

Once we fast forwarded to post-apocalyptic life on the Colony, however, things ground to a halt. New, bland, barely distinguishable characters live boring and uneventful lives. When exciting events do occur, we often get the action in narrative shifts that completely remove any trace of tension, such as accounts told as journal entries or memories. Most of these events could easily have unfolded as part of the regular narrative, and the distance created from these shifts made me care even less about the story.

Where was the fear in these people? They've lived for almost a hundred years in a compound to keep out the virals, and yet they never seem scared. It was mind numbingly boring to wait for something even mildly tense to happen. After 200 more pages, when they finally have an objective, they set off without hesitation or fear.

I didn't buy the cultural and linguistic changes that Cronin created for the Colony, either. After only 92 years, we've forgotten the concept of the ocean or basic geography? We're calling kids "Littles" and not just "children"? We've invented a new curse word and abandoned all others? We still know how to use stethoscopes and provide medical care, but we've stopped telling time?

Though I liked the mystery around Amy and the virus, this boring and tension-free writing made me throw in the towel. I'll wait for the movie. ...more

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Apr 05, 2015 Krissy rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: buddy-read, audiobook, pgs-600-or-more

I just could not get into this book. I tried. I really did but it just wasn't happening for me. The author kept throwing a crap ton of characters at you all at once. Some are important and some aren't. Then after only a few scenes you are supposed to remember these specific characters several hundred pages later. Needless to say I had a difficult time remembering who was whom.

The pacing was all kinds of whack also. But that is kind of expected with such a long book. It just seemed worse during ...more

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Sep 29, 2013 Joyce rated it really liked it

I am not a fan of dystopian stories, but I do like vampire stories. I listened to this as an abridged version (14 hours). I liked it well enough that I will have to get the sequel. Chances are I will try to listen to that as well. Edward Herrmann did a great voice acting job. It was very creepy. However, I also thought the tale had shades of Stephen King. Bad things happen in the mountains in Colorado ala The Shining; everybody's got to go to Las Vegas ala The Stand; a little girl has unusual po ...more

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Jan 28, 2012 Rhonda rated it it was ok

There were things to like about this book, but overall it just ended up annoying me in a lot of different ways. There was a lot of really weird sentence structure throughout, characters who acted inconsistently, and loose ends all over the place.

Oh well.

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