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The Twelve (The Passage, #2)

Justin Cronin

Start date: November 1, 2013

Finish date: November 15, 2013

Why we're reading this: Sequel to The Passage
[close] Sequel to The Passage

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Mar 07, 2017 Wayne Barrett rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2017, vampires, series, horror, dystopia, apocalyptic

I'm on my way to the final book of the trilogy. This has been a great series, and I was actually able to enjoy 'The Twelve' a little more than I did 'The Passage' because this time I was prepared for Cronins method of time crossing and the poetic prose he used in this apocalyptic, vampiric tale.

I will give an overall opinion of the trilogy when finished, but so far, I've enjoyed the unique style and telling of an otherwise overdone story. ...more

18 likes · Like · see review

Jul 06, 2019 Magnus Iskander Reim rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi, urban-fantasy-magical-realism

A far stronger book than the first one, in my opinion.

The first half was especially good : chronologically deconstructed, it drew bridges between eras, patterns and people in a way that I felt was very meaningful. Brave choices were made and the plot was still very well-done, if less original in the latest part. It was a real delight to read, and went away from the easy plot devices that could be found in the latest part of the book.

Jumping 5 years forwards (and 25 backwards, and back at the ti A far stronger book than the first one, in my opinion.

The first half was especially good : chronologically deconstructed, it drew bridges between eras, patterns and people in a way that I felt was very meaningful. Brave choices were made and the plot was still very well-done, if less original in the latest part. It was a real delight to read, and went away from the easy plot devices that could be found in the latest part of the book.

Jumping 5 years forwards (and 25 backwards, and back at the time of the infection, 95 years before), the characters' relationship are still skilfully depicted and developed without getting sappy. Plot is still gripping and, surprisingly enough in a horror-ish book, convincing. As in the first book, the supernatural/biological aspects of the story are never over-the-top and the concrete aspects of living in a world where 99% of the population has disappeared have obviously been given in-depth thinking.

However, I felt like the last 10 percent of the book, which should have been the climax of the whole story, could have been better. Lots of important things happen at the same time but we're never given a clear explanation as to why they do. Several characters make drastic changes, without the reader being given the elements to understand why and/or the full extent of their motivations.
However, the thing that aggravated me the most what the sheer amount of deus ex machina in the last quarter of the book. Long-lost families who disappeared in a literal storm of highly infectious killing machine are miraculously all alive and well, except one or two you probably didn't care about/remember anyways.

This strikes me as a poor choice completely at odds with the rest of the the atmosphere, the themes and the plot of the book : this books series relies heavily on verisimilitude, and predictable, kind of cheesy plot choices like this one actually deter this aspect of the story from sticking :
- The themes of this story revolve around family, human nature, moral choices and basically the beauty of the world despite it being completely shitty (see : systematic depiction of nature and landscape whenever the characters are experiencing a positive feeling or a personal turning point). Dropping some destiny/god's plan for two or three lines into a book whose main focus is human choices is not relevant, in my opinion.
- This is implies inconsistent and discordant behaviour for different characters. Justin Cronin obviously knows his multiple deus ex are heavy handed and tries to sweeten the pill by making different characters point this out several times in cheesy-ish "how odd, there must be some higher power at hand" lines. This brings nothing to the story, nor to the plot or characters, who have never shown any kind of belief in any god or destiny before.
- The atmosphere is never reflects any aspect of this : is actually draws the setting away from the intensely believable and, thus, immersive, towards a fairy-tale quality. This does is not an issue per se : I'm a lover of fantasy, sci-fi and fairy-tales. However, this makes the story less believable, for a gain I can't see : why chose to make a story feel more preposterous than more gripping ? All the depictions of nature and the immensity of the american continent, people, creatures (less monstrous and more touching, a very interesting development) are powerful tools to bring the story to life, and the reader inside it. It feels like this choice brings it all down in a kind of cheap spiritual/1980s-fantasy feeling.

Overall, this still is a very good book and I can't wait to read the rest of it.

4 blue-glowing, clawed stars. ...more

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Nov 05, 2019 Jess Penhallow rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This book was even better than its predecessor. I am glad that it addressed most of my issues with The Passage namely the overabundance of characters and skipping over interesting events. While there are still a lot of characters, it is now becoming clear who the key characters are and these characters were given space for development. This meant that this introduction of new characters was welcome rather than distracting. It was also great that it went back and documented events that were skipp ...more

1 like · Like · see review