Justin Cronin: The Passage

Two years ago, I came to a bookstore with absolutely no particular book in mind. I was just bored and wanted to read something - didn't care whether to buy a classic or something else. I browsed and browsed and decided to buy this paperback without knowing what it would be about (*ironic thumbs up* for paperbacks and the abundance of pointless short reviews combined with the absence of a short summary somewhere on the cover). Little did I know that it would actually combine my two favorite genres (vampires and post-apocalyptical world). However, the book lay forgotten on the bottom of my backpack, for I was given tons of books to read for my literature seminars. 

So a year later I found the book and started reading. At work. Yes, working and reading don't mix. I managed about one hundred pages in between handing people keys from their rooms or solving some stupid non-existent problems eldery hotel guests tend to have. 

School came after summer (what a shocker) and I again couldn't read the book. But now, after yet another year, I can say I DID IT! I'm finished and want more! 

To the review then... I didn't believe someone could write nine hundred pages and still not be done (hush, don't wanna hear about the epic Game of Thrones saga). I somehow got accustomed to the tone of the book, the departure from the classic vampire genre (take death-row prisoners, hand them to the US Army for some experimenting - which, of course, has a noble purpose - and get evil vampires who will hunt people and ... bam! A hundred years later you have a colony of survivors who are visited by a mysterious girl who holds the key for the destruction of the virals-that's how the vampires are called-and perhaps holds the only hope for humankind). 

The book, despite its thickness, is fast paced. It grabs you and won't let you go till you are totally spent and hungry for more (I've just learned that this is supposed to be a trilogy, so naturally, I am intrigued to buy the already-existing sequel, even though I hate it when the authors come up with trilogies or a series... I know, I know, money... but how many books which we learn about at school are a part of a trilogy? ... just saying). I've just realised there's more text in the brackets than outside of them. I'm weird with my side notes. Anyway, do I want more? Yes! Will I read the next installment immediately? No. I'll wait till all the books are out and then I'm gonna read them in one go because if they are as good as the first one, the wait would kill me.

GENRE: post-apocalyptic heebie jeebies  
FANGS OUT: the shivers, the secrets everyone has, oh and morality (just love me some ethical problems, oh yeah) 
FANGS RETRACTING: not really a classic vampire stuff - could have been any kind of virus to cause this and it wouldn't make any difference   
TOTAL SCORE: