The Passage by Justin Cronin (RIP #7)

Book Summary (from the book)

An epic and gripping tale of catastrophe and survival, The Passage is the story of Amy –abandoned by her mother at the age of six, pursued and then imprisoned by the shadowy figures behind a government experiment of apocalyptic proportions. But Special Agent Brad Wolgast, the lawman sent to track her down, is disarmed by the curiously quiet girl and risks everything to save her. As the experiment goes nightmarishly wrong, Wolgast secures her escape –but he can’t stop society’s collapse. And as Amy walks alone, across miles and decades, into a future dark with violence and despair, she is filled with the mysterious and terrifying knowledge that only her has the power to save the ruined world.

My Review

This is my last addition to the R.I.P challenge this year. I had fun, but I went through all the books that I wanted to read that fell into the category and I want to change genres a bit…at least for a while.

So, how did I get to this book? Bookrageous off course! Josh from Brews and Books actually talked about the book on episode 39 this year, and then I read Rebecca's (The Book Lady)review on it. Long story short...I put it down on my TBR list, reserved it at the library and waited, and waited.

Now, I really tried to finish this one before entering the Read-A-Thon…but a cold got in the way and so, my two book “challenges” this year (2 and only mind you, I’m new at this) merged. Luckily they did so beautifully.

Let’s get to the book shall we? The book is written from a third person’s point of view, we are just the observers. However, it keeps jumping from character to character so we are not necessarily following the same person, but just the same story.

The author places the story as B.V or A.V (before or after the virus, which allows him to play with how far in the future are we, although there are a couple of references to 2014. Why is this important? Because the world has collapsed and a lot of things are lost, just part of the memories of survivors and that makes it tangible as future but then again far away. I’m not sure if I’m being clear with this but is the best I can put it in words.

What is the virus? Well, I’m not ruining anything by telling you that is kind off a vampiric virus. It starts as a scientific study (this part I totally loved, even though I’m not a virologist, that’s my BF domain actually) and then the government gets his hands on it, more specifically, the Army wants it.

Because you see, is not the glittery vampires we are talking about, is regeneration, not getting old, etc…sort of Resident Evil with a similar outcome (is bad, just in case)

Needless to say, the virus, or better the patients treated with the virus get out of control, and is chaos. That’s when the world collapses, panic arises, and we shift in time. Colonies have been established, hiding from the virals, trying to survive. And this is what makes it so different from Resident Evil (well, there is more, but for me this is the main point): we see the people, how things have changed and how they haven’t, the struggle to survive, without endless action scenes and monsters everywhere.

Oh don’t get me wrong, the monsters (virals, smokes, etc) are there, is just that they are not the main point of the story, is what pivots around their apparition, how society changes and how humans react to such cataclysm.

I won’t give away more details, because there are some nuances that I think are better discovered little by little. Is a big book and I will admit that sometimes the pace was a bit slow (or maybe was the cold medicine?) but it picks up. For me the rhythm was more like a roller coaster, in a good sense, you get comfortable and the BOOM something happens and you keep shooting glances to the other side of the page to make sure everyone is ok. 

I don’t have a favorite character, but I like them all. They are well constructed, not perfect by any means, but complicated enough that you want to know a little bit more of their background so things might make sense.

I really enjoyed the book and I want to read The Twelve soon.