The Twelve by Justin Cronin

They are the freest things on earth. Without remorse. Without pity. Without love. Nothing can touch them, hurt them.

 

Why I read this book?

This is the sequel for Cronin's The Passage. I read this one for last year's R.I.P challenge and so I waited for this year's R.I.P to read the sequel. Also it makes part of my Sequel Challenge. 

What's the book about?

If you remember from The Passage we learn a bit of how this epidemic came to be. Also one of the Twelve originals is gone. In The Twelve we have once again a bit of jumps from past and "present" seeing how the epidemic spread, how some of the families in Peter's colony came to be formed. We will see changes in several characters from the first book, both physical and psychological. 

What about the main character?

Is hard to pin point a single main character in this book but is not a bad thing. I really like the style Cronin uses; several characters telling the story while their paths cross, once, twice, several times. Of this book I was particularly hooked at Alicia's story. I loved her in the Passage, strong, confident, kick-ass. She is still all of that, but dealing with what she is now, as different as Amy but not the same type of different. On the other spectrum Guilder had a very interesting development as a character.

Final thoughts

Once again, Cronin blew me away. First, I like the premise of a bioengineered virus and I appreciate the fact that he doesn't necessarily build BS science. In several moments he says things like: something happened that gave this as a result, we don't know why, but it happened...which, BTW is something that happens a lot in science, I should know. I think if I would read the book just as a scientist I would have more points about the plausibility of the science in it, but I left my science goggles at the lab and hence this is a review not biased by my formation.

The time jumps are easy enough to follow and I like the mini cliff hangers at each characters story. You will plow through everyone's side of the story trying to know what happened to them, and then they will all merge swiftly. 

Was I expecting what comes up with Amy? Not necessarily, but I can hardly say it was a full surprise; it was however a nice twist and the reason why when I finished the book I rush to check when will the third book, The City of Mirrors, will come out. 

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.