The Passage

Firstly, there was a lot of hype surrounding Justin Cronin's 'vampire' novel upon it's initial release.  A brilliant strategy of the publishers made sure I knew the basic outline of what was said to be the greatest vampire epic to date. For me this was mainly through all the pre-promotional bits and pieces that Waterstone's were filtering into my conscious.  Be it either an article in (what seems to be the now defunct) Books Quarterly or a free, and very large, pamphlet containing the first few chapters.
  I took notice, but all this publicity pushed me into this line of thought: if a book has been pushed so hard prior to official release, is it really any good?  The publishers who generate this type of 'buzz' are PAID to promote a novel and make sure that it becomes a best seller.  So, I ignored all those "pre-order for £10" deals, eventually forgetting about this supposed game changer when it disappeared from the front page of bookseller websites and then from their promotional tables in store.
  Fast forward to July of this year.  I see the cover poking out through the quick choice selection.  It was time to buy into the hype.

Smartly set a few years into our future, The Passage is mainly about a girl called Amy and her part in a world that has been ravaged by vampiric creatures.   The beginning leads to the routine zombie story; science experiment gone wrong which unleashes chaos on the human race.  Here, twelve former death row prisoners are injected with a virus that causes them to become said creatures.  Of all the people to pick!  A warning: these aren't twilight vampires, they are large carnivorous glowing animals.    

At the start, I was being fed all different types of information from different characters and I was wondering what has this got to do with anything?   As soon as I'd get comfortable and in the groove with one set, Cronin would quickly move onto the next.  It wasn't until about 200 pages in that I realised he wasn't padding, everything is relevant.  However, a third of the way into the story everything changes with time moving onwards 100 years plus.  All the characters that are listed on the inside jacket are gone, and new story lines are introduced in a post viral world.  Again, it took me a while to warm to the new surroundings but the plot persevered and it was the right direction for the book to head in.  Cronin is great at creating characters and providing more than adequate and interesting back stories, but if anything, search out the amazing action scenes which happen in the lab facility and a prison compound.

It's a strange book but I liked it, and if you've got the time, and at some points the patience to get acquainted with this new world, then give it a go.