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Yes, The Passage by Justin Cronin is about vampires, but they’re the scary kind, not the sexy ones that have been popping up all over the place. The vampires in The Passage don’t talk, wear capes, or have six-pack abs.
Because book reviews so often give away too much of a book’s plot, I avoid reading them before I’ve read the book. I usually skim the reviews just enough to get a sense of whether I want to read the book or not. That’s how I came to the end of the 766-page blockbuster summer read of 2010, The Passage, and found out that the story doesn’t end at the end. The Passage is the first book in a planned trilogy. A favorite blogger, the reader’s advisory librarian at the Berwyn (IL) Public Library tried to warn me. Most other reviews — including The Washington Post’s and The Boston Globe’s — mention it too.
Should you devote such a large chunk of your own reading time to The Passage? Yes, if you’re in the mood to race through a engrossing science fiction/horror story, stemming from the apocalyptic idea that we humans are on the verge of destroying ourselves with our own scientific advances. Definitely yes, if you liked Stephen King’s The Stand. No, if you can’t abide scary books or science fiction, or are just too impatient with the whole idea of yet another vampire novel, no matter what kind of literary pedigree the author may have.
Check availability in the Old Colony Library Network catalog here.