Why I Decided To Read It: It was getting a ton of buzz from critics and I have trouble saying 'no' to apocalypse stories.
Why I Liked It: Cronin is a literary author, so it's really hard to explain to people that a story with vampires in it can be quality. "The Passage" begins in present day and tells the story of a virus-gone-wrong that turns its victims into incredibly fast killing machines that shun the daylight. It then jumps 100 years into the future and you see the aftermath of the outbreak, the collpase of the society and the way that humans continue to survive in what was once America.
Yeah, there are vampire-like things, and there are sections of this book that terrifying, but that isn't the point. Not really. The main body of the book and, for me, the main draw of it, is the stories of survival. How culture and language and society have adapted and continue to adapt in a changed world. They are the descendants of an last-ditch outpost in the middle of the desert who have a limited understanding of the events that brought their ancestors to this place and almost no knowledge of the world that thrived before the virus. The characters have distinct voices compared to before the virus and after the virus, and I loved that. It was an incredibly real and salient way to demonstrate not just time and situation, but a truly fundamental evolution in the way that people think.
Who Should Read It: Every adult who loves a smart, intense thriller. Seriously, I loved this book. It was the best book I had read in years and it made everything else seem lackluster. Cronin seriously impressed me and I cannot wait to read the sequel, "The Twelve".
