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The Passage Book Cover

The Passage
By Justin Cronin
Random House
June 2010
784pp

The Short of It:

If you take only one book on vacation this summer…take this one.

The Rest of It:

*No Spoilers*

I’ve been gushing about this book to everyone I know and the first thing they say is, “I don’t like vampire stories.” To be honest with you, neither do I. However, the vampires in The Passage are not your typical vampires. They are government created super-soldiers gone wrong. Horribly wrong.

What IS typical, is the good vs. evil theme. As readers though, do we ever tire of this? No! We love a good battle and there are plenty of battles fought as these “soldiers” run amok and wreak havoc upon the world as we know it.

Although this book has been compared to Stephen King’s, The Stand, and I did find many similarities between the two novels, I felt that The Passage had a completely different feel to it. It’s a tad more clinical, a bit more mysterious and has more of a futuristic feel to it.

The immense size of this novel has intimidated many readers but don’t let the length fool you. It’s nearly 800 pages but you don’t notice the length at all. Some have mentioned the need for a good editor, that perhaps a few pages could have been shaved off of the final product but honestly, I enjoyed the extra detail and found myself completely absorbed in the world Cronin created.

You may be wondering just how nasty these vamps are. I pictured these creatures as a cross between a human and say…the alien from Aliens. Maybe a tad more bat-like, but definitely something huge and menacing. Yes, there’s a bit of gore as these creatures can be a bit brutal when they do their thing but it wasn’t anything that kept me up at night.

If you like epic novels to sink your teeth into (pun intended), then this might be the book for you. If you enjoy the whole good vs. evil thing, then you will like it more. If you like to feel as if you are in another time and place and that place happens to have creatures with wickedly sharp teeth, then you will love it. I know I did.

If you need a little more convincing, here’s a great BookPage interview with Justin Cronin.

The Passage is book #1 in a trilogy and the next book doesn’t come out until 2012, so read slow.

Source: This review copy was sent to me by the publisher.

Welcome to Wuthering Heights Wednesday! Softdrink is hosting a read-along of this classic novel, and we’re reading (and posting about) 3 chapters a week.

Volume II, Chapters 13-20 (final)

My Synopsis:

I doubled-up on this week’s reading so that I could be done with it and move on to other books. If you haven’t yet finished, come back later to read my thoughts as I don’t want to spoil it for anyone.

Here we go…

Cathy escapes Wuthering Heights and ends up back at Thrushcross Grange. Good thing too because Edgar kicks the bucket.

She isn’t there for long, though. Heathcliff shows up at the Grange and orders Cathy to return to WH so that she can take care of her new husband, Linton. Mrs. Dean tries to negotiate a position within WH but Heathcliff wants none of it. Cathy is to live out her miserable existence without Mrs. Dean’s help.

A whole lot of nothing happens. Seriously. Heathcliff decides to dig up Cathy I’s grave, to see her lovely face again and apparently nothing has changed because she looks the same. He is taken aback by this so he sets the coffin lid off-center so that the elements can have their way with her. He instructs Joseph to see that his coffin is placed next to hers when his time comes and to make sure his coffin lid is also set off-center so that he and Cathy can be one in the same.

In the mean time, Linton dies. So what do you think is the next natural step for Cathy? Well, to fall in love with Hareton of course! This is almost enough to do Heathcliff in but not quite.

Out of the blue, Heathcliff begins to wander about the property. We know this because Mrs. Dean has been hired by HC since Zillah up and left. With each night that passes HC seems to be getting happier. Well, apparently he has begun to see the ghost of Cathy I, and this has brought him great joy. So much so that he opens all of his windows and catches his death from cold. Literally.

So Hareton and Cathy are happy. HC is dead and happy to be with dead Cathy. Mrs. Dean is none the worse for wear and Lockwood? Having missed his chance at winning Cathy’s hand, just sort of vanishes. I don’t think Bronte even mentioned what happened to him or if she did, it wasn’t important enough to remember.

My Thoughts:

I really don’t know what Bronte was thinking when she wrote Wuthering Heights. The first half was very dramatic and entertaining but the second half was really hard to get through. Did people live like this? Was this the norm? Why were these people so fragile? The breeze from an open window is enough to do them in, yet the staff live on forever!

When I read books like this, ones that are considered the most beloved classics of all time, I have to wonder…why? Why is this book considered a classic? One definition of a classic, is something that is old, but still popular. It’s old and it’s still popular but why?

I’m glad that I read it, but it’s not nearly as wonderful as I’d hoped it would be. It hasn’t left a lasting impression upon me and I couldn’t really relate to any one character. Can anyone explain to me why this one is considered a classic?

So thank you Fizzy. It’s been a fun, fun time. Better than Moby Dick, for sure.

Reading along:

Chatting with friends about books and life…