Horror | Book Chatter

The City of Mirrors
By Justin Cronin
Ballantine Books, Hardcover, 9780345505002, May 2016, 624pp.

The Short of It:

There is a lot of pressure for the last book in a trilogy to be great and I feel that Cronin delivered with this one.

The Rest of It:

Long ago (2010), Cronin wrote The Passage and it was a huge hit. People hesitated to call it a “vampire” book because at the time, there were many vampire books out there for the taking. No, it was a little harder to describe. Genetically modified creatures who happen to suck blood? Yes. That’s a better way to describe them. It was epic. Cronin created this desolate landscape and I loved it.

Then, book #2 came out, The Twelve. Although it certainly built upon the first book, which was mostly about the world going to hell in a hand basket, The Twelve focused on the effect of these “virals” on society as a whole.

This last installment, is really very different. Cronin takes us back in time. The time before the virals roamed the earth. This surprised me. So much so, that there was one part of the book where I thought my Kindle malfunctioned and I was accidentally reading a different book. Nope, I was just reading about a viral before he was a viral but the back story was so well-developed that it almost felt like a different book to me.

It took me a long time to read this book because there was a tiny part of me that was very worried that it would not live up to the first two books but I worried for nothing. It was entertaining, thoughtfully told and I could tell that Cronin had a thing for some of his characters.

All in all, Cronin delivered and if you enjoy genre mashups of Science Fiction, Thrillers, Horror and the like, then you will enjoy this series.

Source: Review copy provided by the publisher via NetGalley.
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

Salem’s Lot
By Stephen King
Anchor Books, Paperback, 9780345806796, September 2013, 672pp.

The Short of It:

A true, honest to goodness horror story about a creepy town and its inhabitants.

The Rest of It:

I first read Salem’s Lot in my late-teens, early twenties. At the time, I remember anxiously turning those pages but the details of what happened in the story did not stick.

This past October, a group of bloggers decided to read it together and since I could barely remember reading it at all, I thought it would be a good time to revisit it.

It started off really fun. I was totally into the story and loving it to pieces. I even proclaimed on Twitter that it might just be my favorite King novel ever. And then, the story slowed to a snail’s pace and I hit a rut. Actually, I’m not sure what came first but the final pages, the epilogue, those deleted scenes and the like really did me in.

Basically, for those who do not know, this is a vampire story. I don’t think that’s a secret but I do not mind stories that tip their hat to classics like Dracula, and I did feel that King, in his own way was honoring that classic when he wrote Salem’s Lot. How a small, innocent town can be taken over by such evil, is what makes this book so readable.

My only real complaint is the pacing during the second half. Once the town realizes what is going on, the way they deal with it is dragged out and it became a little dull for me. Could just be me but it felt long and I don’t normally feel that way about King’s books.

I’ve never seen the movie so I can’t compare but even though I felt the book went long, I did enjoy reading it and since I took extra time with it, I do believe the details will stick this time around.

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