The Passage by Justin Cronin (The Passage Trilogy #1)

9/10

An epic and gripping tale of catastrophe and survival, The Passage is the story of Amy - abandoned by her mother at the age of six, pursued and then imprisoned by the shadowy figures behind a government experiment of apocalyptic proportions. But Special Agent Wolgast, the lawman sent to track her down, is disarmed by the curiously quiet girl-and risks everything to save her. As the experiment goes nightmarishly wrong, Wolgast secures her escape-but he can't stop society's collapse. And as Amy walks alone, across miles and decades, into a future dark with violence and despair, she is filled with the mysterious and terrifying knowledge that only she has the power to save the ruined world.

I'm not sure when I started enjoying horror stories. As a child I had a slight phobia of those things that go bump in the night, but fast forward to present day and it seems I just can't get enough of chilling suspense filled stories about ghastly monstrosities who want to feed on your sweet sweet blood. One of the highly acclaimed horror stories to come out in the last twelve months is The Passage by Justin Cronin and in my opinion is by far one of the best I have ever read. While I have placed The Passage into the Horror genre, it could just as easily belong in Urban Fantasy, Dystopian Fantasy or Thriller/Mystery genre and I think fans from each of these will find something that appeals to them on a number of different levels.

The Passage is a story of truly epic proportions, a story that dares to span the entire globe over the course of one hundred years. A large scope comes with a large risk of creating something too big to handle, but Cronin keeps the core elements controlled and focused while giving his characters just enough information to be dangerous and unpredictable.The result is a deliberate yet gripping plot full of complex characters and terrifying monsters, all set in an isolated and empty post apocalyptic world.

I love the characters in this book, each and every one of them. They are put in the unenviable position of trying to survive when almost all hope is lost, but they face their demons on a daily basis with a temperament and resolve that I find very admirable. They are all trying to deal with the collapse of the world around them in their own way, and during the darkest times some of them cannot deal with it any longer. These characters are not superhuman, they are just normal people who against all odds manage to achieve extraordinary things, normal people who must deal with the terrible consequences of their actions.

As seems to be the case with modern adaptations of supernatural monsters, Cronin has taken the much popularised Vampire, modified it to suit the story (the 'Viral'), and explained its existence as a simple latent feature of the human genome. By providing a potentially realistic explanation for the genesis of these monsters, Cronin has created a far more powerful feeling of suspense than is normally achieved from using traditional supernatural creatures; it is unsettling to think that given the right set of genetic circumstances just about anyone could become of these monsters. The Virals are more than just a seeming invincible enemy for the humans to fight, they are also used to explore some of the more important themes such as the morality of scientific experimentation on humans and the seemingly innate ability of humans to survive in the most dire of conditions. While you may fear and hate the Virals for the way in which they victimise the humans, you will be able to empathise with the Virals because they were the first victims, the result of scientific endeavour gone wrong.

For the most part The Passage is a very well written book, however, there is room for the author to improve his prose, dialogue, and use of literary devices. There are some pacing issues during the first third of the story where the scenes jump from slow to hectic back to slow and back to hectic in a very short time frame. The prose and dialogue can also get a little lazy at times during this period with some of the third-person POV's drifting towards a more omnipotent POV, and some of the dialogue acting as a history lesson rather than a natural conversation. These may seem like very minor issues, and individually they are, but with the majority of these issues permeating through the opening scenes the book can be really hard to get into for the first 50-100 pages. This can be a death sentence for large books as a lot of readers will stop reading if they cannot get into the book after 50 pages despite how good it might get later. If you are feeling the same way about the start of the passage I implore you push on because after the first 100 pages the book does get very good very fast.

While I have done my best to describe the essence of this book, the name of this book describes everything far more concisely. This is a story about transition, the passage from the world we know to a world no longer recognisable, the passage from human to monster, and the passage from despair to hope.