Not just another vampire book
Justin Cronin’s The Passage, out last week, is a post-apocalyptic tale of vampires and military experiments gone awry that the Washington Post calls “this summer’s most wildly hyped novel.” So does it live up to the buzz? According to most reviewers, yes. Though this is Cronin’s first foray into science fiction (his 2002 literary debut, Mary and O’Neil, featured elliptical stories and won the PEN/Hemingway award), his overall skill as a writer makes up for some slips into sci-fi cliche. His characters are well crafted and remarkably human, so the reader roots for them as they try to stave off the mutant vampires the LA Times describes as “brutal, hideously efficient killing machines.” Like Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, Cronin’s literary past serves him well in creating a thriller that will satisfy even the biggest book snob.
“As committed as Cronin is to this brave new world of mortal combat and stunted technology, he’s even more concerned with making his characters recognizably human.” – Ed Park, Los Angeles Times
“It’s a macabre pleasure to see what a really talented novelist can do with these old Transylvanian tropes.” – Ron Charles, Washington Post
“[The Passage] is refreshingly free of the schlocky, fetishistic sexualization of vampires that mars several other popular works in the genre.” – Ed Nawotka, Dallas Morning News
“Fans of vampire fiction who are bored by the endless hordes of sensitive, misunderstood Byronesque bloodsuckers will revel in Cronin’s engrossingly horrific account of a post-apocalyptic America” – Publishers Weekly (starred review)
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