The Passage by Justin Cronin

#1 in the planned trilogy
Copyright: 2010
Publisher: Ballantine
Genre: fiction
Pages: 784
Challenges: Off the shelf, New Author
Author's Website
My rating: 4/5 (possibly a 5/5)

I'm not going to tell you what the book is about because this is another one that I feel you either 1) have already read the book yourself or 2) haven't read it but know what it's about.  I was lucky and went into this one a bit blind.  I knew it was an "end of the world book" as my Husband calls it.  However that was it.  I had read several reviews of this one and the first couple I did read what it was about but it's been so long I didn't remember. I just had a general understand about it.  In fact, and I don't think this is giving anything away, I thought it was about zombies.  Boy was I wrong. lol!  That could also explain some of my confusing in the beginning.

Yes, I thought the first 150 or so pages was a bit confusing. In fact, I started out listening to the audio version of this one, see below for more info on that.  I ended up switching to the paper copy I already had at home after about 120 pages.  Soon after I was engrossed in the story and enjoying it a lot.

This is one of those books that while it had a lot going on, it also had a lot of slower parts to it. This worked out ok for the story though.  I think it was needed.  There were several things about the style of the book that I loved..such as the diary entries to explain what happened during a period of time, etc.   What a great idea! This way we got all the important parts of the story about what happened, without it dragging.

I have to admit that while I did enjoy the book and wanted to know how this part of the story was going to end,  I also found myself just wanting it to be over. I'm really not good with chunkster and at over 700 pages, this one was just too long for me.   I don't want you to get the wrong idea, though, and think it dragged at the end and I didn't like as much. That's not true. There was a lot of things going on, a lot of action. I was thoroughly enjoying it, it was just so big and I have been reading it for awhile that I just had the urge to move on to a different story.  Does that make sense?

I definitely think this book deserves the praise it's been given.  I can't wait for the next book to be published so I can figure out what has happened to the characters.

This is the first book Husband read last year..the first book he's read in several years.  In fact, since he's been reading again it's the only one that he's even really liked (although he does agree with me that it's a bit long and goes as far as to say it could have been 200 pages shorter).  Husband has been pressuring me to read it since he finished it, it wasn't even one I had even planned on reading before he started it.  I'm really glad he did push me to read it though.  Husband and I have talked about it several times and it was fun to discuss things with him. I mentioned a couple things about it that he hadn't even thought about.  Usually while walking the dog after work I would bring up the book and tell him what part I was at and we would discuss what has happened so far.  I loved being able to do that.  Oh, and we are both in agreement that Lish is our favorite character, but we both like Peter a lot too.

So, if you haven't picked up this book yet but have thought about it, I do urge you to give it a try. In my opinion, it's well worth the time it takes to read it.


Audio Review: 
I attempted to listen to this book but had to stop. I found myself wondering and not really paying attention to it and then getting confused.  Husband kept telling me it was one I had to read and not listen to.  But then in further discussions with him he said the first part was a bit confusing too (he read the whole book).  Now I wonder if I would have liked it on audio had I stuck with it.  I listened to the first 120 pages, read the rest.  It took me a bit  more of reading it before I was fully engrossed in the story and no longer confused.   I'm interested to see what others thought who listened to it...were you engrossed right away or was there a part in the story where you finally said..okay..now I get it.