Science screwed up, but this apocalypse has nothing to do with zombies. Justin Cronin has combined 'science screws up and causes what might be the end of the world' with vampires. Monstrous, bloodthirsty vampires with some serious problem-solving skills. Yet at the same time...
"The world was a world of dreaming souls who could not die."
This book was riveting, haunting, violent and gritty. A government-facilitated science project to find the end-all cure-all for any disease on the planet, secret to all save them and the military, let their guard down. A security breach lead to the world being forever altered in no more than thirty-two minutes. The monsters had been set loose, and there would be no mercy.
These vampires were not just crazy bloodsuckers, and nor were they the pixies that sparkled in the sunlight. No, these creatures were superhuman, not only in their strength and endurance but their mental capacity. Their ability to problem solve, to plan, trick or outwit was both remarkable, and terrifying. On top of this, the ‘special’ ones among them had some special abilities of their own. Telepathy for one, or perhaps telling the future for others.
First and foremost, I will tell you that no one is safe. Any character can die at any time, and you likely won’t even see it coming. On that same note, if a character does die, you have a 50/50 chance of it being brutal as Hell. This is undoubtedly a book of the horror genre. Lots of violence, lots of gore, and immeasurable death that an apocalypse calls for. Besides the violence there is a whole lot of mind-bending. I found myself trying to figure things out just as other characters might have been. Some scenes are described in just the perfect manner to send that chill down your spine, or to project that eerie, crystal-clear image right into your head.
There are many, many different characters in this book, both main and side. However, Justin Cronin manages to write them in such a way that you don’t get confused on who is who. You don’t have to think about who said or did what, and you definitely don’t get lost among the names. Each character was painted with the delicate hand of an artist, maintaining and accentuating anything that made each their own individual.
I will say, however, despite all the positives, there were some negatives. For instance, while a lot of the descriptions were brilliant, it did occasionally feel like it went overboard. When this happened, it would take a lot away. That sort of feeling where you’re thinking, “Okay, I get it, the grass is green. Can we move on?” But, the person keeps talking about how green the grass is for a bit longer. It could lead to boredom, page skimming, or loss of interest. On this same note, one thing that really made this book difficult for me to finally get into was the first bit of it. And by first bit, maybe it was more than a bit. A lot of the first section of this book was dedicated to (mostly) meaningless back story. In a sense, maybe some of it was for the benefit of a character we’d be following in the future, maybe it had an effect on them. But that was only some. Most of it felt utterly meaningless, and you wind up feeling cheated and like you’ve wasted your time once you get past it.
ANYWAY, besides the bit of negative I did have to say, I thought this was a pretty good read. These are the kind of vampires I live for. I look forward to eventually reading The Twelve.