Review: The Passage by Justin Cronin

“He’s you. He’s me. He’s everyone, at least in these parts. I like to think he’s kind of like our local god. Not like the old gods. A new god. A dream of god that we all dream together. Say it with me, Theo. I. Am. Babcock.”

In the beginning, there were twelve. The Twelve, the Zero, and Amy. (I am Babcock. I am Morrison. I am Chavez. I am Baffes-Turrell-Winston-Sosa-Echols-Lambright-Martinez-Reinhardt-Carter.)

Cronin’s The Passage is an epic, stretched across at least one hundred years, spreading across the United States. The world as it had once been is no more. The Virals, the ones who forget, have spread everywhere, the virus taking up every one in ten. Peter Jaxon only hears whispers of the past, long forgotten. Living in The Colony is a daily struggle, some awaiting the arrival of the Army that was supposed to return to them, the rest living in hopelessness–believing they are the last living human beings on Earth. Amy NLN, physically no older than sixteen, seems to have lived a hundred years. Lear, the good Doctor, patiently waiting for her to come home to do what she was meant to do from the beginning.

“If you found her, bring her here. If you found her, bring her here.”

There was not a single moment in this book that I was bored. Cronin’s writing is astounding, the world he created is so real and terrifying all at once. So much is mysterious in this world, but the characters he creates ring true, all of them fleshed out and brought to life. His characters seamlessly weave together and carve out their destinies. Ultimately it’s a story of survival, death, life, and everything that lies between. Cronin really outdid himself, and you’d be a fool to pass it up.

5/5 stars.

this was originally posted on my Booklikes, which you can view here as well.