Staff Picks Blog
When a scientific expedition in South America is attacked by vampire bats, you get a pretty good idea where this book is headed. When the army tries to militarize vampirism, you know it will end badly. Six year old Amy gets snatched from a convent to become the next test subject, because the army needs a child, and Amy’s as anonymous as they get. Amy’s kinda weird before the vampirization process, having already caused a riot at the zoo, among the animals.
Amy survives the ensuing vampire holocaust, which wipes out all but a handful of humans, who survive in well-lit walled compounds, powered by failing batteries. A hundred years later, Amy shows up at one of those outposts, and a few people decide to return her to Colorado, in hopes the army, which created her, can save them.
Writer’s Workshop alum Justin Cronin takes his time, showing events, but only explaining them, obliquely at that, hundreds of pages later. He goes thru lots of characters, and multiple points of view. The Passage is the first of a trilogy, which is probably years from completion. I’ll be waiting.
