Yes, ok vampires, but these “virals” surprisingly take a back seat to Cronin’s apocalyptic (and forever timely, it seems) tale that ultimately pumps more human heart than human blood.  If you’re a writer, read the opening of the novel as a near-perfect example of character/plot introduction.  Read the rest of the novel for a story that will keep you up (I needed a chaser story every night I read The Passage, just to calm down, lol), and for Cronin’s remarkably poetic prose.  Some of my favorites:

“filigree of cobwebs” (p. 419) writing you can feel on your skin…

“filaments of pink were rising from the east” (p. 569), like pealing layers, a sunrise I feel I’ve seen before.

“an empty, almost bovine look” (p. 681) gave me a good chuckle, #cowmetaphors

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