It sounds like a pretty straightforward “save the world” narrative, and in some ways it is. When the apparently immortal Amy crosses paths with a group of ragtag survivors, a desperate quest to save the world and defeat the Twelve begins, a quest in which Amy, The Girl From Nowhere, may be the only chance of victory. Cue a century-long time jump into a future where humanity is all but decimated, surviving in tiny pockets against a world of Virals, vampiric creatures presided over by the Twelve the worst of humanity given chilling psychic powers and beastly appetites. Amy’s story unfolds against the backdrop of this ill-advised experiment, which quickly goes wrong when the twelve death row inmates who were the primary test subjects get loose and use their newfound powers to wreak all kinds of havoc. Starting roughly in the present day, the series follows an abandoned young girl named Amy as she becomes an unwitting test subject in an attempt to use an ancient Bolivian virus that may be the source of the vampire myth to create a perfect super soldier. There is a sense as you read this series that you are witnessing the creation of a modern classic, one that reclaims the very notion of vampirism from the realm of YA romances, strips away the sexy appeal, and makes the undead bloodsuckers legitimately terrifying once again.Īt its heart the trilogy is a post-apocalyptic epic, but even this very broad description feels reductive. Since the release of the first novel in 2010 they have topped bestseller lists and garnered quite a following Ridley Scott bought the film rights and at one-point Matt Reeves was attached to direct.

Dizzying in scope and ambition, the trilogy is packed with vivid characters, thoughtful mediations on what it is to be human, heart-pounding action and a pulsating sense of dread and mounting tension that permeates every page. The three books that make up Cronin’s saga, The Passage, The Twelve, and The City Of Mirrors comprise a modern horror masterpiece. It’s hard to know where to begin when describing this series, so I’ll start with the stuff that would seem hyperbolic if it wasn’t true. Or at least it would be were it not for the existence of Justin Cronin’s PassageTrilogy. In a post Twilightworld, it’s hard to imagine that vampires can ever be scary again. Where once they were considered cool, sexy and dangerous, now they’re the butt of lots of jokes about sparkling. Thanks to a certain YA phenomenon, the word “vampire” can barely be taken seriously anymore.

The passage trilogy review