Much of the first quarter of the book is dedicated to tangential back-history for The Passage. While moderately interesting, it became predictable and redundant. I couldn't stay with it and only finished about a third of the book. It is like reading Murphy's Law meets vampires. If people are in need of something working at a given moment, guaranteed it won't--over and again. It revels in the killing of innocent people. It tells and retells how people's lives were shattered by losing somebody they loved, either to a vampire or to stupidity. I love post-apocalyptic but this doesn't measure up.

#2 - The Passage Trilogy

I was concerned that this book would slump as often happens with second book in a trilogy. I was so happy it didn't. Amazing what can happen when an author is given time to truly craft a story and not be pushed by a publishing timeline.

I enjoyed this book as part of the series but certain things were frustrating. It was alternatingly slow then fast, and I would have enjoyed it to be more even paced. It was a long time since I read the first book, so it was really hard to follow the character arcs. It was frustrating to get attached to characters in different timelines and then just be done with them. Not really clear why time was spent on developing the last stand character and the bus driver and that group - very lose tie to just one present day character-as far as I could tell.

The mythology is also reaching. Like why would Amy be able to exist on some alternate plan of existence just because her DNA was tampered with? The biology that explains the epidemic does NOT explain that, and I found that annoying - asking reader to go too far with suspension of disbelief without providing a plausible bridge. Speaking of which, Cronin constantly leaves the reader in suspense, never following through on explanations. I really don't understand Amy's transformation at all. So what? She's a horrible monster and she kisses Peter in a dream? Wtf?

Still overall, I was engaged and excited and mostly enjoyed the writing so I would still recommend the read if you liked the first one.

I hope the third one ties the mythology up better.

Unfortunately, I waited too long after reading the first in this series. That, combined with the broken timeline, made this book often confusing. (I even tried starting over, after 100 pages, making notations of names and connections. It was still confusing.) This book needs a scorecard and a timeline. That said, "The Twelve" is still interesting and Cronin can paint pictures with his prose (see some quotes, below).

This one has a little more complex narration style and timelines compared to The Passage.
Spoilers ahead…
For me some of the scenes felt quite redundant. Though it filled many blank pages of the mystery, its not as impressive as the first one. Sometimes, the story looked stretched and hurried together for a closure of threads in the end. Bringing back the dead ones to the plot is good and it generally ups the entertainment factor. But every time you do it, it lacks the punch.
I did not like the entire thread about Homeland and Saarah’s adventures over there. It was a drag for me. The whole atrocities happening over there and the aggression of Alicia’s tortures could have been avoided. Personally it was misplaced compared to The Passage and its subtle take on horror and violence. It just does not fit the mood, may be it does not match the theme of the first book. I gladly skimmed many of those pages.

At least as exciting as The Passage with many unexpected twists.

Enjoyed the sequel! As always the protagonist, Amy, is my FAV character. Can't wait till book #3 comes out. :)

It was a relatively entertaining read - and am only reading The Passage now.