Actually, I’m not sure this will even be a review, we should probably just call it praise.Īn epic and gripping tale of catastrophe and survival, The Passage is the story of Amy-abandoned by her mother at the age of six, pursued and then imprisoned by the shadowy figures behind a government experiment of apocalyptic proportions. I can’t help feeling that many people will sympathize with Lila, that many people would probably try to ‘escape’ as Lila did, should they be faced with the same emotional onslaught, and that’s what makes her resonate so powerfully, at least for me.I never intended to review The Passage, in fact I purposely refused to as I truly don’t think I’m capable of explaining my overwhelming response to this trilogy so far. Justin gave us, in her, a person just wasn’t strong enough to face the continued onslaughts of pain and grief that hit her, but instead of just leaving her alone Justin takes us through her journey, even as it changes her beyond anything she’s known. One of these characters, Lila, has a very personal connection to Brad Wolgast, and I found myself so damned sorry for her – having gone through as much as she did before the Viral outbreak, Lila had much more to go through, and a bigger role to play. So we get another glimpse of how civilization fell while the Virals began spreading. The first batch of chapters introduce us to ‘new’ characters – characters that we heard about in ‘The Passage’ and which we are now given a chance to get to know, and these new characters are introduced during the time that Brad Wolgast and Amy were escaping from the facility where Amy was imprisoned and experimented upon. It takes place five years after ‘The Passage’, and many of the characters we met in the trilogy-opener are back, and the plot definitely thickens.

So, in terms of continuing the tale and pushing the plot onwards (also expanding the world and introducing new characters, along with deepening characters we’ve already met), ‘The Twelve’ is an excellent novel. ‘The Twelve’ is a set-up novel for the novel that will close the tale and the trilogy, a worthy sequel but a completely different kind of novel.

Reading ‘The Passage’ was like opening a door into a new world, like seeing a particularly beautiful sunset for the first time, or seeing a massive storm cell, roiling and tumbling into place over a city – it was a ‘new thing’, a novel that balanced along the razor edge between beauty and brutality. *NOTE: THERE ARE SOME SPOILERS REGARDING ‘THE PASSAGE’ IN THIS REVIEW* I’m back with a review of Justin Cronin’s sequel to ‘The Passage’ ( reviewed here) ‘The Twelve’ was one of the books that I was most looking forward to this year because of how powerful and brilliant ‘The Passage’ was.ĭid it fulfil my expectations? Well, yes, and no. Hey everyone, hope this Monday has been treating you well so far.

The twelve justin cronin review