The Passage
Justin Cronin, 2010
★ 4.05 from 227.9k ratings on Goodreads
Horror Science fictionFantasyMystery, thriller & crime
A government experiment becomes a plague of night creatures, and a small girl may be the only way through the ruins. Dread gathers slowly through a plain, patient voice, then opens into awe at a broken society and its night creatures.
Feels like dread, awe and joy. About memory, society and death.
Who it’s for
You may like it if you want an immersive apocalyptic story with vivid characters and a vampire plague rooted in memory and dread. Be ready, though, for a very long book, a slow middle stretch, and an abrupt timeline shift that can loosen your hold on the story.
Why read it
It gives you a large, wounded world to live inside and characters whose fates matter, with dread and memory doing much of the work.
A page from the book
The people you love can become the walls you can't see.
All these people: they were trapped. And not merely by the wires that surrounded them. Physical barricades were nothing compared to the wires of the mind. What had truly imprisoned them was one another. Husbands and wives, parents and children, friends and companions: what they believed had given them strength in their lives had actually done the opposite. Guilder recalled the couple who lived across the street from his townhouse, trading off their sleeping daughter on the way to the car. How heavy that burden must have felt in their arms. And when the end swept down upon them all, they would exit the world on a wave of suffering, their agonies magnified a million times over by the loss of her. Would they have to watch her die? What readers say
Readers found the book immersive and emotionally gripping, especially its vivid characters and apocalyptic vampire premise. However, many were frustrated by its length, slow middle, and abrupt timeline shift that weakened their investment.
Justin Cronin.Cronin began The Passage as a bedtime story for his daughter, who asked him to write it down; she suggested a girl who saves the world.
Books that feel like this
Where to get it
Some of these links earn us a small commission, at no cost to you. It keeps BookFeed free.
Questions readers ask
- Is The Passage for me?
- You may like it if you want an immersive apocalyptic story with vivid characters and a vampire plague rooted in memory and dread. Be ready, though, for a very long book, a slow middle stretch, and an abrupt timeline shift that can loosen your hold on the story.
- What is The Passage like?
- Dread gathers slowly through a plain, patient voice, then opens into awe at a broken society and its night creatures. Feels like dread, awe and joy. About memory, society and death.
- What should I read after The Passage?
- If you liked The Passage, try The Stand (Stephen King), The Maze Runner (James Dashner) and The Road (Cormac McCarthy).
A taste of the feed
The past is a draft you keep editing, whether you mean to or not.
You couldn’t get hold of the things you’d done and turn them right again. Such a power might be given to the gods, but it was not given to women and men, and that was probably a good thing. Had it been otherwise, people would probably die of old age still trying to rewrite their teens.
The Stand · Stephen King
The faces above him are only boys. His heart doesn't get the message.
And then, as if the lens of a camera had sharpened its focus, the faces cleared. They were boys, all of them—some young, some older. Thomas didn’t know what he’d expected, but seeing those faces puzzled him. They were just teenagers. Kids. Some of his fear melted away, but not enough to calm his racing heart.
The Maze Runner · James Dashner
The relief of letting someone else carry your sadness, just for a moment.
But he holds me so tightly that for a moment, the emotions are at bay. The sadness and fear, the regret and the loathing. He bottles them up inside his arms so that for a split second I don’t have to be the one carrying the weight of them. For this moment, the burden is his.
The Good Girl · Mary Kubica
Read pages from books like this, one at a time
Keep reading in the feed