The Twelve

I did enjoy this sequel, but by the time I downloaded The Twelve (waited till it was cheaper) I was confused whilst reading as it was so complex. I wish I'd read them immediately together. That said, by the time I'd got into the story, I enjoyed it immensely.

I loved The Passage. It was bleak and poetic and felt original, at least to me. I enjoyed spending time in the post-apocalyptic world where society had disappeared and danger was around every corner. I liked the twist of catapulting the book 97 years into the future. The Twelve takes all that away. We are introduced to entire cities with uninteresting political and military structures, as if the book is set only a few years after the apocalypse, not 100. The threat of the virals is totally diminished which removes all the tension. Characters are sometimes dismissive about their presence and are now able to hide in “hardboxes” overnight while they travel across the USA.

For what feels like half the book we jump back in time to the immediate aftermath of the outbreak. I did not care about any of those characters. I was happy when that section finally ended. Even when various connections to the second half of the book are revealed I still did not care.

I have seen reviews for this book complaining that it feels like it was written to be a movie. I can totally see that. It cannot be denied. Most troubling is that Amy, the 100 year-old girl, seems to suddenly age and is gradually referred to as a woman. This seems to be the author pre-empting the problem of casting a young actress as an immortal girl who will mature between movies one and two. Also, the main antagonists are now human (almost) instead of vampires, which will surely save CGI/make-up budget. When I read The Passage I thought about how great the movie could be, but figured it would be too difficult and expensive to make. The Twelve feels like Cronin is offering up as many scenarios as possible across different timelines to say “How about this for the movie, or this, or this?”

I was going to give this three stars because by the end I was enthralled and I did care about what would happen to the main gang from The Passage. But I cared about only them, and I was hoping that everyone else would die.

If you liked The Passage I recommend re-reading it instead of buying The Twelve. Wait for the movie version of The Twelve, the book is just a first draft of the script padded with lazy descriptions.

I love this book. The first one was great and this one is awesome too. Love the characters and the way it has been written, as if you are right there; part of the action.