The Passage by

26 July 2010


Genre: ,
Setting:
Rated :

ISBN: 9780752897851

Usually in my reviews I tend to start off with a quick plot summary. But any sort of recap would risk spoiling aspects of the story, so I’ll instead start off with an introduction. The Passage begins with the story of Amy Harper Bellafonte. Harper because her mother’s favourite book was To Kill a Mockingbird. Amy’s mother is a waitress, her father a businessman who drifted through, left and, some time later returned. To the detriment of all. In the end Amy is left at a convent with a nun. And the next chapter tells us, through a series of emails, about an expedition to discover how to end death.

The Passage is a big book. A lot of words, and a lot of story to tell. And to be honest, it takes a bit of getting into. This did not grip me from the opening chapter. In fact for a while I was wondering what all the hype[1] was about. But I generally like to finish books I start, so I kept with it, and pretty soon I was rewarded; it turns out to be very gripping indeed.

Unfortunately I can’t say that I loved this book. I did enjoy it, and I would recommend it. But it was interesting and engaging rather than lovable. Maybe because there was no one central character to hold it all together. I did start to really like Wolstaff, but never loved him. Likewise, I found Peter’s story really interesting, but I never found myself wondering what was going on inside his head. I think my favourite character was Alicia, but we never got her POV, so it may just have been the fact that her and Peter were such good friends, and so I saw her through his eyes :) Excellent writing, if so, but not enough to make me love her.

It takes a lot for me to love characters.

Mid-way through this book I did have mini-flashbacks to reading Carrie Ryan’s books, but don’t worry, they are nothing alike apart from some similarities of isolated communities. The Passage is a well-written, at times scary, always entertaining story. I was never bored during it, unlike Dead-tossed waves, and there is no silly all-dominating love triangle. Although there are romances, and thwarted love as well, of course.

There is also however, a cliff-hanger sort of ending. Not entirely, because some plotlines do end, but there is also that ambiguous ending that could be “we’ll leave it up to the reader to imagine the future” or, as I have read on the interwebs, there may be a sequel. I’ve done my usual and avoided all reviews/articles about the book til I finished it, so I’ll go off and investigate that fact now.

Other reviews: Estellas Revenge ; Medieval bookworm ; The Speculative Scotsman ; Bookfoolery and Babble

Linknotes:

  1. every blog I read lately seems to be mentioning this book

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6 Responses

  1. Kathleen says:

    While you didn't love the book your review still piques my interest in getting this one read sooner rather than later. I meant to read it last week when I was away on my camping trip and just didn't get around to it. I'm glad to hear you didn't get grabbed by the first chapters. That is always a good "heads up" to hear.
    Kathleen´s last blog post ..Back to Civilization

    • Fence says:

      Yup, it is definitely one I'd recommend as a good read. And I'll be checking out the next two. (I did my research, it is the first in a proposed trilogy)

  2. anne says:

    I'll just use Kathleen's comment – she said everything i wanted to say.

    It's a little spooky, in fact.

    Except for the camping trip.

    It would be terrifying – in so many ways – if i'd also wanted to say that.

  3. Marg says:

    I am not a horror reader, but this really was a good read for me. I am glad I stepped outside my comfort zone to read this.