Books I've Read: The Twelve

by Justin Cronin

I devoured the first book in Justin Cronin's trilogy, The Passage, last year, and at the time I couldn't wait for the second one, The Twelve, to come out.  NOW, again, I cannot wait for the third and final book, The City of Mirrors, to be released next year.  In the meantime, I heard there is a screenplay in the works, for a film that I will most definitely see.

The structure of this one is similar to that in The Passage, meaning that it jumps around in time and place.  Reviewers complained about it in the last novel, but I can get into novels like this and sort of enjoy the abrupt shifts - keeps a reader on her toes.  I liked the further insight this novel gave me about the year of the outbreak, and I REALLY liked the elements Cronin "borrowed" from other post-apolocolyptic novels (Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale for sure, and Steven King's The Stand). I have been thinking about why I enjoyed those reminders, and I think it is because, without them, Cronin's world as written seems almost too harsh and too real.  The references to prior works served as a reminder, at least for me, that I was reading a novel.

When I read The Passage, I said at the time that I was in for the long haul.  There was never any question that I would read this.  I preferred The Passage to The Twelve, but still enjoyed the continuation of this story.  It was good to see some old characters, although it is getting a little bit difficult to keep straight who is who and who came from where.  The action-packed finale is very good, as are many of the story-line resolutions.  But, Amy's development got weird, and I found myself wondering where the author is going with that.  I guess we'll see!

Just don't forget that the numbers one through twelve do not include zero.