The Passage by Justin Cronin

“It happened fast. Thirty-two minutes for one world to die, another to be born.”

First, the unthinkable: a security breach at a secret U.S. government facility unleashes the monstrous product of a chilling military experiment. Then, the unspeakable: a night of chaos and carnage gives way to sunrise on a nation, and ultimately a world, forever altered. All that remains for the stunned survivors is the long fight ahead and a future ruled by fear—of darkness, of death, of a fate far worse.  As civilization swiftly crumbles into a primal landscape of predators and prey, two people flee in search of sanctuary. FBI agent Brad Wolgast is a good man haunted by what he’s done in the line of duty. Six-year-old orphan Amy Harper Bellafonte is a refugee from the doomed scientific project that has triggered apocalypse. He is determined to protect her from the horror set loose by her captors. But for Amy, escaping the bloody fallout is only the beginning of a much longer odyssey—spanning miles and decades—towards the time and place where she must finish what should never have begun. With The Passage, award-winning author Justin Cronin has written both a relentlessly suspenseful adventure and an epic chronicle of human endurance in the face of unprecedented catastrophe and unimaginable danger. Its inventive storytelling, masterful prose, and depth of human insight mark it as a crucial and transcendent work of modern fiction. (Synopsis from Goodreads)

The Passage has to be one of the most beautiful, horrifying, page turning, heart stopping books I have ever had the pleasure to read.  It brings to mind Stephen King’s The Stand. Cronin’s writing is exquisite. I found myself unable to put this post-apocalyptic book down.  It is an epic novel of human endurance, when faced with a catastrophe that will forever change mankind.

A security breach on a secret U.S. government project called NOAH goes terribly wrong.  Overnight a virus takes over the world, turning those affected into hunters and those who survive into prey. FBI agent Brad Wolgast sets out to help and protect, six-year-old orphan Amy Harper Bellafonte who is a refugee from the project that has triggered the apocalypse. The dangers and struggles these two face, with the friends they meet along the way, will have you sitting up until the wee hours of night, just to read a few pages more. I found myself asking could something like this happen, what kind of post-apocalyptic person I would be and is this really how the government would handle this. The fast paced ending had me screaming for more and rushing to my computer for details on book 2.


I highly recommend this to lovers of horror, post-apocalyptic and science fiction. 

 I gave this book 5  coffee cups out of 5.

Buy here: B&N or here: Amazon
Author's website: Justin Cronin