This was my first Anna Quindlen novel and it reminded a bit of Jodi Picoult in flavor. I wasn't sure I would end up liking this book or not in the beginning. Once the tragedy occurred, somewhere around the middle of the book, I found myself fairly hooked into it. I thought that the main character, Mary Beth, wife and mother of teens hit close to home with me in many ways.  I, too, live in the burbs with a husband of 20 years, have an older daughter and two close-in-age teen boys, so there were enough similarities to her life and mine that allowed me to have many relatable moments so that when the event happens, it left me reeling emotionally as I could put myself in her shoes and feel everything being the empathic person I am. 

This, however, is where our simiarllies ended. I sort of lost touch with the main character in her responses to the tradegy that occurred. Who is to say how many of us would react in such circumstances really, but I feel I would have went insane. But I admired her courage and her strength to create a new "normal" with what she was left. I am trying to not put any spoilers here so I am not putting details regarding this story.

Forgive me for speaking "around" the plot a bit. The other part that didn't sit well with me was the fact that the mother was not in-tune enough to see something bad heading their way. There were enough clues given to her to pay attention and take action. That's our job. We are not only here to give our kids a good and perfect childhood, we are here to proctect them.

I feel Mary Beth completely ignored the many signs regarding what was going on with her daughter and her boyfriend. As a mom, we have incredibly strong intuition and if we follow it, we are usually correct. I'm not talking about a one-off here, but many feelings of something being "off".  It was another place where I felt disconnected from the mom. I would have liked to have seen more emotion from Mary Beth. Before and after the event she seemed so bland and complacent and it made it difficult to even like her though I felt bad for her.

The writing was easy-going and easy with exception of the content. I'll read Quindlen again.

In one word "Vampacalypse".  This story is many stories upon stories upon layers and layers. There are so many facets to this book I hardly know where to begin.

The first part of this book deals with the world as we know it today. A group of scientists embark on a journey for cures/immortatlity in the jungles, with good intentions.  However, they end up combining their efforts with the military with all but good intentions. One side wants to cure death and the other wants to create super soldiers and what do you get, total human annhiliation.  Yep, in a nutshell.

Without going into too much "giveaway" details, it centers around the military using human experiments in the way of death row inmates as guinea pigs and one 6 year old girl. When all comes crashing down and the inmates escapes, the world as we know it falls.

The next part of the book deals with the world 100 years later and what it looks like, how small populations have survived, especially focusing on one in particular. The virals, jumps or dracs as the infected are known are immortal as well as the little girl who was experimented on. The original 12 that escaped, either killed or created more virals by infecting them with bites. However, Amy, the girl, is not a viral but has been infected with a more perfected dose of the virus via the experiment.

When our band of rebels from one of the colonies decides to venture out and find out where Amy came from and wanting to find answers to the world and how it became what it is, they meet many interesting people along the way and learn very important things regarding the virals to help them win the world back.

Be warned, this is book one of a trilogy so there are no solutions once you have finished this behemouth of a book (747 pages!) I found the story unpredictable in it's telling with all sorts of details and layers within the story. I loved how the stories of vampires had a nugget of truth to them and it's explained nicely in this novel. 

Justin Cronin has a lovely, easy and comfortable way of writing which lets you just fall into the world he has created and allows you to love the people that live there. I look forward to the next installment of the Passage which should be out Summer 2012. Highly recommended.