The Twelve

It was good. I think my enjoyment suffered a bit because I had forgotten so much of what happened in the first book. There were a couple of reveals that didn't do much for me because I forgot relationships between the people or the backstory of a character.


Still a good read in its own right. I had a hunch at how it would end and I didn't miss by much. I'll plan to re-read the first two before I start the third. I've got plenty of time on that score so I'm not worried.

“Where to?” Danny asked. No one had an answer. “I don't think it matters,” Pastor Don said.

It didn't. They spent the night in Valley Forge park, sleeping on the ground by the bus, then headed south, staying off the highways. Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina: they kept on going. The journey had acquired its own meaning, independent of any destination. The goal was to move, to keep moving. They were together; that was all that mattered. The bus jostled beneath them on its tired springs. One by one the cities fell, the lights went out. The world was dissolving, taking its stories with it. Soon it would be gone.

This bus of survivors, twelve in sum: they could have continued that way forever. And in a sense, they did. The green fields of summer, the abandoned, time-stilled towns, the forests thick with shadow, the bus endlessly rolling. They were like a vision, they had slipped into eternity, a zone beyond time. There and not there, a presence unseen but felt, like stars in the daytime sky.

*********

This was a confusing book, Im not going to lie. There were a ton of characters, and so many different story lines happening that it was really difficult to keep it all together. I had to re-read sections and google a lot of things that I had forgotten from The Passage. I think when all three are done and I re-read them again I will understand the little details that escaped me this time. He just had too many thing happening all at once, he was too ambitious and tried to cover too much and just ended up giving us little pieces of each story. I wish that I had gotten more from just the key people and he'd just let others slide off to the side. Or maybe kill some off? Or just stop introducing more people? I don't know, something.
Well written, exciting, but definitely a middle book. Considering it was called The Twelve - you would think they would be around a little more. Anyways, after all that it was still great, which I guess goes to show what a writer Cronin is.

Excellent continuation of the epic saga that began with the original The Passage. As in the original book the story transitions between the original vampiric apocalypse to about one hundred years later. The Twelve refers to the original subjects (death row inmates) of a viral experiment by the military. These “immortal” vampiric mutants, like queen bees, control hordes of those they have turned. And then there is the mysterious long-lived girl Amy, who received a version of the experimental virus but did not turn into a monster. With her help characters readers were introduced to in the first book will attempt to hunt down the mutant leaders in order to destroy them and hopefully end the vampiric plague that has stripped the land of every warm-blooded living thing. But perhaps just as dangerous are the human monsters that stand in the way of humanity's survival and recovery.

“But for a certain kind of reader — say, one whose tastes normally veer towards Jonathan Franzen but will argue that Stephen King is underrated after a couple of beers — I can't imagine a better book than The Twelve.” Josh Visser National PostThat's where I'm at. After finishing the first two books of the purported trilogy I'm continuing on with my jag of hefty tomes and segueing nicely into Stephen King's The Stand. The Twelve faces the middle book challenge, building on the momentum of the first book but holding something back for the finale. So Cronin does some world building and returns to the scene of the initial outbreak. It's all very familiar and adds additional layers to his world. I'm excited to see how he wraps it up this year. Hoping more Return of the King and less Matrix Revolutions

Y'know, the longer time goes by, the more I hate this book. So, now it is down to one star. Sometimes it takes a while to realize how much you don't like something. Or hate it. I apparently hated this. I think the thing that threw me over the edge was Alicia's rape.


Spoilers, because I'm too bored not to. edit ACTUALLY, not only are there spoilers, but I realized as I typed how HOSTILE I was to a particular plot twist that was wholly unnecessary, pointless, and aggravatingly trite. And utterly despicable.

Masochism. Sometimes, it happens to me with books and movies. And since I read the first bomb, I decided to read the second. It's pretty much the same dreck. Cronin isn't a horrible writer, but he's not great either. And we have lots of the same dullness and pointlessness that marked the first book. Really, I feel like it could have been half the length. Or just skip book 2 altogether, because it really is quite pointless.

Amy and Peter's romance is predictably bland. Sara is still alive. Of course, she has a very happy ending with Hollis and her improbably alive child. Lots of improbable coincidences happen to get her there. And lots of improbable coincidences happen to everyone else too.

Oh, we learn about Alicia's parents. Her mom is eighteen and knocked up by a guy twice her age, in the middle of the Viral Apocalypse. Yawn.

We learn more about Grey (one of the only interesting characters from book 1, along with Carter, who gets a raw deal in these novels), and he coincidentally ends up with Lila Kyle, Wolgast's wife.

Who is alive a century later. And a major pointless plot point of annoying stupidity. I really hated her.

And Alicia, the baddest ass of any of the books, of COURSE must suffer her obligatory horrible continuing rapes. Absolutely an integral element for her character. Oh, yeah.

So, yeah. It's all pretty ridiculously constructed, boring, trite–pretty much the same complaints I had in the first book. But the first third of this book is far less compelling than the first third of the first book. All the characters are all very heteronormative. What little religious belief there seems to be is predominantly Christian. So I guess the virals killed all LGBTQA people and nearly all other people of other belief systems.

I'll do the third book, I'm sure. And I'm sure I'll feel the same way. I just think this one was even more absurd, actually.

Alicia's rape really did me in. Of course, she has to be hardcore and slaughter the guy that does it. And then avoid Peter and be mostly quietly traumatized.

I was actually offended by that. Can we lay off the strong, emotionally constipated woman getting raped? Like, hasn't it been done before? Yeah, a million times. I'm sick of it. The only difference between her and a male characters is that she is gendered female. If her personality were the same, but she were MALE, would she get raped? Would that be a necessary plot point? NO, of COURSE not. So why is it acceptable for it to happen (AGAIN) to a female character? F** that. This book actually IS worse than the first. Alicia gets raped, Sara is pretty bland, Amy is typical Magic Child, Lila sucks and is crazy. Yep, some great characters there. Screw that.fumes*

I didn't enjoy this book nearly as much as the first in the series, The Passage. It dragged on and seemed to need a good editor. I kept reading just to learn the resolution of the plot but was relieved when I had finished. The characters weren't nearly as well developed here and they had few meaningful interactions.