This is the first book in The Strain trilogy. It took me a long time to get through simply because college picked up big time. But I will have 2 other reviews up along with this one so stay close by for those as well. I do want to thank those of you who have viewed my other reviews of books, I appreciate it!
When an airplane comes in completely dark and no communication can be made, everyone assumes the worse at New York's JFK Airport. The CDC's rapid response team is called in and Dr. Eph Goodweather is with them. When the board the plane to see what is wrong no one is prepared for what they see. From that point on a virus spreads through the city, consuming with a endless hunger. A Holocaust survivor working in a pawnshop know that his nightmare has come true and a war with vampires has began.
From the very beginning I was hooked, I hated to put the book down because it seemed like every time I picked it back up, I was a couple pages away from something good happening. There is a beautiful back story that you get bits and pieces of, and it makes the story that much more interesting. I also love the fact that Hogan and Toro took the "normal" vampires and made them something different. *SPOILER-ALERT* Instead of having fangs, they have a stinger of sorts that comes out of their mouth to get their victims blood. And not all that are turned are smart, they have one basic need and that is to feed.*SPOILER-ENDED* They do take some of the myths that came with vampires and use them, which I love because lets be honest, new age vampires are just annoying sometimes. This was released in 2009, but it is a welcome to get vampires back to "normal". I do love two characters in particular and they are the Holocaust survivor, Abraham Setrakian, and Ephraim Goodweather. I'm not sure why I like them, I just do and I think a lot of people who read this book would say the same (at least I hope they would). They are just two of the few main characters.
I did say that I was hooked from the beginning, but that was short lived. By time I got to the middle of the book I pretty much knew everything that was going to happen, and what was tried to be kept secret. It was predictable and I was disappointed with this. Toro is the same man who many of people know as a director, and I was expecting something a lot better. The last 150 pages of the book seemed to drag on and take forever. Once the ending did come I did know how it was going to happen pretty much down to specifics. If the book would have continued being as interesting as the beginning I would be less disappointed. I do know that there are two other books after this one with it being a trilogy, but I don't know if I would read the second book anytime soon. There is a lot more to this book and I think that is another problem. It all is relevant to the story, but it seems to be too much for just one book. There are lots of characters that Toro and Hogan cut to after a few pages, and sometimes you forget who they are and how they are relevant to the plot. I didn't like this because I had to keep going back and rereading who was who. That isn't for everyone but it is for a few people.
My disappointment overrides how much I like this book almost completely. I do recommend this book simply because someone else might love it more then I do, but I would also warn them about what I didn't like about the book. Like I said before I am not sure if I would read the second book anytime soon, if I do you guys will be sure to know.
Rating: 3 out of 5.
Page Count: 585 pages (paperback)
Price: $9.99 (this is my personal book, but I got it a bag sale my library does from time to time)
Next Book: None. I have two more reviews coming today so stay tuned!
Thank you so much for reading!
~Jade
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