The Passage

The Passage by Justin Cronin
published by Ballantine Books, 2010

784 pages

approximate age range: 15+

Technically this book contains vampires. Technically. But none of them are named Edward, none of them sparkle, and no one is falling in love with them. Not even a little bit. Spanning almost a hundred years, The Passage is a prodigious epic that takes us through America as it descends into a devastating cataclysm and then follows survivors trying to build lives in a horrifying post-apocalyptic world. At the beginning we meet Amy, a normal 6 year old who is living an impoverished life with her mother who loves her, but does not have the means to care for her. We also meet Wolgast, an FBI agent with nothing to lose since the death of his daughter and his divorce. These two are thrown together when Wolgast is assigned to bring Amy to a secret facility in Colorado where military scientists are working on Project Noah, a series of experiments involving infecting death row inmates with a virus from the jungles of South America in the hopes of making them into the ultimate weapons -- soldiers that have super strength and live forever. Not surprisingly this research does not go according to plan and the unstoppable vampire-like creatures that the scientists have created escape, killing or infecting everyone in their path and bringing forth the demise of an entire nation, and possibly, the entire world.

For teens that like being completely immersed in a world, getting to know a handful of characters, and following them on their journeys, The Passage will be a satisfying and engaging read. While the novel starts off with a lot of action, the pace slows throughout the middle of the work, becoming more of a character study than a thriller. At over 750 pages, this is a long book, and as Cronin has noted, The Passage is the first in a trilogy, so there is much more to come. Consequently, readers who love engrossing themselves in books and have hearty attention spans will enjoy this saga and appreciate Cronin's detailed timeline and attention to creating very realistic and relatable characters.

However, many readers may feel that The Passage is simply too long and would benefit from having a few hundred pages edited out. The middle of the book moves slowly, turning immediately from an adventure tale that takes place during the heart of an apocalypse to a slow story about a town of survivors 90 years later, their thoughts and feelings, and how they formed a society in a drastically different world. It is not until the last third of the work that the action picks up again and re-energizes readers, by which time it may be too late for many teens. Another post-apocalyptic book like Jonathan Maberry's Rot and Ruin would be a better bet for most teens as it contains many of the same scenarios and themes (a town of people alone in a desolate world overrun by monsters, the struggles survivors face daily, how they have formed a new society when the world was destroyed), yet the pacing is much quicker, the action is more frequent, and the dedication needed to finish it is much smaller (Rot and Ruin is only 480 pages).

Still, don't be daunted in recommending this book to interested teens. While the action in The Passage does get a bit bloody at times, not surprising when murderous vampires are on the loose, it never becomes overly graphic. In addition, while sexual relationships are discussed, they also remain more hinted at than explicitly described and though mature themes are brought forth through secondary characters who, for instance, have pasts laced with murder, pedophilia, and rape, for the most part the particulars of these events are not discussed in detail.

Cronin has mentioned in interviews that a sequel is on its way, though his most hopeful estimate of its release date is 2013, so fans who want to learn what happens after The Passage's cliffhanger ending will have a long wait ahead of them.

The Passage has an official website with news, video, and even an I-Phone app: http://enterthepassage.com/

There is also a book trailer:

Read-alike suggestions:

Rot and Ruin by Jonathan Maberry

The Enemy by Charlie Higson

The Walking Dead graphic novel series by Robert Kirkman

The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

Alice in Zombieland

Alice in Zombieland by Nickolas Cook and Lewis Carroll
published by Sourcebooks, 2011
256 pages
approximate age range: 12+

You know this story, of course: once upon a time Alice was dreadfully bored and so followed a talking black rat down an empty grave and ended up in a horrific world where almost everyone was dead, or undead, or on their way to being one or the other. Wait, that doesn't sound quite right, does it? In this tongue in cheek parody of the well-known classic, Nickolas Cook lets his dark imagination run wild while sticking to most of the events of the original, but with a few twists of course -- Lewis Carroll probably never imagined his sweet heroine as a zombie herself with a strong craving for the flesh of Wonderland's inhabitants.

"'... How are you getting on now, my dear?' it continued, turning to Alice as it spoke.

'Hungry -- I mean as wet as ever,' said Alice in a melancholy tone: 'it doesn't seem to dry me at all.'
The Dodo looked her over humorlessly, his little eyes staring at her wilting hair and pale skin.
Alice's brow furrowed in aggravation and she was about to say something, but as she opened her mouth to speak, one of her teeth tumbled from her mouth, and she was so disturbed to see it fall to the ground, she kept her mouth close-lipped from that moment on. Her hair was falling out, and now her teeth, too? Alice felt a chill wash over her that could not be blamed solely on being soaking wet."

Despite having been written over 150 years ago, Alice in Wonderland is still a popular work today, having spawned movies, miniseries, comics, and various re-workings, such as Frank Beddor's Looking Glass Wars series. Teens will enjoy seeing a story they've grown up with mutated into a gross-out zombie parody that still maintains the basic structure of Carroll's tale. The original illustrations by John Tenniel are also slightly, but skillfully, redone, now containing extra gore, insanity, and un-death, making them quite amusing for readers with strong stomachs. While not startling unique, Alice in Zombieland is a fun romp and a quick read that will swing delighted readers from amusement to horror to disgust and back again.

Read-alike suggestions:

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith and Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls by Steve Hockensmith

Breathers: A Zombie's Lament by S. G. Browne

The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor

Zombies vs. Unicorns edited by Holly Black and Justine Larbalestier

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith

Pretty Monsters

Pretty Monsters: Stories by Kelly Link
published by Viking Juvenile, 2008
400 pages
approximate age range: 13+

What sort of tales would a collection contain if it were written with a sly smile and only during the witching hours of moonless nights? When reading Pretty Monsters, it's easy to imagine author Kelly Link spinning these stories for us from a distant world, like a mischievous fairy godmother crafting the perfect bedtime stories for her beloved, and slightly twisted, charges. For instance, within Pretty Monsters readers will gleefully meet a plethora of intriguing characters such as: a hapless poet who digs up the wrong grave and finds himself unable to escape its curious and lovely undead occupant; sisters who find that their awesome new baby sitter might not be an entirely normal, or living, young woman; a fan of a fantastical tv show who makes a surprising discovery that his favorite fantasy world may not be the imaginative fiction its viewers have believed it to be; and a girl who searches for her late aunt's lost furry handbag that magically holds a demon dog and an entire town.

Though its content may be difficult to briefly describe to prospective readers, Pretty Monsters is an engaging collection of deliciously bizarre, enchanting, and wholly creative short stories that will ensnare anyone who loves magical realism, curious events, and subtle doses of the supernatural. Many stories begin somewhat normally with characters and situations that seem perfectly reasonable, but then Link weaves her spell and each narrative quietly, but surely, turns to something that readers cannot possibly expect, but will delight them just the same. Link's storytelling skills and her use of language are exquisite and though Pretty Monsters is often labeled as teen fiction for its plucky young protagonists, it can easily charm older readers as well.

Read-alike suggestions:

Magic for Beginners by Kelly Link

Stranger Things Happen by Kelly Link

St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves by Karen Russell

Willful Creatures by Aimee Bender

Unexpected Magic: Collected Stories by Diana Wynne Jones