The Passage

You know the feeling when you are halfway into a book and you're not really sure you want to invest any more time in reading the rest?  That was how I felt about Justin Cronin's The Passage.  This book sounded great in the pre-pub summaries, and there is a really neat accompanying website Enter the Passage. This epic (over 700 pages) was exciting in the beginning, but quickly turned monotonous.  The reason it is so long is that Cronin tells this futuristic tale of viral beings in excruciating detail; at times with no need to do so.  The list of characters is also long, with detail and introspective views into their lives so that the reader really feels connected, but then characters are taken with the virus and the reader has to make friends with a new cast of characters.  I believe I was about 450 pages into The Passage when I decided I really didn't care what happened next, I just really wanted to know how it would end.  I read the 300 odd pages between this point and the end without much enthusiasm, only to find the ending to be unfulfilling and I realized I could have skipped to the last sentences to figure it all out.  This was also extremely heavy (another strike in my book - I prefer my workout time to be separate from my reading time).  I know there were several nights that I was pulling for the extra blanket at the bottom of the bed only to  find it weighed down by The Passage.  I struggled with this book, both physically and emotionally.  My opinion:  Wait for the movie.