The Twelve by Justin Cronin

Written by: Justin Cronin

Pages: 624 pages

Format: Ebook

Genre: Fiction, Supernatural, Post Apocalypse

In his internationally bestselling and critically acclaimed novel The Passage, Justin Cronin constructed an unforgettable world transformed by a government experiment gone horribly wrong.

With TheTwelve, the story continues.

In the present day: As a man-made apocalypse unfolds, three strangers navigate the chaos, desperate to find others, to survive, to witness the dawn on the other side of disaster. Lila, a doctor and an expectant mother, has been so broken by the spread of violence and infection that she continues to plan for her child’s arrival even as society dissolves around her. Kittridge, known to the world as “Last Stand in Denver,” has been forced by loss of electrical power to flee his stronghold and is now on the road, dodging the infected, armed but alone and well aware that a tank of gas will get him only so far. April is a teenager fighting to guide her little brother safely through a minefield of death and ruin. These three will learn that they have not been fully abandoned—and that in connection lies hope, even on the darkest of nights.

A hundred years in the future: Amy, Peter, Alicia, and the others introduced in The Passage work with a cast of new characters to hunt the original twelve virals… unaware that the rules of the game have changed, and that one of them will have to sacrifice everything to bring the Twelve down.

The scope widens and the intensity deepens as the epic tale of sacrifice and survival begun in The Passage surges forward in its breathtaking sequel—The Twelve.

My thoughts:

I read The Passage a couple of years back and really loved it. I’ve been looking forward to reading The Twelve for quite some time but to be honest the 600++ pages deterred me from picking up the book much sooner.  I’ve always been a bit fearful of reading chunksters.

Overall, I loved The Twelve but not as much as I did The Passage. The first few pages of the Twelve started with biblical-type writing which really felt weird to read. I felt that the biblical style of writing came across trying too hard to make the book seem bigger than the last.

The book also is a bit scattered and jumps from the present to the past and back to the present which had a flow that was sometimes hard to follow. It has a lot of characters to keep track of and I got lost a couple of times reading some of the chapters and had to re-read and remind myself the connection between the characters or the events that brought them together.  So I did struggle a bit with the book.

Despite the confusion, The Twelve was overall an enjoyable read.  The book had a vastness to it that brought out the main characters history; stories and events set in various time periods that gradually comes together at the end.

I was still really engrossed with the characters and the storyline. My favourite character in this book is still Amy. I also love reading about Peter.  I was a bit disturbed to read about Alicia but I'm not one who goes into details as I wouldn't want to spoil it for those of you who have not read it.

The Twelve is an epic book that one should take the time to read. It was a satisfying read but as much as I’d like to give it a 5 star review and whilst I did enjoy reading it, it fell short from my expectations and experience from The Passage. I gave it a 3/5 star in Goodreads.