“The Twelve” by Justin Cronin – Salvation by the Dozen
With the second book in The Passage trilogy, The Twelve, Justin Cronin continues to weave his ginormous web of narrative threads, both looking back at the beginning from a different angle and pursuing the stories unfinished in the first novel.
Just a note of warning, you pretty much have to read the first book in the trilogy in order to enjoy this one. Otherwise, get ready to spend half your reading time on Google trying to make sense of everything you're reading.
Anyhow, to begin with, The Twelve brings us back to year zero, when the infection starting taking over the world after Project Noah went incredibly (and of course, unpredictably) wrong. We get to follow the story of another group of survivors, with some allusions to the stories of the people explored in the first novel.
Slowly but surely, the book transitions onwards into the present (that is, the year 97 After Virus), around five years after the last novel's ending. Amongst countless other things, Amy, Alicia, Peter and company undertake perhaps the worthiest quest of all: to liquidate the twelve death-row inmates who became the original virals, the first ones to reap the dubious side effects of Project Noah.
To begin with, the unusual structure of the narrative used in this book will confuse you at first, especially if it has been a while since you've read The Passage. However, you have plenty of time to get used to it, and ultimately it proves its worth by giving the story a very interesting pace, dedicating just as much time to action and horror as to philosophy and deep descriptions.
It should be added that while the book is still relatively long at six hundred pages, it is much more concise and reserved than the previous one when it comes to long expositions. The prose is quite elegant, Cronin clearly being a talented wordsmith who knows precisely which words to use for the most impact.
The characters are really what makes this epic narrative so interesting, with the author taking the time to explore each and every one of them in-depth. We get to learn about where they come from, what they think, what motivates them, and basically who they are as human beings.
However, the sheer number of characters and different storylines end up working against the story, limiting the amount of time dedicated to developing some of them.
As a result, a few characters feel either like placeholders or criminally under-developed for the potential they present, while some of the plots feel like they are dropped rather abruptly. Of course, there is always the hope for those to be rectified in the third book.
A lot of battles take place over the course of the story, and there is a fair amount of gore to go along with it... but that is not to say the story is all about humans versus vampire-like creatures.
Rather, it's a story about humanity's survival when pushed to the very extreme. There are many moments dedicated to reflection on the human nature, how we are affected by such extreme adversity and the lengths we'd go to in order to survive. It's pretty clear that Cronin has thought a lot about the subject and is partially using this book as a way to share his thought-provoking reflections.
If you enjoy colossal narratives of epic tales about humanity's survival that sprawl over multiple books and liked The Passage , then I highly recommend you pursue your journey with this second novel in the series.
 | Justin CroninPersonal site Justin Cronin is an American writer who has authored a few novels, his most prolific work being The Passage Trilogy, a story about vampires. Cronin has received the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award, the Whitling Award, as well as the Stephen Crane Prize. |
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