The Passage, by Justin Cronin: Don't judge a book by its cheap lookin' dress (or try to make vampires; bad idea.)

The Passage

Justin Cronin
New York: Ballatine Books, 2010

ISBN: 9780345516862

Oh hey, girls and boys.  Let’s talk about The Passage, shall we?

I’ll be the first to admit that I wrote it off at first glance.  I was convinced it was some tricksy Hay-Zeus agenda book, masquerading in a mass-market paperback dress.  There’s no shame in being a cover judger!  That’s also not to say I’m 100% certain there isn’t some secret to-be-revealed agenda of a fictional religious sense, because at a short 800+ pages and a cliffhanger, this OBVI needed to be the first in a trilogy.   Persnickity snark aside, there is enough other stuff going on that moved this book from the supermarket checkout line in my mind and into an an esteemed position on my summer reading list (for the win!).

A recommendation from J.Hawesome, who knows what I like (I blame her for Outlander) and reads what I tell her (J - you’re welcome for Twilight), this is not a mere vampire novel.  It is part dystopian exploration of an decimated United States now afraid of the dark, part ethically and morally questionable scifi experiment gone horribly wrong, and yes, part beach book thriller.  My friends, I am no slow reader.  This book, no exaggeration, took me fooooreeever to read.  While I at times resented the fact that I was still reading it, I did find myself wishing I could find the time to hole up and spend some quality time with it.  I’d be lying if I didn’t start to work about infection myself when I caught myself dreaming about it, which is kind of horrifying, if you’ve read it (but I didn’t have THAT dream, phew). 

Because I’m too lazy to take this seriously in the same week I am throwing a pop-up book store (okay, a summer reading book fair), here is how I summarized it on my list:

 There is nothing sparkly about the vampires in this epic novel. After something goes
horribly awry following secret government experiments on human subjects, a plague is
unleashed that alters the DNA of humans to become horrifying blood-thirsty creatures.  Humanity is nearly extinct, but a few souls have survived, and may be closer to a cure than they realize.

In short, I put this on my summer reading list because it holds great appeal to kids of a certain type (generally those pumped to be reading huge thriller type of books; see also: boys), and is highly readable.  It is, quite literally,  heavy lifting (unless you go for a digital copy too), but it ain’t hard, if you catch my drift.   The main maturity requirement is in commitment, so I’d recommend it to really avid middle and high school readers, who can hang with the stiffs (ahem, adults).  It’s a fun summer read!

For those of you who are now obviously convinced from my awesome summer reading list blurb that you want this to be your hawt summer read, you are done (with this review), son.  Go and get thee a copy!

Let’s let the big boys and girls play with some spoilers now, shall we?

It's a hard knock life for a Printz winner

Ship Breaker
by Paolo Bacigalupi
New York: Little Brown & Company, 2010.
ISBN: 978-0-316-05621-2

Nailer is a ship breaker living and working on the beach of an unrecognizable but easily plausible future New Orleans, ravaged by global warming and the intense weather it brings. He spends his days struggling to stay alive while scavenging inside old tankers, and his nights struggling to stay alive and avoid his drug-addicted and abusive father. In this hard-knock world, getting ahead is nearly impossible to imagine, and finding your "Lucky Strike," or ticket out of the misery, is what everyone dreams of. But after a massive hurricane, Nailer is seemingly struck with luck when he stumbles upon an extremely expensive yacht shipwrecked on the beach. When he finds a wealthy girl hovering on the brink of death inside though, the tides turn. Is it a lucky find? Should he leave her to die, scavenge what he can, and not look back? Or should he leave the boat and save her? Ship Breaker explores the gravity, responsibility, morality, and ethics of decision making, trust, and love. The chapters are filled with life or death chases, near escapes, moments of great valiance and greed, and choices that are not always easy. Baciagalupi's writing is not elegant, but it is serviceable and engaging, and his characters reveal themselves to be working for good or evil on their own terms. Uniquely, all protagonists are minorities. Due to the gruesome end several characters meet at the hands of others, this book is recommended for mature 7th graders through 10th grade.

It's likely that I'm probably bitter that Patrick Ness won no major American prizes for his incredible The Chaos Walking series. But here's where I throw a little truthiness at you. I liked this book. I bought it for my library. I think the adventure will appeal. But I don't think this book is a Printz winner. Not by a long shot. At times I had trouble picking it up, not because I wasn't enjoying it (I was!), or because it was boring (definitely NOT boring!) or too gruesome (frankly, the murder here is...PG.). In fact, I'm not entirely sure why I wasn't hook-line-sinkered, because I usually love me a good adventure/chase. I did enjoy realizing that nobody was Whitey McWhite, unlike the vast majority of YA available. And frankly, it's not that this book or the writing is bad. It just doesn't sing for me or strike me as an original, new concept, like the vast majority of Printz winners. As I said in the review above, the writing is serviceable. But it ain't pretty. And the concepts while deep and provocative, are nothing new.

Don't get me wrong - I don't need to LOVE a Printz winner. But I do think I should at least understand why a winner was deserving. There are so many books that cover all the issues of questioning, burgeoning morality, sense of right verses wrong, trust, family, love, etc. so so SO much more elegantly and eloquently. There just were a few too many shortcomings for me. And to boot, some questions are left unanswered, possibly leaving room for a sequel or same world story. For example, there is no explanation why Tool is free-thinking, yet the other half-men are not. What's up with that? At the end of the day, I will not hesitate in recommending this to my patrons as a great read. But frankly? A Printz winner?

In completely unrelated news, I didn't realize that ship breaking is actually a job. And it apparently sucks just as much as it does in the book. I discovered this video when I googled the book title. Join me in feeling rather glum about this.