Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

You know why there is such a discrepancy in the reviews? It's simply this: aficionados of horror or post-apocalyptic fiction recognize this as a mash-up that doesn't really fulfill the expectations of either genre. Fans of literary fiction find it rather thrilling -- a 'good' writer tackling those supposedly lowbrow genres. So in the end, your level of satisfaction will depend on your taste, reading experience, and genre expectations. No book can please everyone and The Passage is no exception. For me, there were some beautiful and evocative sections, but as others have pointed out, I cared a lot less once the story jumped 100 years into the future. The 'new' characters are thinly drawn and largely stereotypes; the villainous creatures get progressively less dangerous and nowhere near as fast as they were in the beginning; the plot s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-s out to less reward; and the resolution(s) are both complicated and easy. Plus you're left hanging until the sequels. It's an experiment, really: putting a literary writer into the genre pit. He claws his way out, but the genre fans can't help but find his story rather ho-hum, which leaves the literary crowd to coo about this as a "startling achievement"--they just don't know any better. You were warned!