cbr10bingo… Home something home
So as my title suggests, this book was INSANELY long. And I’ve read IT by Stephen King!!! Ok I just checked, It was twice as long as this book. Why did it feel like the other way around??? I think Mr. Cronin went to the Stephen King school of TELL ME EVERY FREAKING DETAIL ABOUT EVERY FREAKING THING, and then took it fifty five steps further. Even though it doesn’t sound like it, I did like the book. I just absolutely hate hate hate it when I feel like it could’ve been half the length. I read the audiobook, and it was 23 CDs, and 29 hours long. That is a lot of time. Especially since it’s the third book in a trilogy! The entire second to last disk is brand spanking new characters. Like literally I’ve listened to 28 hours, plus the two gigantic previous books about all of these characters, we kinda wrap up the story at the end of CD 21, and then CD 22 is BRAND NEW PEOPLE!! I don’t need to know about the professor’s divorce and grandkids. I get it, he’s a character with depth. It really really didn’t matter, because all we needed to know was what he found. An ENTIRE CD could’ve been about ten minutes of words. I have things to do!!!!
Anyway, after all of my ranting, here’s the deal: This is book three, we finish everyone’s storyline pretty satisfactorily, we learn Fanning’s backstory, which was my favorite part of the book, and we find out what happens after all of our heroes are dead. It was satisfying. I just wish it wasn’t so long.
I went with “home something home” for this book, because although Justin Cronin wasn’t born in Pennsylvania (my state), he did teach at La Salle University in Philadelphia for thirteen years, and he’s from my home country (which was also an option for this one), so I’m calling it relevant. I MUST GET SOMETHING OUT OF MY 29 HOURS!!! So I guess I’d give the story four stars, but the length 2.5, so maybe a 3.5 total? I don’t know. The length really ruined it for me. I’m so anxious to see how the TV show handles Mr. Cronin’s writing. The story basically spans over a thousand years, with ooooodles of detail. They could probably have a run that challenges Law and Order (22 seasons I think)!
I’ve read all of these and don’t remember hardly anything about them. I have a vague memory of the ending, but not what happened to everyone. I think I mostly enjoyed reading the trilogy. It could definitely have been shorter though.
The adaptation should be interesting. It’s also nice to see something finished get adapted instead of something halfway there (Martin! Rothfuss!). I was surprised that The Strain got an adaptation because while the first book was entertaining, the trilogy as a whole had one of the more extreme nosedives in quality I’ve seen. The Passage trilogy definitely meandered at times but overall I enjoyed it.
Seriously! I feel badly, because overall I realllly liked the trilogy. I loved the characters and character development and world building in the three books. I just wish there was less detail in all three, but especially this final one.