Down with Vampires!

When you start finding books where Abe Lincoln is a vampire hunter, or Louisa May Alcott’s Jo,Beth, Meg, and Amy are vampires, you know the topic has been just about beaten to death. No more vampires, please! Not even if they look like Santa Claus or have cute furry ears and hop like bunnies! Enough, I say, enough!

Of course, there is a but.

I’m somewhat ashamed to admit that I’m enjoying Justin Cronin’s The Passage. Book critic Alan Cheuse on NPR didn’t sound too crazy about it, and I dismissed it at first glance because of the stupid vampires, BUT . . . I really needed something to read. Right away. And the book was sitting right there. As it turns out, it doesn’t really feel like a vampire book. It’s much more in the genre of apocalyptic, damn-we’re-going-to-kill-ourselves-with-our-greed-and-shortsightedness kind of fiction. Forever doomed by our own darker natures, the human race nonetheless soldiers on, finding brief moments of transcendent joy, et cetera et cetera. I’m all for that kind of stuff. Cronin’s book is pretty well written too, with fully fleshed out characters and a slow building of suspense. Granted, I’m only about a fifth of the way through the 784 page book, but I’m hooked.

I promise I’ll come back later and amend this if it turns out to be awful, and if it is, I’ll never ever read another book with vampire characters ever again. I swear. Although I’m starting to wonder if in the future that will even be possible . . .