The Twelve Picks Up Where The Passage Left Off

In 2010, Justin Cronin released his novel The Passage. Beginning in a plausible near future on the verge of a breakthrough in human longevity, the book then delves into the dystopic far future created when that breakthrough instead unleashes twelve vampire-like beings (eventually known as “virals”) into the world.

Cronin, a graduate of Harvard University and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, brought a credible reputation to his foray into the horror genre. He was awarded the PEN/Hemingway Award in 2002 for Mary and O’Neil, a “novel in stories.” Before The Passage, he was known as a writer of mainstream literary fiction. Indeed, The Passage garnered strong reviews, being called “one of the creepiest books of 2010” by the National Post and “the best book of the summer” by USA Today. It drew comparisons to both The Stand and The Road. Readers responded as well, with the book debuting at #3 on the New York Times best seller list.

Of course, success on that scale is rarely contained solely on the page. The Passage will be adapted into a movie, produced by Ridley Scott and written by John Logan (who wrote the screenplay for Gladiator). That’s tentatively scheduled to be in theaters sometime in 2013.

Before The Passage was even released, it was announced that it would be the first volume of a trilogy. The second novel, The Twelve, hit shelves on Tuesday of this week; the third book, The City of Mirrors, is due in 2014.

The plot of The Twelve shifts back and forth in time. On one hand, it follows up the story told in The Passage, as the characters deal with the events in that book and forge on in their quest to vanquish the virals and return their world to some semblance of normalcy. It also introduces a cast of characters trying to cope in the initial aftermath of the outbreak, in the near future setting initially set up in the beginning of The Passage.

Anticipation for The Twelve has been strong, and what could be better as Halloween approaches than a creepy vampire tale? Make sure you have copies of The Passage and The Twelve for your patrons to enjoy.