The Strain

A novel that, in spite of its many flaws, remained enjoyable throughout. The Strain is a perfect example of how the more famous a book's author, the less polish they need to put in for it to get published. There are many odd choices made in the pacing of the story, the prose leaves a great deal to be desired, and the female part is woefully underwritten, the sole female "main" character doing nothing but feeling either horrified or saddened and remaining almost helpless for the entire time she is present.

Still, the book strikes an intriguing mix of an "epidemiological procedural" driven by modern science technology and a novel based on old-school vampire lore, and the authors never lose sight of the idea that vampires were meant to be terrifying rather than sparkly. The novel follows in the thematic footsteps of 'I Am Legend,' and manages to stand out both in a subgenre recovering from its sparkly phase and among a general market that has become saturated with zombie apocalypses.

While this novel is far from perfect, it's worth a read if you're into either old-school vampires or high-tech supernatural thrillers. An interesting story is slowed but not scuttled by the shortcomings of its execution, and I'm confident that the upcoming television adaptation of this book series will be even better than this source material, since film is Guillermo del Toro's native medium.

First thing I think you should know is that this book is clearly just the first part in the series. That's true of plenty of other books as well, but this is clearly the kind of book #1 where it feels like a really long book was written and then sliced into 3. So, if you want even the slightest bit of plot resolution, you, like me, should plan to read all 3 books.

Now, on the plus side, I actually WANT to read the next 2 books.

I bought this without knowing anything about the book (I didn't even read the publisher blurb). Put simply, I trust Guillermo del Toro. I trust him to tell a good story, to entertain and, importantly for a book like this, creep me out a bit.

Without giving away anything I wouldn't have wanted to know prior to reading this, this book both plays into and against patterns, tropes and archetypes we're used to. The balance found makes for an entertaining read that has me re-shuffling my list to get to the rest of the story.

Just when you think you're sure that a portion is playing out exactly like 100 other books you've read or movies you've seen before, it takes a subtle twist. Not a big, 180 degree twist, put in just to violate expectations. Rather, the kind that wakes you up and makes you pay attention, pulling you into the story.

Following review is from my blog: fromtheunderworld.blogspot.com/2011/10/strain.html

The Strain is the first novel in a trilogy by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan. Del Toro is a much loved director and film writer by horror fans, despite the fact little of his work beyond Mimic can be directly classified as horror. It does however, regularly draw on ideas and imagery from the genre, to fantastic effect. The Strain marks his first foray into prose. Hogan is not an author who's work I'm familiar with, but is best known for his novel Prince of Thieves, upon which the film The Town was based and - as is regularly pointed out by his PR folk - chosen as one of 2005s best novels by Stephen King.

One thing I always wonder when met with a co-authored novel is how the workload was shared, and in a situation such as this, with a celebrity (of sorts) working with an existing author, it's tempting to assume that the bulk of the writing was done by Hogan. Tempting, but probably unfair.

The novel is a vampiric one, dealing with the outbreak of a vampire plague in New York. It uses many of the traditional vampiric traits, abandons others and reinterprets a couple, mostly with the apparent goal of making the creature appear more believable, more scientific. It works, managing to make the whole thing more distressing by rooting it more thoroughly in the modern world. These are still vampires: hurt by daylight, by silver, needing blood to survive. But gone are the religious links and in is an explanation and thoroughly creepy description of the virus, the way it hijacks the human body to its own ends. Dealing with vampirism as a plague, the book is in most ways more similar to zombie novels than traditional vampire-based ones. In this way it taps into both the recent fads in horror literature, but won't quite sit easy in either.

The duo's writing style is mostly top notch, and flows well. I've heard complaints from some that the novel moves too slowly, but the writing is absorbed into your brain with such ease I find such comments hard to agree with. The main place their writing falls down is in two places, and these are my main complaints about the book.

Firstly, they have a habit of dropping out of the narrative to explain a point, whether it's the purpose of a surgical instrument, the meaning of a word or a piece of science. The story is stopped, a lesson given, and the story resumed, where perhaps a more skilful writer would convey their point without breaking pace. Secondly comes the authors' propensity to heavy handedly explain their allegories and euphemisms, often with the effect of painful to read prose that screams of "You see what we did there?". These two combined can create at times the feeling that the pair are talking down to you a little, that they don't carry much faith in their reader's intelligence.

Despite these flaws, del Toro and Hogan manage to spin a yarn that's engaging, fast-paced and hugely enjoyable. Whilst including little of del Toro's signature style and originality, the book is easy to recommend to anyone after a modern, interesting and absorbing take on vampirism. It's simply not likely to make the same impact on literature as his films make on cinema.

Wow, what a scary book this was! I'm normally not much of a horror / vampire fan (most of my recently abandoned books have something to do with vampires), but this book by the amazing director Guillermo Del Toro ("Pan's Labyrinth") and a co-author, really glued me to my seat. It was believable, graphic and down right frightening in places!

After a short flash back, it jumps to now, where a jumbo jet lands at Kennedy Airport and then abruptedly goes dead. No lights, no comm, nothing. Various agencies are called and and the strangeness only just begins.

After a few survivors are found and the rest of the bodies are moved to the morgue, well, you can guess what happens, as these aren't really dead, just vampires. There are scary stories of the survivors as they slowly turn into vampires and while the main protagonists try to find the leader. An old Jew, who escape Treblinka, is along to help out, as these medical people gradually become believers.

The authors do a good job of "explaining" the medical theory behind vampirism, and it gets pretty gruesome. I'm looking forward to the next two books in the trilogy, as it should be quite a ride as they try to clean up vampirism before it takes over the world.