The Twelve by Justin Cronin

What a giant, sweeping saga of life after the apocalypse! Skipping across three generations of Americans during and after a virus changes the world. (The beginning of the story was told in The Passage.)

My only problem is, I keep losing track of all the seven quintrillion characters Cronin has given us. Across three generations! And I should at least be able to keep track of the viral vampires, right? Except most of them haven't been talked about for what seems like a thousand pages, so they feel a little distant. And while they're referred to as the Twelve - there are really 11 now ... except there's also Zero who's not in the count, nor is Amy who's something else entirely.

So perhaps I should have had a graph or a map or something. Cronin gives us a few outlines and character lists in the back, but I didn't find it wildly helpful. (And I know it seems bad that I found that list only because I was peeking ahead to see how many pages I had left. The book is 568 pages, but seems a lot longer.)

It's an interesting idea of the future, and I appreciate the religious and moral implications he presents. He's got some great characters with true, human flaws and drives.

Honestly, I did enjoy the book - but maybe, it was due to the fact I so loved the first book and that bled over. I'm curious to see where Cronin takes us in the next book (it's supposed to be a trilogy).