The Twelve - Justin Cronin

Date Started: 1/15/15
Date Finished: 1/28/13

Let me start by saying that this was a great book and for fans of The Passage, a must read. That said, my one issue was this -- having waited a while between reading The Passage and this, it's sequel -- I really wish I had read them in closer proximity.

The thing is, there is a LOT going on in these books and a lot of characters to keep straight. And, since I didn't reread the first book, it took a lot of reaching back into my memory to recall who some of these people were and what their stories were. Once I did, it flowed nicely, but until then I was a little stuck.


Knowing that this is a planned trilogy (I think!) made me wonder how we were going to make enough progress in this, the second book. After all, the first book ended with our group of heroes figuring out how to kill one member of the Twelve - Babcock. But there are still eleven left as of the opening of this book.

It took a while for the characters to reassemble, and there were some intervening chapters where I wasn't sure what was going on - the timeline jumped around from year zero (i.e., the year the virals emerged) all the way to year 97, when most of the action takes place. I was a little disappointed that we never found out what happened to our initial group of survivors, nor do we have any mention of the world outside of North America. What happened in Europe? Australia? Presumably Australia was protected since the virals can't swim but more details on the outside world would have been great. I have to assume that's coming in the next book.

Anyway, things got easier to follow once the timeline evened out and we were reading about all of our heroes coming together (in some cases without even knowing it) and heading to Iowa, where the "Homeland" has been established. The Homeland is the place where Guilder (former military, now viral based on his drinking Gray's blood) has decided to rebuild the world with virals (the Eleven) working together with humans. The gist of it is that the Eleven, along with their pods, have eaten through their food supply. First step, kill their pods (or just command them to die) and then work with Guilder and have food provided to them. Only hitch in this plan is our heroes, chief among them Amy, and one of the Eleven, Carter - who was always falsely accused and innocent of any crime.

Speaking of which, Amy, has undergone a transformation into a woman and, by the end of the book, a full-fledged viral. She understands that she has to go through this in order to rid the world of the rest of the Eleven and she does so despite her fear. Her relationship with Wolgast is ultimately what saves humanity, as they worked together to set off a bomb that killed all of the Eleven at once.

We separately discover that Sara (who we thought was dead at the end of the first book) had been taken up to the Homeland and that her baby with Hollis -- Kate -- was actually alive, despite being told to the contrary when she gave birth. Her reunion with her brother, Michael, and her husband, Hollis, was worth waiting for.

We end this book with Alicia becoming a viral and heading off to kill Zero - the one, powerful original viral who is left. Amy says goodbye to Wolgast (I teared up) and is with Carter in some kind of holding pattern for the next battle. It looks as though humanity is going to attempt to rebuild itself step by step, though how easy this will be now that the Eleven are gone remains to be seen.

All signs point to an exciting conclusion to this series; I'll just have to remind myself to at least re-read this summary before diving into the next one!