The Twelve by Justin Cronin

564 pages

"The end of the world was only the beginning.

In the present day, as the man-made apocalypse unfolds, three strangers navigate the chaos. Lila, a doctor and an expectant mother, is so shattered by the spread of violence and infection that she continues to plan for her child's arrival even as society dissolves around her. Kittridge, known to the world as 'Last Stand in Denver,' has been forced to flee his stronghold and is now on the road, dodging the infected, armed but not alone and well aware that a tank of gas will only get him so far. April is a teenager fighting to guide her little brother safely through a landscape of death and ruin. These three will learn that they have not been fully abandoned--and that in connection lies hope, even on the darkest of nights.

One hundred years in the future, Amy and the others fight on for humankind's salvation...unaware that the rules have changed. The enemy has evolved, and a dark new order has arisen with a vision of the future infinitely more horrifying than man's extinction. If the Twelve are to fall, one of those united to vanquish them will have to pay the ultimate price." (Dust Jacket)

First the cons--

Language. This book is R-rated due to language and that really disappointed me. It's worse than the first book. I can't recommend this series, even though the story is great, because of it.

Adult Themes. This book is violent and most of the violence doesn't come from the virals. The Homeland is like a concentration camp, where humans are subjected to violence and other horrors at the hands of Guilder and his cronies, who have lived for over a hundred years off the blood of the viral Lawrence Grey, who is a prisoner in the basement of the Dome. The Redeyes and Cols (collaborators) are truly despicable.

Lots of Characters. I had to go online to remember some of the characters from the first book and what happened since it's been a year and I didn't want to re-read the 1,000 pages of The Passage. This book introduced even more characters as it jumped back and forth in time. The author did give a bit of a summary in the beginning of this book which helped a little, but there were some details--like where certain characters died, etc.--that were a little fuzzy.

The pros--

The jumps back in time. I liked how this book went back in time and gave you more details on the beginnings of the infection and the world right after the Twelve escaped. That's about a third of the book. This book also jumps back a decade into the past to the Field, where Vorhees loses his family to a viral attack on a day with a rare solar eclipse. That's an important event in the story because characters introduced there play an important role for the rest of the book.

The Characters. The introduction of Lila, Kittridge, and April connects the dots between other characters from the first book. Kittridge and April are Alicia Donadio's ancestors. Lila is a complicated character who, despite all the bad she does, is really just a woman so traumatized by her circumstances that she lives in an alternate reality until the very end. She is Brad Wolgast's ex-wife. They got divorced after the death of their daughter Eva. Amy goes through some changes in this book that I don't think I totally understood and which made me sort of sad for her! As much as I don't want to read the final book (in 2014), I want to find out what happens to her and her relationship with Peter. Alicia also has transformed into something that will be interesting in the next book. I felt bad for her and Peter, that they were always saying goodbye and knowing that their relationship of the past is gone. Basically, the virus always wins in the end, but some, like Carter, are able to maintain some of their humanity.

The Set-Up for the final book. {SPOILER ALERT} Now that eleven of the Twelve have been destroyed (Wolgast posed as Carter and set off the bomb in the stadium at The Homeland), the final book sets up a showdown between Zero and everyone else, particularly Amy, Alicia and Carter. He's heard in this book but never seen and it's hinted that he's more powerful than the others combined.