Book Club Discussion — The Passage

Well, did you make it through Justin Cronin's The Passage? It was a long one, but it kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time and may or may not have cause one night of nightmares (let's just say I kept thinking my air conditioning unit turning off was somehow linked to the Colony's lights...hey, I was half asleep, it doesn't have to make sense).

Let's get down to it.  Some of our questions below came from Mike at About.com and many we posed ourselves. As usual, answer any, all, or pose some of your own and feel free to go off topic.

1. What do you feel were the main themes Cronin was wrestling with in this novel?
2. What do you make of the title of the book?
3. Cronin used a lot of old and modern lore about vampires (though he rarely used the term itself) how do you see his "virals" fitting into our traditional ideas about vampires? What traits did he successfully use and what new ideas did he bring to the genre?
4. Did you think the national response to the crisis was realistic (ex. California seceding from the U.S.)?
5. What do you make of the Third Global Conference on the North American Quarantine entries that are interspersed throughout the book in terms of what's happened to the rest of the world after the virals break out?
6. What was your favorite quote/intro to which section of the novel and how do you feel it best set up what was to come?
7. Why do you think Amy had a different reaction than the others that were "infected?" Why do you think some people were able to resist and others weren't? 
   
8. Did you have a hard time transitioning from the first third of the book to the last two-thirds? Why or why not?
9. There are multiple character and multiple story lines in this book, which one was your favorite and why?
10. Was the ending satisfying or did it leave you thirsty for more?
11. What predictions do you have about what story lines of the rest of the books in the trilogy (The Twelve and The City of Mirrors)?