Book Review: The Strain by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan

The Strain by Guillermo del Toro
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I found out about The Strain a while ago and as a fan of Guillermo del Toro's directed works and a lover of all (Twilight and True Blood excluded) things vampire I thought it would be an interesting read.
For me, the best part of the book was probably the first third. I always knew where the book was going, but the tension and the mystery as Flight 753 lands at JFK airport and the events that follow, were exciting and thrilling at the same time.
The main protagonist is Dr. Ephraim Goodweather. For some reason, in my head I imagined him as Denzel Washington, this 'strong' character. He and his co-worked Nora Martinez work for the CDC and are the first inside the mysterious plane. They are both likeable, although I feel that Nora has less of a personality than Eph and later on in the book is made to stay behind and look after Zack, Eph's son, rather than go and fight, which I think is a little sexist. In fact, this book does not have strong female characters. Nora and Kelly (Eph's ex-wife) both play small parts and are subject to the decisions of the men around them.
The other lead is Abraham Setrakian, described as an aged Holocaust survivor. He is by far the more interesting character of the two, with a story and a personal vendetta against The Master, the head of all vampires.
It may seem that I am being negative but I did thoroughly enjoy this book. As I said, the initial discovery of the plane kept me on the edge of my seat and the study of the victim's as they attempted to work out what had happened was exciting. It's a different approach to the vampire story, they are a virus rather than a monster.
The vampires themselves are not your 'run of the mill' either. Their transformation is not pretty, neither is the end result. It's refreshing to read a different take on the genre, especially as it's been done to death lately for a primarily teenage and young adult audience.
For me, New York City was an integral part of the story. There was focus on the World Trade Centre (although events of 9/11 were not dwelled on) and the subway systems. I particularly enjoyed a section where the characters entered the subway system, del Toro certainly wracked the scary factor up there!
I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the books in this series, and watching the TV series that is soon to be our screens.

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