Structured similarly to the first book, The Twelve is split into several sections. The opening third unfolds in modern times, following events and characters close in the aftermath of the nationwide outbreak. The remainder of the book skips ahead almost a century to show how future generations are coping with the resulting horror.
Book one had its flaws, most notably its epic length, but it was overall a compelling tale that left me intrigued for book two. But while book two was a shorter volume than its predecessor, it ended up being, if anything, more difficult to read.
The first third of The Twelve, set during the fall of civilization, is a real slog. The narrative already moved past this period in book one, on to different situations and different characters. Skipping back to where it all began feels like a pointless diversion, even though a couple of characters from the first book do return. We already know that the world ends -- hell, the dust jacket told us that, never mind the doorstop tome that was volume one. There's no reason to go back and touch on that period, unless what's revealed is going to weigh heavily on the narrative. While events do factor in, I suppose, they certainly don't warrant the extended flashback.
Having gotten away with one giant novel, Justin Cronin begins to indulge some bad habits here -- and his editor seems unwilling or unable to rein him in. The writing in The Twelve is of markedly poorer quality than The Passage. It's packed with aimless, run-on sentences. The characters lack dimension; new characters are stubbornly one-note, while returning characters from the first book seem to lose facets of personality they previously had.
Side note: Cronin also engages in an off-handed bit of transphobia for no particular reason. In a minor scene that just plays for a page or two, one of his characters uses an anti-LGBT slur. It doesn't tell us anything about the character using the slur, doesn't paint in any meaningful shade of villainy or ignorance that was missing before, and isn't relevant to anything that occurs later in the plot. It's just a moment of Cronin being casually cruel and in no way improving his tale for it.
Before The Twelve can slide off the rails entirely, it "catches back up" with the time frame that concluded book one... and finally improves a bit. But even as the plot becomes more interesting, it depends a lot on treating its female characters horrifically. One is painted as delusional and crazy. Another must continually confront the psychological trauma of being separated from her child. Yet another is captured, and her imprisonment consists of repeated torture and rape. Sure, a reader should not expect the apocalypse to be a happy place -- but it feels as though the book is being especially cruel to its female characters in a way it isn't to its male characters.
Perhaps because of how long these books are, I found myself still striving to find good in The Twelve even as I was finding so much not to like. I had to finish it, right? Since I'd invested so much time already? Perhaps because of this determination, I did get swept up in a need to know what happens next, and sped through the last quarter of the book. I'd perhaps grade it a C- overall, which may seem like a high mark given the negatives I cited above. (Somehow it's easier to put my finger on what I didn't like than to identify the ineffable qualities that kept me reading.)
But now I'm at quite a crossroads. Unlike countless other fantasy series with authors who can't seem to get them finished, this trilogy is complete. There's one more book, and I could go read it to see how it all ends. I feel I've invested so much time in it now that I almost have to see it through. Almost. Book two was such a sharp drop in quality from book one that it might be smarter just to cut my losses here.
Stay tuned, I suppose, and see what I decide. But I can tell you this: if you haven't already started reading The Passage series, I'd recommend you don't start.
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