“…they told of dripping stone walls in uninhabited castles and of ivy-clad monastery ruins by moonlight, dank charnel houses and overgrown graveyards, of howlings and shriekings, groanings and scuttlings and the clanking of chains, of hooded monks and headless horseman, vampires and bloodhounds, bats and rats and spiders, of men found at dawn and women turned white-haired and raving lunatic, and of vanished corpses and curses upon heirs.”
Susan Hill – The Woman in Black
Last night I started reading The Strain by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan. I’ve been incredibly excited about reading this ARC even though Angel worries that it will be too much for me. I don’t usually read horror novels or watch horror movies (for good reason). I have a very vivid imagination and even watching Supernatural (which Angel finally talked us into) is too much for me at times. ;o)
Maybe this comes from devouring nothing but scary stories when I was a kid. I couldn’t tell you how many times I read the Scary Stories to Tell In the Dark books (with their gruesome illustrations) and the Tales from the Crypt comics. And, regardless of nightmares, I could never get enough. I vividly recall a family vacation where I was sitting in the back seat with my nose pressed in a book – as usual – reading about the Hookman, the Wendigo and Spring Heeled Jack as we drove through the swamps of Louisiana. What a great setting for reading scary stories!
Despite my aversion to horror stories and movies, my favorite holiday remains Halloween and my favorite season Fall. I just love the legend and lore of the season – the pumpkins, witches hats, black cats, etc. I can’t get enough of it and for the past few years have planned my reading for the months of September and October around Halloween. I look forward to my Halloween reading fest all year long. I love the gothic classics like Northanger Abbey, Dracula, Carmilla, Sleepy Hollow, Rebecca. I loved I Am Legend but have yet to read more Richard Matheson after reading his chillingly creepy short story Prey. I suppose it’s mainly the Stephen King(s) and Dean Koontz(s) that I stay away from. The straight out horror. The ones that are just too disturbing and gruesome.
I digress. The Strain. I’m so excited about reading this book, I wanted to mention it here.
“Once upon a time,” said Abraham Setrakian’s grandmother, “there was a giant.”
Guillermo del Toro & Chuck Hogan – The Strain
From the opening pages I’m immediately drawn into this story! I love the writing and have already read the opening chapter, “The Legend of Jusaf Sardu”, more than once. As short as the opening chapter was, it evoked images from Stoker’s Dracula. In a few brief sentences it captured the eeriness of the Romanian forests and vampire lore. It’s true that I don’t usually read many horror stories (for good reason) but the last horror story to give me chills like this was Vivian Schilling’s Quietus. And the last vampire novel I was this excited about reading was when we got our hands on an ARC of Elizabeth Kostova’s The Historian.
“…much of the village was eventually abandoned and became an accursed place. The Gypsies, when their carriage train passed through the town, selling their exotic wares, told of strange happenings, of hauntings and apparitions near the castle. Of a giant who prowled the moonlit land like a god of the night.”
Guillermo del Toro & Chuck Hogan – The Strain
The visionary creator of the Academy Award-winning Pan’s Labyrinth and a Hammett Award-winning author bring their imaginations to this bold, epic novel about a horrifying battle between man and vampire that threatens all humanity. It is the first installment in a thrilling trilogy and an extraordinary international publishing event.
The Strain
They have always been here. Vampires.
In secret and in darkness. Waiting.
Now their time has come.
In one week, Manhattan will be gone. In one month, the country. In two months-the world.
A Boeing 777 arrives at JFK and is on its way across the tarmac, when it suddenly stops dead. All window shades are pulled down. All lights are out. All communication channels have gone quiet. Crews on the ground are lost for answers, but an alert goes out to the CDC. Dr. Eph Goodweather, head of their Canary project, a rapid-response team that investigates biological threats, gets the call and boards the plane. What he finds makes his blood run cold.
In a pawnshop in Spanish Harlem, a former professor and survivor of the Holocaust named Abraham Setrakian knows something is happening. And he knows the time has come, that a war is brewing…
So begins a battle of mammoth proportions as the vampiric virus that has infected New York begins to spill out into the streets. Eph, who is joined by Setrakian and a motley crew of fighters, must now find a way to stop the contagion and save his city-a city that includes his wife and son-before it is too late.
And here is a bit of additional information regarding The Strain from interviews with Del Toro posted earlier this year and last year.
“The trilogy advances in unexpected ways,” says Del Toro, “And each book contains unique and surprising revelations about the history, physiology and lore of the vampiric race, tracing its roots all the way back to its Old Testament origins.”
The idea for this story arc was originally pitched to FOX television as a one-hour series, with the idea that the series would be a fantasy/horror spin on the police drama genre.
“The first novel is sort of a procedural horror novel, which starts at an investigation of a plane that is essentially like the ship in [Stoker’s] ‘Dracula’ – it just stopped and everybody on board was dead,” del Toro teased, referencing “The Dementer,” a ship Dracula boards to London which arrives with just the Captain alive – the rest of the crew victim to the winged one’s thirst for blood. “And an investigation ensues.
“And what happens is an epidemic,” he continued, connecting disease to the first novel’s title, The Strain. “But it’s an epidemic unlike I believe the stuff that is [big] in vampiric fiction.”
The interview is interesting. I told you it had the feeling of a TV miniseries. lol I’m glad you are liking it even though you are not that far into it. I can’t wait for you to REALLY get into it. I need to write a review.
I had also seen that middle cover on goodreads. Have you heard if that will be the actual cover or not?
Lol yes, you do need to write a review! I can’t wait to read more after my dentist appointment this afternoon! And I’m so glad you already read it so I can discuss it with you as I read it. ;o)
I think that middle cover is the German cover. None of the other foreign covers are posted yet. I checked the different Amazon websites. ;oP
This post is the reason why I rarely write reviews. Kenci’s fantastic, beautiful and well thought out posts make me feel slightly inadequate. LOL 😉
Lol but this is the same thing I think when I read your reviews, Jenn! I loved your reviews for the Luxe series and Curse Dark As Gold.
How do you think I feel with the two of you? So I’m learning to just post something. lol
I agree with Angel 🙂 You both write such great reviews! That is something that I don’t have a knack for at all, but I love reading both of your reviews…they’re so deliciously written! 🙂
I also love how NONE of you know what the real cover looks like (or looked like) since you all had ARCs. Classic 😉