The Strain: A Real Vampire Tale (Beware Twilight Lovers)
For lovers of the vampire genre Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan’s first book in The Strain Trilogy titled “The Strain” is a fantastic read and a step back in time to traditional vampire tales as opposed to Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight or Cassandra Clare’s City of Bones. There’s no love interaction between humans and vampires here but rather no love at all, the way it should be.
Guillermo Del Toro (image source)
The plot revolves around a Boeing 777 passenger jet which lands at JFK Airport in New York City with all of its occupants “dead”. Only we find out that technically they are dead but as per the old school vampire tales rather more…un-dead. American government diseases expert Ephraim Goodweather is called in to assess the scene and, after cancelling out other possible causes of the deaths, figures out that New York City is in danger of being overrun with a plague of vampires, their disease spread through toxic worms which enter the blood stream through a bite or cut, rendering its host helpless to the irresistible scent of human blood. Goodweather enlists, or rather stumbles upon, the help of long time vampire hunter Abraham Setrakian a former Romanian university professor who has had dealings with the leader of the vampires in previous years, Nora Martinez, Ephraim’s right hand disease control lady and Visiliy Fet an extermination expert charged with controlling NYC’s rat problem, to try an stop the plague enveloping the city and eventually the world.
The vampires in the novel display traditional traits like adverse affects to silver, light and holy water etc but have a number of unique qualities also. These qualities come to the fore as the story unfolds, things like their mouth growing a “stinger” which protrudes at any chance of feeding, more zombie like actions while in their infancy and a particular interest in their own families once “turned”.
Del Toro and Hogan have created an enthralling tale and fans of the genre will be well satisfied at the conclusion and waiting in anticipation for the next instalment. Don’t expect any vampire sympathy though, the Pan’s Labyrinth oscar winning director and his co-author enlist none of that so Twilight fans, be warned…The Strain is not for the faint of heart.
Watch the book trailers:
The Jail Scene
The Dog Shed Scene
Read more from this writer:
The Ultimate Crime Scenes: Eight Thrillers to Keep You Captivated
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Nice…I love vamps and I also loved Twilight!!!!
This is interesting, and I may check on this book. The videos as well as your description were well laid out, great write, my friend. Have my liked it too.
A very interesting write with great videos. I have to check out the book.
eeeeek, too much for me, My granddaughter loves these vampire books.
I would much rather see this than twilight.
The ’stinger’ sounds really scary, even though it shouldn’t be. I suppose it’s because you expect vampires to bite and suck – not sting. Sounds good and scary!
sounds interesting…
“The Strain” is a fantastic read and a step back in time to traditional vampire tales as a pose to Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight”
that should really read “as opposed to…”. “a pose” makes no sense whatsoever.