Title: The Strain (Strain #1)

Author: Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogen

Publisher: Harper 2009

Genre: Horror

Pages: 585

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Mount TBR; New Author; 52 Books -- W21; Well Rounded Reader -- Horror; Chunkster

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.

Holy crap that was one crazy ride! I've forgotten how much I enjoy horror adventure novels. This one started out strong with a dead plane on the runaway and kept running toward the climatic battle against The Master. It did not stop. I loved all the atmosphere in the beginning. I loved following Eph and Nora as they attempt to understand what "killed" an entire airplane full of people. Even though the reader knows what is happening, I was still right there with them through the initial puzzling stages. And then when everything hit the fan, the book really came into its own. This is one terrifying ride. I can't wait to read the next in the series.

Strain Trilogy

#1 The Strain
#2 The Fall
#3 Night Eternal