I was on the fence as to whether I would track down a copy of City of Mirrors for review or not. The good news is that I did. I had found myself lost and wandering away from The Twelve. I had really enjoyed The Passage, but - and perhaps it was the length of time between books - I had trouble locking into The Twelve and keeping up with what happened to characters I vaguely remembered. It was also excessively violent in spots.
City of Mirrors is again on par with The Passage. The characters are fleshed out with strong stories, the scenarios actually do have sensible goals and while the violence is there, it's much more on a plot growth level than chapter filler.
The novel hops around in time. First 3 years after the virals are "gone", then well over 100 years into the past to learn - over several chapters - about who Zero was before he turned. After those chapters, which did indeed keep you interested and invested, we shoot forward 23 years after the virals are wiped out. The characters are 20 years older and much has happened, but they are still vital and vibrant to the story.
Amy is in this book, but her existence, along with Carter's, was the one thing in the book that kept me with a quizzical look on my face. Yes, I know a book about vampires isn't based in reality, but so much of the book was realistic as to what might occur and regarding the actions of the humans, that the Amy chapters just seemed odd and jarring to me.
I don't want to say too much about the story itself as there's a lot of build-up to events that take place and I don't want to ruin that. But the main plot is that maybe the virals aren't really gone, and maybe there is a safe place humans can run to - just in case. Perhaps Amy can help.
One thing I enjoyed is that in the first chapters of The Twelve, an event happens in young Amy's life that is really never explained in that book, nor the next. It is finally fleshed out a bit more in the 3rd - not solved or completely explained, but explored in a bit more detail so that it doesn't seem like such a one-off in the story.
The ending left me pensive... but satisfied.
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Print Length: 624 pages
Publisher: Ballantine Books (May 24, 2016)
Publication Date: May 24, 2016
Sold by: Random House LLC
You followed The Passage. You faced The Twelve. Now enter The City of Mirrors for the final reckoning. As the bestselling epic races to its breathtaking finale, Justin Cronin’s band of hardened survivors await the second coming of unspeakable darkness.
The world we knew is gone. What world will rise in its place?
The Twelve have been destroyed and the terrifying hundred-year reign of darkness that descended upon the world has ended. The survivors are stepping outside their walls, determined to build society anew—and daring to dream of a hopeful future.
But far from them, in a dead metropolis, he waits: Zero. The First. Father of the Twelve. The anguish that shattered his human life haunts him, and the hatred spawned by his transformation burns bright. His fury will be quenched only when he destroys Amy—humanity’s only hope, the Girl from Nowhere who grew up to rise against him.
One last time light and dark will clash, and at last Amy and her friends will know their fate.