The Strain by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan (Vampire Book Review)

The Strain is a great new horror book from Hellboy writer/director Guillermo del Toro and author Chuck Hogan. This is to be the first part of a trilogy about a plague of vampires that threaten to decimate humankind. I hope this gets made into a movie, because it is really that good.

The story begins with a plane landing at an airport, then all the lights go out and nobody at the tower can get a response from anyone inside. Authorities are called in, and they open up the plane to find nearly everyone inside dead. A few survivors are found to be breathing, but it is as if everyone else just stopped living. The police can't make any sense of the situation, so they call in the CDC (Center for Disease Control) to inspect.

As the plot slowly unfolds, the CDC people come to realize that a plague has been unleashed upon the world, and this blood-borne pathogen turns people into zombie-like flesh eaters who eventually become full blown vampires. By the time the people in charge figure out what is going on, it's nearly too late. Bodies are piling up, attacks are being reported all over the city, entire neighborhoods are being taken over, and nobody knows just how to deal with a situation like this.

In many ways, this book is more about zombies than vampires. I liked how it treats vampirism as a disease and actually spends some time using medical explanations for the physical transformation that takes place after someone gets infected by 'the strain'. The supernatural side of vampire lore is mostly ignored in this book, and instead it relies on portraying the infected as bloodthirsty diseased savages, but not as witless as a zombie. It's an interesting spin on the genre.

Since it is about people getting turned into monsters that like to eat people, you can expect plenty of gore and violence in this story. There are several scenes where someone goes into a home to look for someone and ends up fighting for their lives. Most of the action takes place indoors or in enclosed areas, though there are a few scenes out in the open. I think this was done to convey the idea that the strain hasn't yet fully broken out, and public awareness isn't quite there.

If you like a good horror story about monsters, then you'll dig The Strain. The scale upon which this book aspires is epic, and it's just the first part of a trilogy. The next two books will be released over the next two years, and I am really looking forward to them.