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Nocturna (2009)

by Guillermo del Toro(Favorite Author)

3.75 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

0061787175 (ISBN13: 9780061787171)

languge

English

genre

Horror

publisher

Rayo

series

The Strain Trilogy

review 1: OverviewWhat is more interesting that a vampiric-zombie virus spreading discreetly throughout New York like rumors around a high school? Well, I can name quite a few things, hence the reason The Strain hadn’t suited my fancy as much as I had hoped. After watching the first season of The Strain on FX (Book 1 of The Strain Trilogy), I had high hopes of what I might be able to find in the book. Yes, I understand I went out of order, TV show before book, blah, blah, blah! But that doesn’t take away from the fact the book did not do the greatest job explaining a very interesting and conceptual story. And seeing as it was coming from Guillermo Del Toro (Director of Hellboy, Pacific Rim, Pan’s Labyrinth, Co-Director of The Hobbit...etc), I expected a bizarre and intriguing ... morestory, which he has managed to do. But his whole movie business seemed to be working for him better than his writing business. Here is what you can expect from this book:Story and Plot LayoutAs I have mentioned before, this story involves a vampire virus spreading through New York with very few people actually knowing of it, the rest of the population in denial that anything is even wrong. A more complex idea because we have 3 antagonists in the story that are all affiliated with each other. The very first being broad, the entire virus itself: the way it spreads, the effects it has and the damage it causes. Here is where things get different, this entire virus has one main “host” who can control each individual “zombie-vampire” and if the “host” dies, all the bloodworm viruses die too. The “host” being a supernatural creature, large in size, extremely fast, highly intelligent and it burns in daylight. He is our second antagonist. The final antagonist is the man who set the whole plan in motion, Eldritch Palmer. An onlooker at his health “Might have thought that they were witnessing what was the last days or weeks, judging by the sprawling 17 acre estate, of a very successful life” (Toro 22). The wealthy owner of a very successful business, who has the money and resources to give the virus a jumpstart to begin destroying humanity. Why would he do such a thing? SPOILER ALERT!!! To gain immortality, the “host” is able to grant him vampire-like abilities, while still keeping his conscious and thoughts. SPOILER OVER! We will get onto the protagonist main characters later, but now is story and plot.The plot starts off with a very interesting hook and grab. A plane is stuck in the taxiway after just having landed, all the electronics have gone dead, and so have the passengers. All except 4, the same 4 who will unintentionally go home and start the spread. Interesting idea? Yes of course, but spending 150 pages on just this one idea is far too long in a 400 page book in my own opinion. To the point I was ready to put the book down. Later on in the plot, we have random, unnecessary events with no significant meaning to the plot, only just to distract the reader and make the book longer. Events such as the solar eclipse, which of course we now know is an “occulation” due to overuse of this term, the rats moving in the sewers, and inclusion of a young boy created even more useless hurdles. “The term ‘solar eclipse’ is in fact a misnomer… The proper term is ‘occultation’” (Toro 77). Seriously, why must I know this to better understand the book? Besides all that, the ending left much room for the 2nd book to begin, but up until the end was a mumble-jumble of all my recent ideas, all mixed together.The last thing I have to say about plot and structure before moving on with my ideas is the odd layout of the book. Making frequent jumps between characters, locations, events and even jumping into past events. It got very confusing because although we knew the jumps happened, we didn’t know who was the new character, place or event of focus if it wasn’t already directly said.Characters We have already discussed the 3 antagonists of this story, but now we approach the multitude of protagonists. Quickly said, we have 2 CDC workers (One being the leader of operations in NY), one of these workers’ child, an old and surprisingly skillful Holocaust survivor, an exterminator, and a hacker. Odd bunch, surprisingly are all coincidentally very good at killing “zombie-vampires”. The first character, and our main one, is Eph Goodweather, the leader of CDC operations in New York. He has divorced his wife, leaving him with his son, Zach, who proves to be a burden throughout many difficult and badly-timed tasks. Next we have Eph’s girlfriend, Nora, another CDC worker who appears wise but seldom speaks. Later on, we meet her elderly mother, who also happens to be weak, frail, and has alzheimer's. Yet another burden, but not for long… (I will not say directly what happens, you can probably guess). Our Holocaust survivor is next, Abraham Setrakian. A bad-butt (Replace butt with a similar word) old dude, who brandishes a cane that also doubles as a silver sword, 3 feet in length. Very skillful with the virus, because he has encountered it before in his young age. Next is the exterminator, who doesn't’ have any special ability or interest, side for the fact he is good at killing the vampires. Our last character is the hacker. She took down all the phones and internet for Eldritch Palmer, thinking it was just for one of his business schemes. After realizing his true intentions, she sided with Eph and his team. That concludes our wacky bunch of characters we met in book one, including the 3 antagonists were mentioned earlier.Theme and True Meaning This section is highly opinion based, and could be different based on the reader. I believe Guillermo Del Toro’s true meaning, shrouded within the text, is the idea of human nature and it’s incredible urge to survive, doing anything that gets in it’s way. Tasks such as (SPOILER!!) Nora killing her own mother after she had been infected with the virus (COAST CLEAR). Although this meaning is taught and interpreted through a dark and gruesome story, it still exists. The concept of having these “meanings” is done often with Guillermo Del Toro, even using the very same message in this book as in a few of his movies.Overall Thoughts This is a highly entertaining book, reading it is a good way of spending your time. But if you are going to judge it based on it’s writing quality and style, this would only get a “B” or so in that category. It would also get an “A” in the story department, and another “B” in the character department. Giving the story a solid 3.5 stars in my opinion (Sadly Goodreads has no .5 star to it.). A 7 out of 10 in total, and a good 10-15 hours reading the story. A new concept, bringing originality and creativity. A very common aspect to Guillermo Del Toro. Now tell your friends, and make this book spread amongst your friends as the virus had spread to the New Yorkers.
review 2: As a fan of del Toro I was intrigued by the premise of the book. Vampires... ugh, aren't we sick of them yet? But the idea that vampirism acts like a transmittable virus... that's cool! I devoured all three books in the series and really enjoyed the apocalyptic decimation of humanity, aided by something scarily familiar - the sway of all media that has been corrupted. The TV series that came out this last Summer has been fairly loyal to the books and I hope it is allowed to continue through the end. less

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