Book Review: The Strain (48 in 2012? #7)

     There are some books that while I am reading them I see them playing out like a movie.  I imagine what the scene would look like and how the text could be slightly changed to work in its sister format.  The best example I can think of was World War Z,which I almost wrote a script for because the story was screaming for the big screen.  I couldn't help but picture how the action would play out and how the unique style of writing would work in a movie format.  I certainly wasn't the only one to see the book's potential because the movie is coming out later this year.  The Strain gave me that same feeling, but as I sat there reading, picturing the movie scenes in my head, I never fooled myself into thinking I could adapt it since it's co-author is one of the best movie makers out there, Guillermo del Toro.
     The Strain is an exceptional horror story.  It has you on the edge of your seat from the first few pages and never lets up.  The action is intense, the suspense is as good as any I've ever read.  It's yet another vampire book, yet it felt fresh and new in every way.  The authors treat vampires more like viruses then creatures of the night and give the transformation from human to monster a whole new mythology.  The creatures that haunt the pages of the book felt like a mixture of zombie and vampire and functioned in ways that have never been explained in other vampire book that I have read.
     It feels odd to say that someone is breathing new life and mythology into the vampire genre at this point in the game, but that's what The Strain has done.  This isn't your teenage daughter's vampire story.  This isn't Anne Rice or Charlaine Harris's vampire stories.  It is much closer to Bram Stoker then what we see today, but takes away all the mythology and superstition Stoker created.  It's a horror story, not a love story.  And I can't wait until del Toro comes out with the movie.