Library Journal

A human-created virus has infected humankind, mutating most into superstrong, near-immortal vampiric creatures. The "virals"?also called "jumpers" and "dracs" (after Dracula, of course)?can leap 20 feet through the air at a bound and split a human (or a horse, or a cow) in half with their bare hands. A small band of men and women embark on a cross-country trek, looking for a way to protect the few remaining uninfected humans from extinction. With them travels an enigmatic prepubescent girl who talks to the virals with her mind and seems to have been born 100 years before. VERDICT The monsters in this compulsive nail biter are the scariest in fiction since Stephen King's vampires in Salem's Lot. Although the novel runs 700 pages, Cronin is a master at building tension, and he never wastes words. Shout it from the hills! This exceptional thriller should be one of the most popular novels this year and will draw in readers everywhere. [See a profile of Cronin in "Editors' Spring Picks," LJ 2/15/10; see also Prepub Alert, LJ 2/15/10; 15-city author tour.]?David Keymer, Modesto, CA