Mystery/Thriller Reading Friends discussion

The Twelve by Justin Cronin. This is the second in the trilogy begun in The Passage.

Since spoilers are allowed please only post contents related to the part referenced in the title. The first person posting might want to do a brief summary of what happens in the section, so we can be reminded of when to start (and stop) posting, contents-wise.

Part VI The Insurgent
What a relief to realize Sara is alive. I had wondered when they said she just disappeared and might have been taken up.
Chapter 36 Sara!!!
Chapter 37 OMG it's Guilder
Chapter 38 Jackie is gone and the world blows up
Chapter 39 Lila, it is Lila
Chapter 40 Eustace and the Insurgents

So Sara's story picks up after Roswell. She describes horrendous conditions, almost total loss of any human feelings and emotions and utter despair at the treatment they are receiving. Eight hundred people stacked like that in a building. We meet Jackie an older prisoner and several of the Col's - it was so sad when she revealed that she lost her baby, Kate in childbirth (or did she, is Kate really dead?)

Good grief, that slimy Horace Guilder seems to have achieved his immortality and has taken over all of these imprisoned people who are either sentenced to the work farms or to the feed lots for the Virals I do not in any way form or fashion like this creep. We learn a bit more about how the virus works on these people who are not the twelve, are not really full Virals but are hybrids of some sort, they seem to drink blood and crave it

Sara is losing her ability to function for fear of what may happen to Jackie. When she disappears overnight she goes looking with a trick to get herself taken to the hospital. She is resourceful, but doesn't really have a plan. Why does she think this will work. I guess she was just desperate to save her only friend. She had mentioned seeing a few people she knew, but no one is friendly, they can't be. The terror cell Insurgents are suicide bombing to attack the cols and Guilder's men, Sara is almost blown up, but is spirited away underground.
... The suicide bombings IMHO are a jarring element.

Lila is still trying to live in a fantasy world. I wonder where Grey is now Guilder mentions him at the end of chapter 39 "That man can eat" Guilder has evidently been using Lila as a lure to bring people to him to be enslaved. He is ashamed of how little control of the Virals he has when Lila has them kneeling at her feet.

Finally Sara learns who the Insurgents really are, her friend Eustace is leading them. Their trend towards suicide bombers scares me for Sara. What is Eustace planning and will Sara be in harms way? I know she hates the Virals and their captors, but I keep hoping for a rescue or reunion with some of her old pals, and for Michael to get his sister back.

There were slow spots in this part, hope none in the next. Guilder bores me and I just want Cronin to start explaining the Virals and the Twelve more.

i love your summaries of each chapter, ann.

Very perceptive comments, Ann. This book took a lot of patience to read. The movement between groups of characters, the overlay of the Twelve, Amy, etc., plus the unknown factors involved in the ambush makes it necessary to sit back and wait for the necessary information to understand what's happening.

I don't like guilder at all. The sara, alicia, michael and lila sections seem to go the the best for me. when I get to a guilder section I just want to over with but now they are important to the storyline.
I'm up to book IX chapter 55. so 112 left to read to the end. part of me wants to read another section today because I have a eye exam tomorrow I know after having my eyes dilated the eyes aren't going to be good for much reading.
I keep hoping certain people come together but with it being part of a trilogy I don't count on much coming together in this book.
it's going to be a hard book to put a rating on.

Dan: Oh yes, this book (and the last) do take some patience to read, I think that is why for me an audio experience is best. The structure of my listening times makes me find the patience to read and then have the opportunity to reflect between commute windows. I know it is a good day when I want to listen to a bit more at home after work, but either way, it is an interesting way to pass the time in traffic.

It's easy to put down the book. You are good with audios ann, I can't seem to get into doing those. maybe when I start the shore thing this year I'll give it another try.

last night when my nook got down to 30 and I knew I wanted to still get more reading in I was able to get another section of the book done So I'm up to X chapter 58. From what I can tell of the remaining 4 books one of them is alot longer than the other's. so there are 3 shorter and one longer. I'll see how my eyes feel this afternoon.

So many questions for me. I am posting them before reading folks' comments, you may well have figured stuff out.

Wish we knew more about where Sara was when she was captured, and why Hollis was somewhere else. Sara was another I had forgotten about entirely, I can't come up with her role in The Passage. I probably should have read the Cliff's Notes version before I started The Twelve but too late now.

Also would have liked more about how Guilder went from a pitiful man who kidnapped Lila and Grey to the leader of a major encampment. What is his role exactly? Is he connected with the government, represented by the female President? Is he in some outpost and the only representative of the law there? I couldn't quite figure it out.

And who the heck is Sergio?

The developments with Lila are confusing also. Guilder mentions that she is the only one of those who tasted blood who could control the virals. So when did people get the idea to start drinking the blood? And how did they learn that Lila could control the virals? Again, I wish we had seen some of this unfold, it's disconcerting for Cronin to skip major events and have us introduced to a new reality after the fact. Or maybe disconcerting isn't the word, more like confusing.

Also interesting that they discovered that if they "kept Lila in babies" she remained under control. Spoiler to the next part I think: (view spoiler)[ At first I thought that meant that they kept her pregnant, but after the next Part I think, it's clear that they find her children to "mother." (hide spoiler)]

Ann, I am finding the audio alone a mixed bag. Luckily I have an ARC and can refer to it when I am posting (I'd never remember stuff otherwise.) The audio is good but there is so much rushed through that I can barely keep up with the action. On the other hand, I was listening to a future part in the car today and was so engrossed that when I looked at the road signs on the highway I was traveling on I was confused -- thought I was heading in one direction and I was really on my return trip. it took me a minute to remember where I was and at that point I switched to music on the radio.. I do not need to become a road statistic! So I guess that shows how engrossing the audio is, but I'm glad I have the book to back me up.


Ann wrote: "Oh yes, this book (and the last) do take some patience to read, I think that is why for me an audio experience is best. The structure of my listening times makes me find the patience to read and then have the opportunity to reflect between commute windows. I know it is a good day when I want to listen to a bit more at home after work, but either way, it is an interesting way to pass the time in traffic. ."

i was confused enough with reading the book/nook I can't imagine what it's like to listen to it on audio. but I guess when you are used to audios it wouldn't bother you.

Carol:
I hear you on loving how an audio makes the time fly while driving and then realizing you missed the exit where you meant to make a stop for something along the usual route home. We don't want to be a road statistic! In heavy traffic I will sometimes turn an audio off but that is usually because I am ignoring it, my driving alerts take over.
Carol/Bonadie wrote: "Ann, I am finding the audio alone a mixed bag. Luckily I have an ARC and can refer to it when I am posting (I'd never remember stuff otherwise.)
I was listening to a future part in the car today and was so engrossed that when I looked at the road signs on the highway I was traveling on I was confused -- thought I was heading in one direction and I was really on my return trip. it took me a minute to remember where I was and at that point I switched to music on the radio.. I do not need to become a road statistic! So I guess that shows how engrossing the audio is, but I'm glad I have the book to back me up.
"

Carol: The part I remember most vividly about Sara from The Passage was how her diary had been found and was read to a very strong effect years and years after the events. (deeply moving on the audio)
I agree, we need more details about how they each ended up here in The Twelve. I had gone back and read our The Passage spoiler threads here before starting the Twelve and that helped some to re-read the questions I had at the end of it.
Hmm, lots of questions. I like it! Like Dan said, this book takes patience to read and attempt to put it all together.

Carol/Bonadie wrote: Wish we knew more about where Sara was when she was captured, and why Hollis was somewhere else. Sara was another I had forgotten about entirely, I can't come up with her role in The Passage."

I found it interesting that Ann was calling creatures like Lila 'hybrids' since that was the term I ascribed to them as well.
In some ways, this chapter gives the foundation of hope, in that many people we thought were dead are not, and are also not beyond salvation.
Enough people we hate have gone viral (or hybrid viral) that we will not feel bad if they get their just desserts.
Guilder- I believe there was heavy foreshadowing earlier in the book that he intended to get infected to save himself from certain death.

Carol:not sure at what point you posted your comments. Sergio is not a person, he is an idea, the insurrection, personified with a name.
I don;t expect to learn that much more about the manner in which Sara was taken than what we already have.
I do expect at some time to come, the diverse surviving human interests will begin to coalesce.

Barry: You are right about Sergio. I think at this point in the novel I was wondering if the name related to someone real, living or dead, or where it came from.

I agree Barry, learning that some people had not yet gone beyond salvation was a much appreciated harbinger of hope in this segment. I was extremely glad to see Sara was alive.