I would not recommend City of Mirrors to be used as part of a classroom curriculum. However, this was a great book to conclude a trilogy. A few of my students had read this as well and loved it. We have it in my classroom library.

Justin Cronin finishes off his epic, The Passage, trilogy with <em>The City of Mirrors</em>.

Time has passed since 'The Twelve' got their butts kicked. Life is good and the sense of real community is growing again. Amy is missing but she is being seen in peoples' dreams. And we get to know Zero.

We really get to know Zero.

Zero, once known as Timothy J. Fanning, was the original viral, the original vampire, who started what became the end of the world, is now 150 years old and he wants people to know his story.  And if you're a 150 year old vampire, father to all the other vampires, you get what you want. Which means we have to listen in.  And Zero's story, only about a quarter of this book, at nearly 200 pages, is a book in itself.

He gives us a bit of a sob story, but what he really wants is to face off against Amy - Amy, the savior of humanity if she can win the final battle. But where is Amy?  Will she actually appear?

And surrounding this novel-within-a-novel, we get a bunch of other stories - a wrap up of humanity.

I thought that the first book in this series was great - filled with excitement and danger, with a ton of questions.  It made me eager to read the second book.  But that second book really felt rough to me.  This one feels just as rough, but in a different way.  Here we have the last book in a very long series, which took a number of years to complete, and it feels like too much effort went in to making sure everything was wrapped up nicely ... <em>combined</em> with a backstory that didn't get told in the previous 1300 pages of story.

Maybe it's because the story of these people wasn't very fresh in my head (sorry, but I was not going to go back and reread those first two books) but I kind of didn't care too much through most of the book.  There were moments, however (just as with the previous volume), that were really fascinating. The question about Amy - what happened to her, where is she, will she face off against Zero?  - kept me going here. But this is a damned long book for just this.

I definitely feel like I jumped on the bandwagon with this book.  The first book was really good and it got a lot of good publicity.  Many of us were eager - desperate even - to read the follow up.  And then we felt committed.  We'd spent hours reading a lot of pages. It was just going to be a waste of time if we didn't read to the conclusion, right?

I think I need a t-shirt that reads "I read all of The Passage series"

Looking for a good book? <em>The City of Mirrors</em> by Justin Cronin concludes a series, and if you've read the first two books you might want to finish it off.  On the other hand, you could go on and read three other books with a better chance that you'll find satisfaction with one of them.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

The finale to this series was epic. The author is a great writer and weaves a fantastic story with great characters.

Excellent end to the series.  It's hard to review just this book alone.  So I will say that starting out with The Passage, I could never have predicted where the story would end up.

I waited a really long time for this book to be released, and then life happened so I waited even longer to read it.  Maybe that's why I didn't enjoy it as much as I hoped?  Because I had read the first two books in the trilogy so long ago?

There were parts of the book that I really enjoyed - Zero's back story; most of the ending.  And there were parts that I found myself zoning out and I was completely bored.  

This is a LONG book and while in some ways it felt like there was way too much information, in other ways I felt like it was rushed.  

Am I satisfied with the ending?  Mostly.  I still have a few questions, but I'm okay with where the story went.

Loved this book so much - excellent ending to the trilogy. There were parts where I was actually creeped out sitting in my house or driving around town!

I don't know if its just been too long since I read the first two books but this one felt like a chore to get through. It jumped around so much that half of the time I had no idea what was going on and seemed much longer than was necessary. 
The second half did pick up though and I'm glad I stuck with it to learn the fate of the characters, humanity and the world.

An emotionally satisfying end to this trilogy, which I am still recommending years later. I'm haunted by certain scenes and characters to this day. Definitely worth reading. 
(I'll be interested to see how the TV adaptation pans out--so much of this story seems fairly big budget for a weekly show.)

The City of Mirrors is all that readers of The Passage trilogy could hope for.  Fine writing and a thrilling plot provide an ending that checks all the boxes and makes this trilogy a must read for fantasy fans.

A solid ending to a superb trilogy. I'm looking forward to the TV show based on this trilogy. Justin Cronin can spin a good yarn.

WHY DID I LISTEN TO CITY OF MIRRORS BY JUSTIN CRONIN?
City Of Mirrors by Justin Cronin is the FINAL book in the Passage trilogy. Friends, this must be my year for finishing series and trilogies and the like. I am liking this trend with my reading. It is pretty excellent know how something ends and then that feeling of wrapping things up. I know I kept putting City Of Mirrors off because despite really liking The Passage, I was a little bit meh on The Twelve. Maybe it was some sophomore slump? Anyways I kept avoiding this for different reasons BUT THEN as it turns out, I had no other Netgalley books that are also audiobooks through my library’s overdrive. So, almost thirty days later here we are. I have FINALLY read and listened to this book and now I know what happens.

WHAT’S THE STORY HERE?
City Of Mirrors picks up years after The Twelve ends. It opens up with Alicia Donadio giving birth to a stillborn. She’s grieving, rightfully so. Anyways, then we see that Peter is basically president of Kerrville, Texas where one hundred thousand people are living. People think that the virals are over, right. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. Zero is still around. Anyways, there’s murder and mayhem. Amy’s character is kind of in stasis. Then there’s Michael who plans to put people on a ship and bring them to a safe island in the middle of the ocean. We get to learn Zero’s back story – how he used to be Tim and why he went totally around the bend (it has to do with a woman). And well, we get to find out how it was that humanity survived.

WHAT DID I THINK OF CITY OF MIRRORS?
Overall, this is such an action packed book. I was kind of on edge while listening – mainly because I know how horror and dystopian books work. You think you’re safe and settled. BAM! Something bad happens. And my goodness, a LOT of bad things happen in this book. Thankfully, there’s hope too, because otherwise this would be so dreary. Although, okay there’s a few scenes involving infants at the scene of murders and that, as a mother, was really tough to listen to. Oh, and I liked that City Of Mirrors finally goes through Zero’s backstory. I like when a villain is given more depth. And well, I also liked that FINALLY the story is wrapped up.

HOW’S THE NARRATION?
Justin Cronin’s City Of Mirrors is narrated by Scott Brick. Thankfully, I already like Scott Brick’s narration. Otherwise, I am not sure I would have been able to make it through nearly 30 hours of audiobook — even sped up, that’s a lot. The narration goes well with the story. Brick’s voice doesn’t sound jacked up when I speed up the narration (I cannot abide slow narration these days). In all, a good audiobook experience.

I loved the final chapter of the "Passage" trilogy. Such a fitting ending for Amy, Michael, Peter, Alicia and Fanning. 

The Fanning chapters of the book were among my favorite. of the entire book. 

I hope Cronin decides to write a followup book  for the survivors that explore the North America for the first time since the 1,000 year quarantine.

"You followed The Passage. You faced The Twelve. Now enter The City of Mirrors for the final reckoning. As the bestselling epic races to its breathtaking finale, Justin Cronin’s band of hardened survivors await the second coming of unspeakable darkness.

The world we knew is gone. What world will rise in its place?

The Twelve have been destroyed and the terrifying hundred-year reign of darkness that descended upon the world has ended. The survivors are stepping outside their walls, determined to build society anew—and daring to dream of a hopeful future.

But far from them, in a dead metropolis, he waits: Zero. The First. Father of the Twelve. The anguish that shattered his human life haunts him, and the hatred spawned by his transformation burns bright. His fury will be quenched only when he destroys Amy—humanity’s only hope, the Girl from Nowhere who grew up to rise against him.

One last time light and dark will clash, and at last Amy and her friends will know their fate."

Just me, sitting here, waiting for the final book to start the series... yes, it's time to start it!

A very satisfying conclusion to Justin Cronin's epic trilogy!  I couldn't put it down and was very content with the way he wrapped up this series, and I really enjoyed the interesting "time jump" in the end.  I love his story, his characters and his writing style and this is one of those rare books that I never want to end.  I hope we are lucky enough to get another inventive series out of him in the near future!

I enjoyed the series and this was a good resolution to the story.

hird and final volume of the Passage trilogy. I think this was my favorite of the three. Edge of your seat, bite your nails kind of action in the second half, that I just couldn't put down. I am glad I found them late because I had a hard time keeping track of everybody in the second book and I read them back to back. I was glad to have some backstory on Zero and that all lose ends were tied up. I think this will be awesome as a movie! Thank you to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for the ARC

A brilliant conclusion to a fantastic trilogy. If you love horror you have got to read the Passage trilogy. It will restore your faith in the horror genre.

I really enjoyed previous books in this series, but this one was a DNF. Just couldn't get it into it for some reason.

The City of Mirrors by Justin Cronin is book three of The Passage series and if you have not yet read The Passage then you cannot be a true horror fan. The Passage and it's horrifying sequel, The Twelve, rolled back the current deluge of horror/teen romance novels and brought back a creature of such horror and evil that we had forgotten to fear the dark. The bloodthirsty and ravenous vampire in all its base forms. The Virals. The City of Mirrors brings us full circle, from the horror of the Virals, to the horror of humanity and finally to the one who began it all. To the first Viral, to Zero.

"...The first handful of soil was the hardest. How did one do it? Alicia had buried many men. Some she'd known, and some she hadn't; only one she'd loved. The boy, Hightop. So funny, so alive, then gone. She let the dirt sift through her fingers. It struck the cloth with a pattering sound, like the first spits of rain upon leaves. Bit by bit her daughter disappeared..."

The hundred reign of the Virals was over with the destruction of the Twelve. Amy and her crew had succeeded in destroying them and wiping the scourge from the face of the Earth. Now humanity had the chance to rebuild, to take back their world. Alicia Donadio had disappeared as well as Amy. Peter Jaxon was left to resume a civilian life as he no longer was needed to hunt the creatures. Mankind, or at least what was left of if began to believe that their world was once again safe.

But Alicia Donadio, Alicia of Blades, knew better. After burying the baby concieved from the brutal captivity and rape of her body, she wants to lay down and die. She is changing. The blood of the Virals course through her but she is becoming something far different than what they were. But death does not come to her. It calls instead. A voice calling her to the ruins of the city of New York. To a place where he waits.

Amy knew this as well. As she turns into the monster that she destroyed, hidden deep in the bowels of a ship with Carter, the last to Twelve, she waits. She too hears the call and knows that the age of the Virals is not finished. But will there be enough left of the human girl to fight? Or will she be another beast that feeds on the blood of children?

Peter Jaxon, the Man of Days, has put away his weapons and seeks peace in his time. He has lost his family and the woman he loved in Amy. Now he looks to rebuild the world for the future that is to come. For the children who will not know of the demons that hunt in the dark. Of the Virals that no longer walk the Earth. But he is wrong. Far away from Peter's new world he waits.

In a dead city, he waits: Zero. The First. The Father of the Twelve. Surrounded by the memories of his human life and with a burning hatred for the girl who destroyed his Twelve. Amy, humanity's only hope, The Girl From Nowhere who rose up and dared to battle against him. The demon who was once a man, a man called Fanning.

Zero who waits. Waits for Alicia. Waits for Amy. Waits to take his revenge on all of humanity. Zero.

"...Amy thought for a moment, then shook her head. 'I can't tell. She's very sad. But it's like there's a locked box inside her. I can't get past it.' Their eyes met again. 'She needs you to trust her. Peter. I'm one side of her; Fanning's the other. Between us, there's you. It's you she's really here to see. She needs to know who she is. Not just who she is: what she is.'
'So what is she?'
'What she always was. Part of this, part of us. You're her family, Peter. You have been from the start. She needs to know that you still are.'
Peter felt the truth of her words. But knowing something was not the same thing as believing it. That was the hell of it, he thought.
'You're not going with her,' he said. 'I can't allow it.'
'You may not have a choice about that. Alicia's right, the city can't stand indefinitely. Sooner or later, I'll have to face him..."

In The Passage, Cronin revealed his vision of horror and fans of true horror were terrified and joyful. In The Twelve he then made his Virals second to the horror of mankind itself. A crisis, it is said brings out the best and worst in people and in The Twelve we saw the worst of mankind. Now in City of Mirrors he does the one thing we could not have ever expected. The riskiest option open to the author of a successful trilogy. He humanizes the evil itself and has us almost feeling sorry for the man that became Zero. Yes we can almost feel his pain and grief so much that we say; Yes, you are right! Mankind needs to be destroyed in the darkest and most bloody way possible. Yes we feel you Zero! 

Almost. 

Thankfully there is Amy and the hope she brings to the tale. A hope that is lost through most of the early telling as she is reduced to the Viral creature that must be kept sealed in a ship's hull and fed bottles of blood. There is Alicia, torn between the loyalty to Peter and Amy and the anguish of the lost baby she gave birth to. A baby who she could not mourn until she came to Zero. 

Then there is the man, Fanning and this is truly his story. A brilliant man whose only love dies. Then in his grief, he commits an unforgivable act that leads him to flee the country and into the darkness that turns him into the creature that wages war on humanity. Cronin creates in Fanning a sympathetic character in Fanning. The brilliant boy who could not earn the love of his father, the man who could not earn the love of the woman he loved and finally, the creature whose desire to save the world is perverted into a raging hatred for it. He is equal parts, the dark and demonic vampire and in turn, a sort of Frankenstein's monster who turns on what created him and seeks its destruction.

City of Mirrors is brilliant. A fitting and challenging ending to the tale that began with the Passage. If you love horror, you have to find this trilogy and read it. It will restore your faith in the things that go bump in the night.

Great conclusion to the series. The novella piece was especially enjoyable. Can’t wait for more from this author!