Mary and O'Neil by Justin Cronin

by:  Justin Cronin
published by:  Dial Press
publish date:  January 2002

Mary and O’Neil frequently marveled at how, of all the lives they might have led, they had somehow found this one together. When they met at the Philadelphia high school where they’d come to teach, each had suffered a profound loss that had not healed. How likely was it that they could learn to trust, much less love, again?

In light of Justin Cronin's success with The Passage trilogy, his first books were re-released.  I was really interested in the audiobook for this one to see how it compared to The Passage despite completely different subject matter.

One of the things that I found intriguing was that even though it's a different book and a different audiobook narrator, it still sounded like Scott Brick reading The Passage at some points.  It was bizarre.  It made the point that Justin Cronin has a distinct voice.

This book was ok.  I didn't find that it was necessarily about Mary and O'Neil, but O'Neil and his sister Kay.  It seemed to be more about O'Neil and his healing process after losing his parents.  His sister Kay helped him through much of the time.

While I found the writing itself intriguing because I could compare it to The Passage, the story didn't necessarily wow me.  It was just so-so for me.  However, others might find it more enjoyable than I, so give it a try and let me know what you thought.