It started out good, very creepy and moody, but it just dragged on and on. The dust jacked talked about them boarding a "dead" airplane and finding something shocking, and I had assumed that would happen fairly early in the book. But it took them something like half the book to get in the plane!

After that, all of the fighting off hoards of vampire scenes were repetitive; none of them felt unique or memorable.

For me, the best part of del Toro's movies are the visuals, which are lost in the book.

I may check this out, though, since you mentioned it has more emphasis on action and is fast-moving. I haven't read The Strain since it came out, though, and I sold my copy to Half-Price Books so I probably won't remember most of the characters and minor events from the first book.