The Infinite Sea

“No hope without faith, no faith without hope, no love without trust, no trust without love. Remove one and the entire human house of cards collapses.”

4 STARS

Wow, now I'm questioning my relationship to rats and rocks. The Infinite Sea picks up pretty much where The Fifth Wave left off: Cassie and the crew escaping Camp Haven, Evan missing, and Vosch still somehow alive to annoy and creep out every scene with him. I think I liked the first book better, but this installment was still really entertaining and I can't wait for the next one! The Writing I think more so than The Fifth Wave, The Infinite Sea dealt with a lot of metaphors and existential questions. It seemed everything had a question lurking behind it, and I loved every bit of it. Though it maybe took a little while to sink in what was actually going on, it had a lot deeper meaning than the first book, which was really interesting to see from Yancey. Yancey often employs the stream of consciousness style of writing, and he didn't disappoint in this novel, especially with Cassie's sections. It isn't stilted or scripted, it almost seems like it's a real person that you've somehow mind melded with and you're experiencing their thoughts in real time. It creates a much stronger connection from characters to reader and I'll never cease to be impressed with it. My one question is how Yancey decides who gets first person perspective and who gets third. I think the mix sometimes confuses me, especially in the beginning when we started off in Ringer's first person POV and I read the first few pages thinking it was Cassie, making a loud 'HUH?' sound and then flipping back to the beginning to reread before things made sense again. I think I would have preferred either first person with indication as to who was speaking or all third person, but that's just to ease the confusion and smooth the read. The Characters As in the first book, the second keeps almost all the same characters, adding in a few new faces as well. Though I didn't really remember most of the codenames and kids in Ben's team, as I read they all came back to me. I think one of my favorite parts of Yancey's writing is that every character seems to be real in some undeniable way because as you picture them you can associate them with someone you know in real life, only in a different situation. I absolutely loved Cassie and Evan's relationship, with their banter, especially when Cassie was removing the bomb from the girl's throat, which turned a suspenseful scene into a reconnection between the two of them. I also really felt much more connected to Ringer (Marika) than in the last book, mainly because we got to see a lot of her perspective (a good chunk of the book in fact) and her hard edges seemed to soften into a relatable person by the end of it. The secondary characters were left in the background, but that isn't to say that I didn't feel connected to them too, because I did. I give all the kudos in the world to Yancey for making them not cookie cutter and holding their own among the main stars of the novel. The Story One of the best parts of this series is the reality of it. You can imagine this happening, you can see the characters as your friends and see all the horror of this world in waste, and it's a wonderful experience. My one problem with this book is that not much seemed to happen in it. It's a good deal shorter than the first and you can feel that in how little goes on. It's at most a transition novel. But it is by no means wasted. The story is divided into two main parts: Cassie, Ben, and the crew holed up in the hotel, and Ringer after she's captured spending weeks under experimentation with Vosch. It almost seemed like I was reading two different novels, which at times bothered me, but I got used to this quickly and moved on. The metaphors of this book are as crazy as its revelations. I think the most interesting part of the story was Vosch's insatiable need for Ringer to understand his point of view, of why the aliens came to Earth, and that everything is about risk. The main plot twist just about blew my mind, ripping everything I knew about the world and standing it on its head. This book centers on paranoia, and it does an excellent job getting you to trust absolutely nothing you read, and it's extremely entertaining with your thoughts ping-ponging between 'did that really just happen' to 'yeah I think it happened' to 'but what if they just want me to think it happened and it really didn't?' and on and on until your in circles. Though it wasn't as engaging and entertaining as the first book, The Infinite Sea is definitely worth the read! Share your thoughts!