The Infinite Sea (The Fifth Wave #2)

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Author(s)

Rick Yancey

Publisher

Putnam Juvenile

Genre(s)

Age Range

14+

Release Date

September 16, 2014

ISBN

978-0399162428

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The riveting follow-up to the New York Times bestselling The 5th Wave, hailed by Justin Cronin as “wildly entertaining.” How do you rid the Earth of seven billion humans? Rid the humans of their humanity. Surviving the first four waves was nearly impossible. Now Cassie Sullivan finds herself in a new world, a world in which the fundamental trust that binds us together is gone. As the 5th Wave rolls across the landscape, Cassie, Ben, and Ringer are forced to confront the Others’ ultimate goal: the extermination of the human race. Cassie and her friends haven’t seen the depths to which the Others will sink, nor have the Others seen the heights to which humanity will rise, in the ultimate battle between life and death, hope and despair, love and hate.

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2 reviews

Not Quite The Story I Was Expecting

September 15, 2014

Overall rating

3.0

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A HUGE thank you to Penguin for sending me a copy of this book! I was SO excited and SO surprised when this showed up on my doorstep the other day. (There may have been a lot of screaming.)

I went into THE INFINITE SEA wanting to know one thing: WHAT HAPPENED TO EVAN WALKER BECAUSE HOLY FREAKING ALIENS EVERYWHERE THE ENDING OF THE FIFTH WAVE WAS LIKE...WHAT EVEN?!

Actually, I had a few other unanswered questions too, but still. Evan. I needed to know what happened to him.

I expected THE INFINITE SEA to pick up where THE FIFTH WAVE left off, with Cassie anxious to find out what happened to Evan, and figuring out how to save humanity. So you can imagine my surprise when that didn't happen. In fact, the story opens with Ringer, a character I barely remembered from book one and honestly, didn't care all that much about. My bad. Because we end up spending 70% of the book with her.

Yes, we find out what happened to Evan.
Eventually.
And yes, we catch up with Cassie, Ben, Sam, Poundcake and Dumbo. But if you go into this expecting some kind of epic humalien reunion with lots of romance and lots of kissing, well---good luck with that.

As with THE FIFTH WAVE, there are multiple POVs that not only alternate between characters but switch tense too. (You risk getting lost if you aren't paying attention.) The action is sporadic and the intensity doesn't kick up until about the halfway mark. But even then it doesn't last long. We do find out what's really going on with Vosch and the Others, but only after wading through copious amounts of superfluous information and metaphors that employ the title of the book which was far more confusing than it was helpful.

And then there was the moment that won the award for Most Creative Escape Tactic Ever. And by creative, I mean, I just threw up in my mouth a little bit.

That was followed by a sequence of events that confused me even more--are we really doing this or is this just another metaphor for humanity because I can't really tell--and made me question what in the Hades these characters were thinking?!
And then it was over.
Finished.
Done.

As with Rick Yancey's other works, the writing in THE INFINITE SEA is impeccable, but the characters weren't as engaging as they were in THE FIFTH WAVE. I was also under the impression that this was a duology, but apparently, a third book is in the works. Good thing too, because while I am EXTREMELY grateful to have had the chance to read this early, I am frustrated. I feel like this was a filler book with parts that could have been included in book one or cut altogether, and now I'm right back where I started.
Again.

Jen Top 10 Reviewer 415 reviews

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This was an amazing sequel!

May 30, 2016 (Updated: May 30, 2016)

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4.0

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This book was a great sequel. I already loved the first book and this was also amazing. Although I forgot a bit from the first book it wasn't hard to get back into at all.

It's also way more fast paced than the first book, with almost nonstop action through about the first half of the book. That and it's length made it really easy to read really quickly for me. I was pulled in from the start and couldn't stop reading from there. But still, I got confused in a lot of places, especially from Ringers narrative. I understood everything in the end but she thought about problems and said things that I took me a while to understand (but then again, maybe I'm the stupid one here:)).

Other than in the 5th Wave Ringer is the main narrative and in the course of this book I grew to love her more and more. She is a incredibly complex character and every time I thought I had figured her out she did or thought something I totally didn't expect.
There is so much more to her character than just strength. She is tough and strong, sure, but she is also smart , flirty and, even though she never smiles, really funny. In this book a lot about her past is revealed which explains a lot about how she is now.
Another character that got way more depth in this book is Poundcake. For me he wasn't really a remarkable character in the 5th Wave but in this book he also gets a lot more complex and interesting.
Unfortunately Cassie doesn't have the same character development as lots of the other characters. In the first book I thought of her as one of the strongest and most likable characters but here most of her attention was on Evan and even though I still like her she didn't seem as the strong, great character I loved in the 5th Wave.

There are a lot of sequels where nothing important really happens but that wasn't the case here at all. A lot of important things I thought I knew after reading the first book turned out to completely irrelevant or just false. There are also a lot of plot twists for a book this short and for most of them I didn't see them coming at all.

I hope I can get to the third book soon (which just came out a week ago!!!) because I really need to know what happens next and how Rick Yancey will wrap up this trilogy. I hope I'll like Cassie more in the next book and look forward to read more about Ringer.

To read more book reviews, follow my blog: http://meandmybookishwonderland.blogspot.de

Good Points

Ringer was awesome in this book
So many plot twists!
I only gave 4 stars for the characters because I didn't love Cassie like I did in the 5th Wave