Review Detail

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.