A review of The Infinite Sea by Rick Yancey
Overview:
The Infinite Sea by Rick Yancey is the sequel to The Fifth Wave also by Rick Yancey. Set after the fallout of the first book, our main characters are struggling to survive somewhere in the southern part of the US in a hotel. One of the main characters, named Ringer, believes that the hotel will not last and goes out to find a better living area along with another main character Teacup. They are both captured by the aliens which kicks off the main plot of the story. The rest of the main characters go out in search for them and their journey and encounters with lost allies and new antagonists are the bulk of the B plot of the story.
I'm not mad, i'm just disappointed, also a little confused (spoilers):
This book had a lot of potential. Emphasis on HAD. I enjoyed the first book in this series and while a little bit of the first book took a little rereading and wikipedia-ing, I could appreciate the message and ideas it was trying to explore. This second book, on the other hand, basically dropped all of the aspects I liked about the first while keeping the obnoxious parts. First off, the characters are 1000% worse than the original. All of the quirks and personalities that made them engaging and fun to read about are almost non-existent. One of the POV characters named Cassie, has completely been altered to fit a cheap narrative stance that goes against what was already established for her. Her careful and investigative nature combined with the lurking realism that her days are shortly numbered is completely replaced by a boring love-triangle. Some of her actions make no logical or practical sense for her character and just stand to push boring tropes. In addition, all of the banter in the original book that was engaging and at times funny, is gone and replaced with snarky one-liners and vague metaphors about nothing. Interactions feel stale and inhumane and even the characters that aren't human behave in ways that make them feel out of place, like these behaviors and actions wouldn't fit it the real world. I understand wanting to have your characters crack funny jokes and filler words like "uh" and "like" shouldn't be used in literature but at a certain point your characters loose any sense of being relatable when they have the perfect comeback and witty joke for every situation. While the first book's dialogue felt like vaguely-scripted ad-libs, The Infinity Sea feels incredibly forced, bringing down the enjoy-ability of the characters. Finally, the metaphor that this book is going for, or rather, "setting up", which is essentially delaying for a long as possible for a third book, is incredibly confusing and nonsensical. A big part of the first book was exploring the limits and willpower of humanity and how far people will go even if they know their situation is hopeless. This entire element is ruined by about ~75 pages of twist. First off, the big twist is that the "aliens" are actually humans with robo-parts. Not only does this undermine a lot of character development it also kills the entire mood of the story. A very engaging part was this idea of a few amount of humans up against a vastly superior and vastly foreign entity whom there isn't any explanation or reasoning with. This twist basically kills all of that. By making the main antagonists human you loose the sense of alienability and mystery. I feel as if the first book was trying to pull from some sort of Lovecraftian existential horror and that feeling is basically nonexistent in the sequel.
In conclusion, this book is bad
By Eli Khuri-Reid
The Infinite Sea by Rick Yancey is the sequel to The Fifth Wave also by Rick Yancey. Set after the fallout of the first book, our main characters are struggling to survive somewhere in the southern part of the US in a hotel. One of the main characters, named Ringer, believes that the hotel will not last and goes out to find a better living area along with another main character Teacup. They are both captured by the aliens which kicks off the main plot of the story. The rest of the main characters go out in search for them and their journey and encounters with lost allies and new antagonists are the bulk of the B plot of the story.
I'm not mad, i'm just disappointed, also a little confused (spoilers):
This book had a lot of potential. Emphasis on HAD. I enjoyed the first book in this series and while a little bit of the first book took a little rereading and wikipedia-ing, I could appreciate the message and ideas it was trying to explore. This second book, on the other hand, basically dropped all of the aspects I liked about the first while keeping the obnoxious parts. First off, the characters are 1000% worse than the original. All of the quirks and personalities that made them engaging and fun to read about are almost non-existent. One of the POV characters named Cassie, has completely been altered to fit a cheap narrative stance that goes against what was already established for her. Her careful and investigative nature combined with the lurking realism that her days are shortly numbered is completely replaced by a boring love-triangle. Some of her actions make no logical or practical sense for her character and just stand to push boring tropes. In addition, all of the banter in the original book that was engaging and at times funny, is gone and replaced with snarky one-liners and vague metaphors about nothing. Interactions feel stale and inhumane and even the characters that aren't human behave in ways that make them feel out of place, like these behaviors and actions wouldn't fit it the real world. I understand wanting to have your characters crack funny jokes and filler words like "uh" and "like" shouldn't be used in literature but at a certain point your characters loose any sense of being relatable when they have the perfect comeback and witty joke for every situation. While the first book's dialogue felt like vaguely-scripted ad-libs, The Infinity Sea feels incredibly forced, bringing down the enjoy-ability of the characters. Finally, the metaphor that this book is going for, or rather, "setting up", which is essentially delaying for a long as possible for a third book, is incredibly confusing and nonsensical. A big part of the first book was exploring the limits and willpower of humanity and how far people will go even if they know their situation is hopeless. This entire element is ruined by about ~75 pages of twist. First off, the big twist is that the "aliens" are actually humans with robo-parts. Not only does this undermine a lot of character development it also kills the entire mood of the story. A very engaging part was this idea of a few amount of humans up against a vastly superior and vastly foreign entity whom there isn't any explanation or reasoning with. This twist basically kills all of that. By making the main antagonists human you loose the sense of alienability and mystery. I feel as if the first book was trying to pull from some sort of Lovecraftian existential horror and that feeling is basically nonexistent in the sequel.
In conclusion, this book is bad
By Eli Khuri-Reid
I really liked this blog post because it felt genuine. Rather than a cheesy "I like this book because it is deep" it seems like you wrote what you truly thought. I also like a lot of the phasing, especially "I'm not mad, i'm just disappointed" and "In conclusion, this book is bad." The part of the review I most agreed with is how annoy it is to have characters that always say the perfect thing. It's ok if a few characters are extremely charismatic, but saying the wrong thing is a huge part of real life. The tone of this review matches your everyday tone, and I can see you ranting about this in real life which made reading this review all the more enjoyable.
ReplyDeleteI would agree with Zev about the post being very genuine. The emotions you felt towards the book , although mostly negative, were very real and I could tell how much you preferred the first book in this series. I also liked how you mentioned the first book and compared the two. I could tell that you enjoyed the first book much more and it gave you an idea of what you liked and what you would be looking for in the sequel. It was clear that you were disappointed from the tone of the first paragraph, but I liked how in-depth you went with every aspect that you didn't like so I knew more than "the plot was bad" or something. Nice review!
ReplyDeleteI liked your review because it was completely up-front and to the point. You were very specific in what you did not like the book. Your thoughts and ideas were very clear and made it very easy to understand. You did a great job of analyzing all of the morals and lessons that were taught be the book and how the Infinite Sea threw all its predecessor's potential and fame out the window. Your post would look a bit nicer if you had more separation and had paragraphs. Overall, it was a very nice well thought out review!
ReplyDeleteI liked how you were direct and to the point with your review. You didn't waste your time trying to pretend the book was an okay book which is something a lot of people in our class fail to do in their reviews. Your main points about why you dislike the book are very clear making your opinions easy to understand. Overall, a very well written and well thought out review.
ReplyDeleteI read this series over the summer, and I pretty much agree. You did well at describing the book, and I think you explained what you dislike about the book well. The first book was pretty good but I was disappointed as I continued the series. I agree that the author kind of ruined Cassie's character in the second book. You should still read the last book though because I liked the ending.
ReplyDeleteLike many others, I have read this series and as cliché as it may sounds, I totally agree with your stance. The first book intrigued me. I found myself unable to stop turning pages, however with the second book, I found myself unable to turn to the next page. I agree that the book had a lot of potential, it was ruined by the nonsensical plot twist and lackluster character development. With that being said, you articulate your feelings about this book very well. You aren't afraid to hide behind the guise of, "this book was okay". Overall, your review was very passionate and I could hear the disappointment. I definitely enjoyed reading this review!
ReplyDelete