Rick Yancey

The Second Book of the 5th Wave

The Infinite Sea

Loni Wild

Amal Hassan

Surpassed all of my expectations. Usually when I read a book I do not rush to read the sequel because I have other books waiting in line. But The Infinite Sea just HAD to skip to the front of the line. I started reading it immediately and was hooked instantly. I finished it in no time and was ready to read the next only to discover it was not out yet! 

Do not have much to say about it except that it is brilliant and worth the time.

Colleen

2.5 Stars
This review contains spoilers.

When I started reading The 5th Wave, I initially had trouble engaging with the story. I had the same trouble becoming interested in The Infinite Sea. The difference was that while The 5th wave may not have captivated me from the first page, it did pull me in as the story progressed. I kept waiting for the same thing to happen with this book, but it never did. The main reason for this disconnect? Ringer.

I was not drawn to Ringer's character in the first book. She was flat and unoriginal. The author tried much too hard to make her badass. The result was completely uninspiring. In the first book, it seemed that she was only put in as a foil to Ben, another way of further complicating the love triangle. She had no standing on her own. So I was surprised to find that the second book suddenly started telling the story from her point of view. Imagine if Catching Fire had randomly been told from Effie's point of view. It was so incongruous! (view spoiler)[As the story went on, I could see why the story had to focus on Ringer. Almost nothing happens with the other characters. They mostly just hole up to recover. Still, that did not make Ringer's narration any more engaging. (hide spoiler)]

The whole time I was reading Ringer's chapters, I was impatient to get back to either Cassie or Ben or Evan telling the story. So I was increasingly frustrated as the story failed to focus on the main characters from the first book. Even the time when Ringer was with those characters was no help, because her view of those characters is completely different from what was portrayed originally. Basically she only looks at their worst flaws and does not see or think about them beyond that. In her eyes, Cassie is an emotionally unstable, delusional flake and Ben is a goofy, facetious flirt. She does not consider either of them reliable, and her thoughts towards them are less than courteous. 

The first ten chapters are told from Ringer's perspective. The story does eventually switch narrators, but then another problem arises. Having at least four different narrators all telling their story in first person. It was confusing and really messed with the flow of the story. Unfortunately, the only reprieve from the spasmodic jumps in narration was long stretches of story only told by Ringer. 

It was a strong indication of my lack of absorption that I barely even blinked when characters started dying. Frankly, I did not care that they were dead. BIG SPOILER (view spoiler)[I didn't care at all when Teacup died. I was not even upset when Ben was said to be dead. I was mainly perplexed that the author would ax off a main character with so little pomp. But worse than not being emotionally moved by those deaths was the exasperation when I found out what the author really had up his sleeve. As frustrating as it is when a character you like is killed off, it is far worse when the author keeps faking you out. Yancey has the annoying habit of presenting something out of context then slowly going back to explain it and often times undoing what he just told the reader. Teacup turning out not to be dead at least fit into the plot since she was used as leverage. Ben's "death" was dropped in with no explanation. But the story then goes on as if nothing happened only to casually drop in that Ben is not actually dead. So Teacup's death was fake, Ben's death was fake, and Evan has been pretend dead... what two, three times now? (hide spoiler)] It is getting really old, Yancey. Find a better way to build tension.

I don't think I mentioned this in my review of The 5th Wave, but both books have very short chapters and are segmented into sections or parts. It was something I noticed in the first book but felt mostly ambivalent towards. However, in the second book it was much more noticeable. Most of the chapters are very short, and Yancey has a habit of trying to make every single one of them end in overly dramatic cliffhangers. You can practically see someone holding up an action cue card that says "GASP DRAMATICALLY AND FRANTICALLY TURN THE PAGE!" So by thirty chapters in (and still many to go), I was already sick of the forced tension. Since I was not very invested in the story, the overly done drama was off-putting and rather laughable at times. It was like a fireworks show that never pauses to let you enjoy any moments or build any suspense. Rather, it just becomes a succession of loud noises and incomprehensible lights. You have to have lulls to build up to crescendos. None-stop twists get old very quickly! I also did not feel that segmenting the story into parts added anything. The parts were really not distinguishable from each other. Even less so than in the first book. Whatever the author was envisioning when he attempted to segment his story, that vision was clearly not fulfilled. Or not clearly fulfilled. Either way, it nosedived into Clichéd.

It was annoying that the characters could not make up their minds whether to refer to people by their real names or their nicknames. The dialogue even briefly addresses this conflict although nothing is resolved and the different characters continue to use whatever name fits their whims. 

The romance is much cheesier that in The 5th wave. Mostly like some of the reason I was more repelled by the romance was once again my irritation with Ringer. The other reason was that it was terribly written. The atmospheric writing of the first book morphed into tackiness and overdone attempts to be poetic. The result was affected, self-aware writing desperately trying to squeeze in deeper meaning and utterly failing. Between the gag-worthy teen ardor and the continuing rambling about rats and rocks (seriously enough with the rats and the rocks; you are not profound!), it was very hard for me to stay interested. Here are are couple of examples:
"Outside, the bitter harvest burns. Inside, he slips the sheets down, and these are the hands that held me, the hands that bathed and and lifted me when I could not lift myself. He brought me to death; he brings me to life. That's why he removed the dead from the upper tier. He banished them, consigned them to the fire, not to desecrate them but to sanctify us."

"His lips sliding over my neck and my fingers feeling his shattered cheek, the wound I gave him, and the wounds on his arm -VQP- that he gave himself, then my hands sliding down his back. Don't leave me. Please don't leave me. The smell of bubble gum and the smell of smoke and the smell of his blood, and the way his soul slices into mine: Razor. The beat of our hearts and the rhythm of our breath and the spinning stars we could not see."

"He entwines his fingers behind my back and pulls me tightly against him. No space between us anymore. No spot where he ends and I begin. The emptiness filled. The void filled." Apparently other people are not creeped out by a guy in his 50's writing terrible teenage sex scenes... 

Another failing of The Infinite Sea is that the story went from teenagers just trying to survive in the first book to the clichéd "teenage martyrs who are the only ones who can save the day!" in the second book. I also want to mention that there is a lot more swearing in this book than in the first one. A lot more. I am not bothered by swearing in and of itself, but it was odd that the amount of swearing exponentially exploded in the sequel. It is pretty bad when even the five-year-old cusses like a sailor. 

The phrase "Infinite Sea" is mentioned by multiple characters. In the first book there were some very similar thoughts expressed by both Cassie and Ben. It seemed odd that two people who were at the time operating completely autonomously would be thinking the same thing. Not just thinking about the same thing (that's understandable), but actually thinking the same specific phrases. That phenomenom becomes worse in The Infinite Sea. The first time a character thought the phrase "infinite sea" I thought it was nice that the title was tied into the story. By the time the third person used that phrase (only in their inner dialogue mind you; it's not like someone said it aloud and passed it on) it was getting ridiculous. When multiple characters wax on about the same overly poetic phrases while having no logical reason why they all arrived at the same exact turn of phrase, it really is absurd. I understand that certain things that Vosch said were to mock Ringer based on the memories that he extracted from her mind. But beyond that, it seemed more that Yancey sometimes forgot who was supposed to what.

Finally, the plot in this book was a mess. I won't give any more spoilers, but the plot is sadly muddled, redundant, and disorganized. At least it is shorter than the first book which means I wasted less time reading it. I will still read the third book because I do want to find out how it all ends. Although I am less optimistic now that it will be any good. Here is to hoping that Yancey can pull the story line back out of the dirt and wrap things up in a satisfactory way.

RATING FACTORS:
Ease of Reading: 4 Stars
Writing Style: 2 Stars
Characters: 2 Stars
Plot Structure and Development: 2 Stars
Level of Captivation: 1 Star
Originality: 3 Stars

Emily Ann Guerreor 

** spoiler alert **
           Absolutely loved this book. The absolute shocker of them actually being humans is crazy to me. And I was so upset going back and forth and seeing if Evan died or not. But I liked how it ended and I can’t wait to read the last one. I enjoyed razors and ringers soft romance because for some reason I do not like ringer with Ben 😭 although I am team Evan all the way, I would have liked to see more moments for Cassie and Ben (to establish a more set love triangle).

Audrey Lord

I've been reading so many sequels this year but I will say that this one was very well written. I now understand more of why sequels have so many reminders from the first novel. It's so you really don't have to read them one after the other. 
I really liked how suspenseful this book was compaired to the first one in the series. I felt like more and more questions appeared and then they were answered. I also enjoyed the series plot twist.

How do you rid the Earth of seven billion humans? Rid the humans of their humanity. Cassie Sullivan and her companions lived through the Others' four waves of destruction. Now, with the human race nearly exterminated and the 5th Wave rolling across the landscape, they face a choice- brace for winter and hope for Evan Walker's return, or set out in search of other survivors before the enemy closes in. Because the next attack is more than possible - it's inevitable. No one can anticipate the depths to which the Others will sink - nor the heights to which humanity will rise . . . 'Wildly entertaining . . . I couldn't turn the pages fast enough.' New York Times

Lacy W

This the second book of the  The 5th Wave . As far as sequels go, this one was good. It was a little more boring than the first one but this book had a lot of information that was needed and answers that we didn't get in the first book. 

We get new POVs, which is good. It's good to mix things up a little bit although it was confusing at times who POV was who. Also since I'm rewriting this review to make it better, I don't remember all the POVs. As soon as I own this series (because I will and no one can stop me), I'll write down the POVs used. 

Best part about this whole book? (view spoiler)[ Evan is ALIVE!  (hide spoiler)]. I was so worried and then BAM. It made me happy because I didn't want to deal with (view spoiler)[ Cassie moping about him. She can get pretty whiny in this book.  (hide spoiler)]

We also find out why the Others even invaded. (view spoiler)[ To think that the world could have been avoided being invaded. Damn war hungry generals.  (hide spoiler)] That information was just a shock to me. It just explains sooooo much from the first book. 

So, even though this book was a bit slower than the first one, it's still just as good. It's needed to make the transition to the third one. Every series needs one slower book to make sure everybody has the information that they need.

Beatrix Haase

I am so dang proud of myself right now. I finally finished this book. I feel like I took forever on it and I probably did. I am just so glad that I finally finished it... IT IS A RELIEF!

xoxo,
Bebe

www.bebebookreviews.wordpress.com

Emma Motze

Not as good as the first in my opinion, I was disappointed at the length of it but still a good read

Jaclyn

*4.5*

  "That's the cost. That's the price. Get ready, because when you crush the humanity out of humans, you're left with humans with no humanity. In other words, you get what you pay for motherfucker."   

MY MIND IS BLOWN. I have been just pacing around my house trying to wrap my mind around what I just read. HOW COULD WE END LIKE THAT? IM NOT FINISHED HERE. I NEEDED MORE PAGES!!! 

I'm so torn with how I feel about this book. I debated about giving it a 4 star just because I definitely loved the first one more, but because that ending was so MIND BLOWING AND CHANGED EVERYTHING and I loved these characters so much I had to give it more!! 

  "It isn't that the lies are too beautiful to resist. It's that the truth is too hideous to face."   

Rick Yancys writing style continues to be great. I think what was frustrating is I felt that there wasn't enough. It was too short!! It was broken up into 2 books and we got to see our main gangs story in the first one then the whole second half of the book was another set of problems. It just wasn't enough! I wanted more Ben, more Evan and more Cassie!!

I loved seeing the whole dynamic of Evan,Cassie and Ben play out and I loved dumbo too!!


But the one of best parts was the backstories that we got. We got a lot back stories to certain people and got to find out more about this intense world. Then we also had some awesome new people to get to know like RAZOR. Ahhh I loved him!! And his relationship with Ringer!! And that ending!! Ahhhhhhhh I can't!!! I'm still freaking out about all of it!! 

We had a lot of Ringer in this one and I loved her and getting to know more about her was a lot of fun and we got a lot of back story on poundcake too which was absolutely heart breaking. 

  "People die; love endures."  

I said it with the 5th wave and I'll say in the infinite sea, I feel like this could all happen!! It's so believable and twisted but I definitely could see this happening and it makes me so paranoid. This series is just absolutely fantastic and so much fun to read. I don't even know what else to say. The 2 climax scenes that we got at the end of each book! Ahhhh I need more! I'm DYING FOR THE NEXT BOOK!! I wanted this to be longer! Literally everything changed in this entire series on the last page and we just end. HOW CAN WE LEAVE THEM ALL LIKE THIS?!?! But then Evan and Cassie at the end!! Just ahhhhhhh!! 

Guys if you haven't read the 5th wave series, get on it!!! 

  "The world ended once. It will end again. The world ends, then the world comes back. The world always comes back."

Krystal 

3.5 
The first half was so good, the second half got very boring.

Shenmi

Sophia Owen

at this point all i’m doing is screaming

Bryanna M

I feel like it deserves more than 4 stars for the second half of the book…AND THAT ENDING. But still, the first half was kinda boring but it was still really great! I love Rick Yancey's writing style and how he makes me question everything now.

Kathryn 

*4.5-4.75*

OhmyGodOhmyGodOhmyGod. It's 2:23am. I just finished this book and the only thought in my mind is "I came here to have a good time and I'm honestly feeling really attacked right now."

No but seriously I highly enjoyed this book! I honestly think it was a fantastic continuation to the series, I love what Rick is doing with these characters (even though there were many times where it felt like he was just screwing with me). I honestly can not wait until I get The Last Star in my hands! I need to know what happens!

Courtney ✿ @librarycutie

what a disappointment! i wanted to love the infinite sea, i really did! i just don't. i feel ask though rick yancey included way too many unnecessary swearing. what's he trying to prove? oh, look at these kids cursing, this is what they do when an alien invasion happens. ooh! it honestly made me mad how unnecessary it was. maybe a few of them would have made the story flow a lot better, but there was one or multiple in every few chapters. enough already!

this story was mostly told from the perspective of ringer, in which we get some background info on her. i'll be up front and say i was bored. i didn't like ringer, even after finding out her dad is a (view spoiler)[deadbeat drunken asshole (hide spoiler)], and the way he died, wtf?? (this isn't a spoiler btw)

i also didn't like the once again forced romance but this time between new characters… i would've suggested to try and build on the cassie and evan love story.

evan is an interesting character, i like him. i like zombie too, and cassie is eh.

i didn't understand why it took the whole book to tell this story, over half of it was boring and some of it was pointless. i thought it was going to be a lot more interesting and build off from where the fifth wave left off, instead it was just… meh.

+ would i recommend?
no! it's not terrible it just wasn't great or fun to listen to. maybe you would have to read it so you can read the last star… i'm still debating on if it's worth finishing the series.

+ actual rating?
maybe a 2.5…

+ how was the audible version?
the narration was really good, that's why i enjoyed the first book so much, it was equal narration of both in the 5th wave, but more so of phoebe strole in this one.

+ will you be reading the next book in the series?
yes, i just need to know how it ends…

Sofie

Every time someone's chapters get really good, Yancey switches points of view!!!! But so far, I'm really enjoying it!

Update: I don't know why so many people are disappointed with this book! I likes it even more than The 5th Wave.

Lulwa

Ok, I was so close to write about how disappointed I feel, I expected more. Although, THIS BOOK did a great job playing with my emotions. :(

However, I changed my mind, since the minute I finished The Infinite Sea my mind lost the ability to literally think about anything else but  WHAT DID I JUST READ??? 
And what really bugged me is that nothing really happened but more unanswerable questions than The 5th wave, and that did mess with my head even more. At first I thought I wasted my time the only thing kept me reading was the characters and  BEN PARISH COME ON  and Razor later! lol.

But maybe this was the purpose of the book is to keep us thinking and draw our analysis based on what we understand. It differs from each person, every reader got his/her own experience.
As Rick Yancey did not give a clear meaning to what does the title of the book means,  "I will defer to readers to draw their own conclusions."  he wants us to think isn't he?? 
like really I felt there are too many questions and I kept thinking about the answers, the metaphors (there were quite A LOT), and making my own theories. WHICH WAS SO FUN. 

I felt so like Ringer in the whole book! It is like we  "the readers"  been put as the same position as Ringer to answer the questions by Rick Yancey/Vosch. AND AGAIN THAT WAS AWESOME.

 AND  that was the reason to what made me change my mind, it was a fun experience.
I would write more but it would be long and boring to read.
So excited to read The Last Star, I would expect it to be the same level as this book tbh.

Kimberly Siles Butron 

laura

This was such a great follow up. I enjoyed getting to see in different characters heads and the ending was such a shock i think i need to process it a bit more. I love how much this book really became about the characters and i can't wait to see how this book ends. I am so sad about some of the deaths but hope so excited to see how it ends... SUCH A FAST PACE READ!

Jane The Bookaholic

When I finished the first one I just left my house and rushed to the book store, and I'm so glad I did this. This book was even better than the first one, and still, my new obsession. I just loved everything, and the plot direction was perfect in my opinion. I really can't wait to read the third one!

Britt Jansen 

Jordan Robinson

4.5. 
I CANNOT WAIT FOR THE 3RD BOOK. UGH. I NEED IT NOW. 
Like many others I do wish the book had been longer, and I do wish Zombie had had his own chapter(s) and I wish Cassie didn't annoy as much as she did. But I still loved every bloody page. I love this series so fucking much.

Kayla Smith

Great twist at the end of the book! Can't wait for the finale.

Sophie Elaina 

The Fifth Wave: 5 Stars
The Infinite Sea: 3 Stars
The Last Star: 4.5 Stars

The Infinite Sea The Second Book of the 5th Wave

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