Name: Tegan Anderson's review of Infinity Son by Adam Silvera
Item: Infinity Son
Rating: 2
Author: Tegan Anderson

Adam Silvera

Balancing epic and intensely personal stakes, bestselling author Adam Silvera’s Infinity Son is a gritty, fast-paced adventure about two brothers caught up in a magical war generations in the making. Growing up in New York, brothers Emil and Brighton always idolized the Spell Walkers—a vigilante group sworn to rid the world of specters. While the Spell Walkers and other celestials are born with powers, specters take them, violently stealing the essence of endangered magical creatures. Brighton wishes he had a power so he could join the fray. Emil just wants the fighting to stop. The cycle of violence has taken a toll, making it harder for anyone with a power to live peacefully and openly. In this climate of fear, a gang of specters has been growing bolder by the day. Then, in a brawl after a protest, Emil manifests a power of his own—one that puts him right at the heart of the conflict and sets him up to be the heroic Spell Walker Brighton always wanted to be. Brotherhood, love, and loyalty will be put to the test, and no one will escape the fight unscathed. Praise for Infinity Son: 'A magnificent addition to the ranks of Young Adult fantasy' Waterstones

Infinity Son

Tegan Anderson

Balancing epic and intensely personal stakes, bestselling author Adam Silvera's Infinity Son is a gritty, fast-paced adventure about two brothers caught up in a magical war generations in the making. Growing up in New York, brothers Emil and Brighton always idolized the Spell Walkers--a vigilante group sworn to rid the world of specters. While the Spell Walkers and other celestials are born with powers, specters take them, violently stealing the essence of endangered magical creatures. Brighton wishes he had a power so he could join the fray. Emil just wants the fighting to stop. The cycle of violence has taken a toll, making it harder for anyone with a power to live peacefully and openly. In this climate of fear, a gang of specters has been growing bolder by the day. Then, in a brawl after a protest, Emil manifests a power of his own--one that puts him right at the heart of the conflict and sets him up to be the heroic Spell Walker Brighton always wanted to be. Brotherhood, love, and loyalty will be put to the test, and no one will escape the fight unscathed. Praise for Infinity Son: 'A magnificent addition to the ranks of Young Adult fantasy' Waterstones 'Silvera shoots off his plot like a gun and writes action sequences as if they were car chases -- relentless, quick-cutting, sparks flying' New York Times 'Silvera continues to prove himself as a driving, humanising voice for underrepresented groups within society. The first in a trilogy, Infinity Son will appeal to all'Starburst magazine

Danny Werhane

A New York Times, Publishers Weekly, and IndieBound bestseller! Balancing epic and intensely personal stakes, bestselling author Adam Silvera’s Infinity Son is a gritty, fast-paced adventure about two brothers caught up in a magical war generations in the making. Growing up in New York, brothers Emil and Brighton always idolized the Spell Walkers—a vigilante group sworn to rid the world of specters. While the Spell Walkers and other celestials are born with powers, specters take them, violently stealing the essence of endangered magical creatures. Brighton wishes he had a power so he could join the fray. Emil just wants the fighting to stop. The cycle of violence has taken a toll, making it harder for anyone with a power to live peacefully and openly. In this climate of fear, a gang of specters has been growing bolder by the day. Then, in a brawl after a protest, Emil manifests a power of his own—one that puts him right at the heart of the conflict and sets him up to be the heroic Spell Walker Brighton always wanted to be. Brotherhood, love, and loyalty will be put to the test, and no one will escape the fight unscathed.

Alice Myles

Okay so I think I get why people don't vibe with this book but honestly, I LOVED IT! I wrote my dissertation on CRISPR and the way that Specters work is super similar so I guess that aspect of it appealed to me. I hate Brighton but I love love love Ness but I feel like that just says a lot about me as a person. The one downfall for me was that a lot of the characters all kind of blended together and I struggled to work out who was who and who was doing what but all in all I need book two because that ending??? FRICKKKKKKK (I saw something of the sort coming, but still)

Dee B. 

I'm dumb for thinking I'd get through a Silvera book without some sort of pain. Sigh.

It wasn't all that I'd hoped, but it was enough for me to want to continue with the series. The relationships are keeping me invested and the second half is definitely worth trudging through the beginning.

jess

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When I heard Adam Silvera was writing a fantasy book, I was thrilled. His contemporary books are some of my favourites. So I went into Infinity Son optimistic. Though there are some problems with the worldbuilding and pacing, I ultimately liked Infinity Son; it's an urban fantasy that stresses the importance of family and responsibility.

One of the things about Infinity Son I loved was the worldbuilding, actually; it's today's world, but with magic normalized in it, something I'd really love to see more often in books. The characters talk about zoos where there are phoenixes and basilisks; there's an alternate history to the world. They use Instagram and YouTube to keep tabs on their favourite celestials. And it's cool. My problem with the worldbuilding, though, is that it just comes all at once. Adam Silvera does this; most of his contemporary books do have a science-fiction element to them, and they're integrated seamlessly. I feel like he tried to do the same thing here, but there's just too much to know: it's not one element; it's a whole magic system, an alternate history, and a different culture, and I found myself lost while reading it for a good half the book. I did get used to it, eventually, but it took a lot of time to fully absorb myself into the world around me.

Silvera's characters, as always, are a strength. The two main characters are brothers, Emil and Brighton Rey, and I loved their dynamic and how much they cared for each other throughout the book. The theme of brotherhood really undercuts the entire novel, and I love how important family is to both Emil and Brighton. The Chosen One trope is at full play, but Emil isn't the typical Chosen One--he's reluctant and anxious, and doesn't really want to get involved in a war he's been dragged into. Brighton, on the other hand, is ready and raring to go and fight despite not having the skills to. Brighton is also a vlogger, and it's pretty cool to see how things that are so normal in our world are incorporated into urban fantasy.

However, there are also two other POVs that aren't quite main characters: Maribelle, one of the other Spell Walkers, and Ness, who is aligned with the specters, and I don't believe those POVs needed to be in the book at all. It just added more confusion and complexity to a story I already felt confused about, and took the focus away from the main characters. I felt as if Emil and Brighton's voices were pretty distinct, but Maribelle and Ness were definitely not developed enough to be POV characters. I assume their narrative is to put more weight into the world and make it feel larger, but the Rey brothers are such a strength and the themes of family are so overt that the narrative doesn't need that. I feel like the story would have worked far better with just Emil and Brighton as narrators, with more focus on their story. Silvera's writing is, as always, gorgeous, though. The cast is also full of people of colour and queer characters, which is always great to see in fantasy.

If you're expecting this to be like Silvera's other books, I'll be honest: it might be a disappointment, but that's owing to the strength of Silvera's contemporary books. If you're looking for an exciting urban fantasy, though, I would certainly recommend Infinity Son. 

content warnings | parental death

representation | latinx characters, gay mc, bi mc, bi side characters, lesbian side characters

Thank you to the publisher and Edelweiss for providing me with an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Sandra Tammaru

OMG I LOVE ADAM SILVERA!!!!! I love how he writes a fantasy that is deep and emotional and dramatic and real and not just superficial action. I love how his protagonist is not the confident self-assured guy but the calm nerdy low-key guy who doesnt want power, just wants a regular life, but sees how he makes a difference and even then doesnt see himself as the all-knowing hero who sacrifices everything for the common good! I love how he uses trauma and mental health problems and brings light to dealing with them and tht he does it in a fantasy book with a plot that is in itself not original, that has been used by other authors and yet this book is original and different, is not smt that makes me think oh I have read this same story ten times. So yea I love Adam Silvera, I love his characters, I loved this world and I loved the ending, which I was lowkey expecting but def not in that fashion.

june

Addy A

I am beginning to realize I will never really like an Adam Silvera book.

Mijs Franssen

THIS BOOK. WOW.

I am a very big fan of Adam Silvera and his work, I own all of his books and I was very exited to read his first ever fantasy book and I can tell you, I was definitly not dissapointed!

This book took me on a trip and I loved Ness and Emil as characters. However, Brighton annoyed the hell out of me, but I think that was what he was meant to do.
Adam's world building in this book was very good, and the way he ended it was just. wow. I need the second part and I need it NOW!
The book reads very fast, is packed with action, and has incredibly interesting characters. I loved the fact that Adam wrote multiple POV's into this book, and I hope he keeps up the good work in this series. I do hope we will see a little more of Ness in the new book!

I really loved this book dearly, hence the 5/5 stars :)

Nicole Lambert

Brighton, oh how much I love to hate you.

Flavia Louise

This was enjoyable but I sadly didn't connect to it as much as I was hoping for.

Aims

"I didn't grow up with powers, but I've been a brother for eighteen years. No fire burns brighter than that."

This book follows two brothers, one power hungry, one wishing he didn't come into power. They encounter many challenges along the way, many strains on the relationship, will they conquer together or will ever growing jealousy stand in the way?

-♡-

The first book in the Infinity Cycle Trilogy (I believe) and it started with a right bang. There was such a nice dose LGBTQ+ representation and a character with anxiety (though it isn't a main sub plot of the story), it mainly focuses on each individual characters story more than world building which I hope to see in the second book.
The one thing I didn't particularly love was the fact that there were way too many different POVs, I think there wasn't really a need but it didn't deter me enough to take away any points so I cannot wait to read Infinity Reaper!

Tatiana Alvarez 

This sounds bad, but I went into this book fully expecting to hate it. That was my mindset. Fortunately, it wasn't that bad!

It also wasn't good. At all.

This book is disappointing in a lot of ways, which I will gladly rant about. However, I do have to preface this review by saying I have liked everything Adam Silvera has ever written about until this point. This book...although the writing was fine, the content in the story was not! It is also extremely hard to separate Silvera from contemporary literature. Fantasy is my favorite genre, so when someone does not do it justice, you will definitely be hearing from me.

Speaking of fantasy, labeling this book as such is a STRETCH. What constitutes this as fantasy? Well apparently having powers and putting a phoenix in the book makes it fantasy. Yeah...No. If anything, this reads more like a contemporary book cosplaying (cheaply so) as a Harry Potter character.

As I was reading, I was picking up on a lot of Renegades vibes by Marissa Meyer. And the more I thought about it, the more I realized I would have actually liked the book a lot more if Silvera had set the book in Meyer's universe and highlighted another renegades team. I think he would have had a really good book that way. It definitely would have been more interesting.

Unfortunately, Silvera creates a modern day universe, which bugs me to no end. I do not like my fantasy novel's taking place in the 21st century. It really pulls you out of the genre when you read about magic on one page and Twitter and Youtube on the next. And we hear a lot about social media because Brighton, one of the MC's and brother to Emil, is obsessed with getting youtube famous. Like so much so that Silvera makes it a personality quality and it's not good. That also drives every single one of his actions. It's dumb.

Then you have Emil, who gets powers he does not want and proceeded to complain the entire time about it. Like he whines in battle, he whines after battle, and he whines while he whines. He's also so very gullible. He just immediately trusts the "bad" guy who turns out to be a morally gray character. Which is cool, except you don't care about him at all. Though, admittedly, he could be a cooler character later on.

There are also a team of other characters that I don't care about at all. One of them dies and it's supposed to be sad, but I barely remember that character's names. They are blur together and I had a hard time with keeping up with who was good and who was bad because they were changing sides in every other chapter.

Also, I both hated and not surprised by the ending. It did not have the shock value Silvera was hoping to give his audience. It just made me dislike that character even more because he's such a dumbass.

I gave this a 2 because I at least finished it and did not stop. So there's something to be said about that.

I haven’t stopped thinking about ‘They Both Die at the End’ since I read it so another Silvera book was at the top of my TBR, and I was lucky enough to receive an eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

 Likes 
The first few chapters were rocky, and it went downhill just as I started to get into it. The plot was okay. I liked the idea of phoenixes and reincarnation, and the emphasis on magical creatures in general. I liked that there was a huge amount of hype around this book and some readers said it gave them tears and heartache. I liked the co-dependant disaster sibling relationship. I liked the reluctant chosen one vibe, even though I think it’s becoming a bit overdone. I liked that this is the kind of book that a version of myself from five years ago would’ve loved. However, it’s not the kind of book that the current version of myself loves.

 World Building 
The world building… is lacking. I was thrown into a new world without any information and couldn’t make any of the pieces fit together. There’s a mention of the Blackout – something which is supposed to be an important event in the past – but the description is so minimal that I thought I missed something. All the text says about it is that it was ‘the worst attack New York has seen in my lifetime’, which makes it sound nowhere near as terrible as it must’ve been.
I’m still not sure about the importance or the difference between spectres/blood casters/spell walkers/celestials, and there’s limited mention on the history of magical creatures. As phoenixes are meant to be a focus point in this book, I was expecting to know more about them. And I know that I’m writing this review a few months after I read the book, but I don’t remember if there was anything genuinely scary about the villain. Her personality was basically ‘be evil’ and ‘always two steps ahead’.
I saw this mentioned in someone else’s review, but this book reads more like a contemporary set in a fantasy world.

 Characters 
Brighton is the only one I remember anything about and he’s not even the main brother or even a character I like. He’s reckless and endangers his friends and family for the sake of YouTube views, but the book tries to force the reader to feel sorry for him most of the time. 
All of the other characters felt like extremely underdeveloped replicas of him with personalities replaced with one or two qualities. Their introductions are not given the time they deserve and instead they just form together into a faceless cast. There are so many named characters. Many of them are unnecessary and could be cut or condensed into another existing character, and there’s also so many unnecessary perspectives.
One of the things this book does right is a cast of diverse characters from a lot of different backgrounds but ‘gay’ shouldn’t have to be their only sign of personality.

 Clichés 
I don’t usually mind clichés and tropes as they usually work well, but here there is nothing new or different added to the trope to make the story more interesting. It’s hard to give any examples without forcing spoilers down your throat, but I’ve seen someone else describe it as a ‘stereotypical rip off Harry Potter fantasy’, and I mostly agree with that.

However, I’m so genuinely happy that an urban fantasy book with a gay main character written by a gay author has received such hype. I’m also happy about the diversity and representation in the book: there’s a lot of queer characters and people of colour. It also touches on body image, something which I believe is an important topic for Silvera.

Overall, I know that this review comes of very negative, but it’s because I was expecting so much more from it, and I think it had the potential to be something incredible.

Shannon Thomas

I really really struggled to keep track of everything happening. I’m still not entirely convinced I understand the world or the plot or who’s who?

Wynne Aretae

ok so overall, i like Adam Silvera. he has a lot of good stuff. but this isn't his best works.

*minor spoilers ahead*
a lot of the details he included felt unnecessary. he went out of his way to mention all of the characters were Not Straight, which isn't a bad thing, but it didn't help with the flow of the book at all. + the characters themselves were all selfish and annoying. 

that being said, the story itself was pretty good, and i will read the next book when i can.

Tiffany Robinson

I really wanted to like this book, because I usually like Adam Silvera books unfortunately this one fell flat to me and I had to push myself to even finish it. I thought it was to fast paced and confusing and we didn't really get to know any of the characters.

Kathleen Boyle

More of a 2.5...

This was... a little underwhelming. While the plot is very interesting, I think the books lacks development in a lot of areas...

To begin with, we are dropped into this world of Spell Walkers and Blood Casters with no explanation. Our main characters have grown up in this world and know everything, but the reader hasn't. As there is no concrete explanation, the world building feels flimsy and is confusing. 

The pacing was also an issue. Either things happened in very quick succession or were glossed over far too quickly.

The characters are very diverse which is amazing and needs to be praised. However, most of them just fell flat. We are introduced to so many interesting characters but we do not get to know them. Everything stays surface level. Most of the emotional connections and crucial character interactions they happen off-page or are brushed over too quickly. We got a lot of "telling" us how the characters felt but we didn't "see" any of it. They were still strangers to me by the end. 

Ultimately, I wanted more from this. The book would have benefited from being 100 pages longer. As I was reading, I longed for character interactions that would serve the amazing plot ideas.

Popsugar Reading Challenge 2020: A book that's published in 2020

Alexis 

2.5 stars 

DNF'D at 60% 

I'm very upset. Like super duper upset that I didn't enjoy this book. I wanted to like it because it was Adam Silvera but it just wasn't there. What makes it worse is that this was on my most anticipated books for 2020! The writing was alright, I honestly could've cared less about the plot. As far as the characters go.... don't even ask. I honestly don't care about any of these characters. They didn't sit right with me. I don't know if it's because it's his first venture into YA fantasy or not, but it just wasn't good. I will admit I think the plot itself is a great idea. I hope that maybe with more time he will write a great fantasy book.

Francisca Moe

After reading They both die at the end and falling in love with the writing style of Silvera, this book was a let-down. I found the world unnecessarily complicated and forced, it was hard to grasp and get involved with the characters and their journey.

Deborah Kerr

It hurts my heart to have to write this review but like so many others before me have said, Infinity Son misses the mark in just about every aspect.

There are two positives:
1. The idea itself is great. I'm a lifelong lover of every shade of Fantasy and it is clear that Silvera is as well. He had all of the ingredients for greatness here, unfortunately the execution was lackluster.
2. QUEER POC LEAD CHARACTER. The majority of our cast of characters are POC and a good number of them are LBGTQIA+. It is unfortunate that the majority of the characters themselves were 2 dimensional carbon-copies of one another personality-wise.

The negatives (Or every other part of this book):
1. The plot is so insanely cliche that the only thing that could have made it bearable was if it were written brilliantly. It is not written brilliantly. Silvera lost himself in this world and it shows.

2. The world building goes from non-existent to info-dump central and never finds a happy medium. Things are either never explained or over-explained to the point of paragraph skippage. There are also huge gaps in logic within the world, the magic system, etc. It's such a mess that I am shocked this book made it to print without someone saying something about it.

3. The characters were AWFUL. My favorite thing about Silvera's writing is his way of getting you to like his characters--no matter their flaws--without you realizing it's happening. That was not the case with Infinity Son. Brighton is unlikable out the gate and remains so until the last page. His last act in the book, though I saw it coming from the beginning, is the only thing I found remotely interesting about him. Emil on the other end of the spectrum is wishy-washy AF and Silvera needs to sit down and do some serious character revision moving forward. This is your lead character, give him a personality, please. The supporting cast was the same person over and over again, just given a different name, physical description, and one alternating personality trait.

4. The writing is straight up bad. In an attempt to have his teenagers sound like actual teenagers Silvera loses everything about his writing style that makes his books worth reading. I am all for using slang in YA but it was not believable--reading it was like listening to people in their thirties try and sound like teenagers.

5. After reading this book I feel like someone (literally any one of the dozens of published, NYT bestselling authors that Silvera thanks in his acknowledgements) should have sat down with Silvera and told him that this book was not how to start this series. The last chapter of this book was how to start this series. The events of this book are unnecessary backstory that we can be given in small snippets throughout a story that follows the rising antagonism between these brothers. (view spoiler)[This book is the origin story of Brighton vs. Emil but (hide spoiler)] I can't care about the origin story because I don't care about the characters or the world.

I hope Silvera redeems himself and this series with the second installment but I doubt it.

Actual rating: 3.75


Okay. First thing first. 

What an ending!

But despite Silvera's wonderful inclination at writing gob-smacking cliff-hangers, this wasn't everything that I was hoping for.

I want to make it clear that, despite this book being marketed as a fantasy/magic-system book, it reads like a superhero story. Which is a little confusing and threw me off a little when starting the book. 

And while I did truly enjoy the book, it was definitely lacking when it came to the world-building. I still don't entirely understand the magic system, because it wasn't explained at any point. It didn't take away from the story, but as a reader I wanted more.

The world-building that did exist, however, was really unique and interesting. I love the introduction of mythological creatures and concept of blood alchemy. I'm keen to see what else Silvera does with the series!

This book followed several different perspectives throughout, but the personalities didn't really come through for me. Each perspective read the same and without the distinctiveness that I was craving the story read a lot duller than I think it should have.

In saying this, the interaction between the characters was one of my favourite things in the book. 

The relationship between brothers, while Brighton annoyed the living hell out of me, was gorgeously complex, flawed and raw. The intense relationship between Mari and Atlas was another favourite - the relationship woven through shared trauma was depicted well and I kinda wish there had been more of them. 

And the slow-burn potential romance - *wink wink* not saying who - was excellent  


Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an advanced copy of the book for review! This does not impact on my review and all thoughts are 100% honest.

Emma Myers

I totally understand where Adam Silvera was going for this and I love it. I literally am itching for the next one.

Abigail F

On my last book haul before quarantine, I found Infinity Son in one of my all-time favorite bookstores, Changing Hands. It was on a featured shelf because it was signed by the author at one of their events, and I eagerly put it in my little shopping cart. Twenty books in shopping cart later, an argument with Mr. Purrfect on whether or not I needed so many books, and a hard process of putting books back, and Infinity Son came home with me. It was an easy read with a plot that was engaging enough that I got through the novel pretty quickly. 

This book is filled with diversity of POC characters and LGBTQ characters. Five years ago, a book written by a gay Latino would not be getting the hype this book has gotten so far—especially since one of the main characters is also a gay Latino. I loved Emil and his pacifist ways, he is what kept me intrigued in the story. However, this is where most of my likes end. 

I have two major negatives for Infinity Son: the world building and the lack of character development. When writing a fantasy novel, good world building is a must. Unfortunately, readers get thrown in and are kind of expected to just keep up. Things are never well defined (I still don’t actually understand what a celestial is… they’re like the main point of the novel), we don’t get history between any of the magical elements and the human world. Honestly, if this book were to be published as a prequel to an already existing series, I could understand it more. Because this book is definitely designed to set up for a sequel (major pet peeve) and it would make the lack of explanations okay. It felt very amateurish, so to learn this is Silvera’s 5th book was highly disappointing.

When I say lack of character development… I don’t mean the characters don’t change, but they are never developed. The only character with any type of unique voice was Brighton, and I found him really annoying. We get introduced to tons of characters with diverse backgrounds, upbringings and potential personalities, but have no time to actually know any of them. 

But I have to give Silvera MAJOR props for his scene where Emil is discussing body image issues as a guy. And it was with another guy. I don’t know guys, maybe I’m just reading the wrong types of books, but I don’t really ever see this and representation is important! (I have read while researching Silvera a little more that body image is like one of his causes and it only makes me love all of this even more.) 

Overall, this was an average YA fantasy novel with a 2/5 fire blasts rating. I had to take away stars for characters, worldbuilding, and over cliched plot points. I will probably read the sequel because I believe this was really just a set up for it, and I need to see it will redeem anything done here.

Tegan Anderson &
Infinity Son by Adam Silvera

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