Review: The Infinite Sea by Rick Yancey

The Infinite Sea
by Rick Yancey
Series: The 5th Wave #2
Publication Date: 16 September 2014
Putnam Juvenile, Hardcover, 300 pages
Source: Library

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WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE 5TH WAVE.

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.

Rating: ★★★½

The Infinite Sea was one of my most anticipated books of this year. Honestly, after reading its great and epic predecessor, one would have to be mad not to be stoked for this new installment. Unfortunately, I can’t say I enjoyed it as much as I had hoped to. While not glaringly or outright awful, The Infinite Sea by no means lived up to the debut.

One of the main reasons this book fell short was probably the general lost feeling it gave off. A puny 300-paged novel (as compared to the nearly 500-paged predecessor), the story barely made any progress from the first to last page. I will admit it was because the author had put a lot of emphasis on character development though if you asked me, maybe a little too much.

By the end of the novel, the only major occurrences were some deaths and shocking truths. Apart from that, it was mostly backstories, making the whole book pretty dry. Since I’m currently watching a bunch of Japanese animes, let me just say that The Infinite Sea is exactly like one of those anime episodes with a ton of flashbacks—interesting but ultimately unnecessary.

Moreover, with an increased number of POVs (yes, more than The 5th Wave), it further hindered the progress of the plot since some perspectives overlapped events that had already occurred in others. Seeing as how this trilogy is going to be adapted into movies (which I cannot wait for), I’m a little worried how The Infinite Sea, being such an uneventful novel, would turn out. That is, if the first movie makes it big.

Please let it make it big.

I desperately hope Rick Yancey would be able to smoothly wrap up the trilogy with only one book left. Because he really has an overwhelming amount of explanations to give after barely revealing much in this installment, the characters basically went a full circle and ended up where they started right at the beginning. Except with some people dead and more scars, both physical and emotional.

To conclude, The Infinite Sea would be quite a disappointment for fans of The 5th Wave expecting lots of advancement plot-wise. However, if you’re one of those looking to get a deeper look into every one of the characters’ backgrounds—and I do means every, single one of them—you’re in for a treat! But personally, I’m all for more plot progress and not such a fan of the smothering amount of attention given to characters in The Infinite Sea.