The Infinite Sea (The 5th Wave #2) – Rick Yancey

Title: The Infinite Sea (The 5th Wave #2) by Rick Yancey
Publishing Info: September 16, 2014 by Penguin
Source: Received from the publisher for review purposes
Genres: Apocalyptic, Science Fiction, Young Adult
Find it on the web: Buy from Amazon // GoodreadsDate Completed: October 5, 2014
Related Posts: The 5th Wave (The 5th Wave #1), The Last Star (The 5th Wave #3)

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.

Last year when THE 5TH WAVE came out, I actually had no interest in an alien story but once I heard the buzz, I ran out to the store, picked up the book, and when I started reading, I couldn’t stop. I finished THE 5TH WAVE in one sitting and absolutely loved the book. I’ve been waiting a while for THE INFINITE SEA to come out and once again, Rick Yancey totally hooked me straight away. If I hadn’t had to stop for food and sleep and work, I could have easily tore through this book cover to cover like its predecessor!

What really hits me the most about these books are the characters and the action. In THE 5TH WAVE, the readers are introduced to the core set of characters and they make a sincere connection, all the while just as unsure as the characters what’s going on with this wave of invaders and how they can possibly survive. THE INFINITE SEA starts off with just a big of a bang and right away I was anxious how the opening scene would no doubt affect the entire rest of the book. The action kicks off in high gear right from the start and I really felt like it carried me through the book. I couldn’t stop turning pages and I was totally riveted.

Whereas we spent a lot of time with Cassie and Zombie in THE 5TH WAVE, THE INFINITE SEA opens up to a larger range of POVs from some of the secondary characters, now in the spotlight. Cassie, Zombie, Evan, and Sam are still very much main characters, but Rick Yancey allows us into the minds of people like Ringer (who is known to be antagonistic — and I always love being able to see inside of the mind of an opposing force) and even characters like Poundcake. I feel like there was a mixed reaction to the slight shift from Cassie and Evan’s perspectives but I really enjoyed how the new perspectives really added another layer to the overall story. The characters who were once secondary step forward and really show how much they have to offer and how much they might change the entire plot of the series so I thought it was really interesting to see how the focus started to spread further than just the initial core main characters. There are still the same POV shifts from section to section which I’ve seen some readers still struggle with a bit, but I didn’t feel like they jumped around too much. Sometimes it does take a few sentences before you’re able to pin down whose POV you’re reading , but that really wasn’t something that bothered me, personally!

Keeping true to book one, THE INFINITE SEA also has no shortages of twists, one particularly shocking one which of course, I will not divulge! I’m always impressed with the way everything sort of loops back around and all comes together. I absolutely love twists so some of the big bombs that were dropped in THE INFINTE SEA totally caught me by surprise! They really made me think and I almost feel like I need to go back to book one to see how these things are even possible! (Are they?) But there’s always book three to figure that out too, right?

“The View from Goodreads” is a new featured section in my reviews that I decided to incorporate! I tend to update my Goodreads status a LOT when I read — reactions, feelings, notes — so I thought it would be fun to share the sort of “reading process”! All status updates are spoiler-free (no specific plot points will be revealed) but will contain reactions to certain pages and/or characters!

Ringer // Character Obsessions: Loyalty, independence, determination. I barely even remembered Ringer from the previous book. I’m not sure why since it seemed so many people were up in arms about her being such an antagonistic character to start focusing on… Maybe I was just too focused on Cassie/Evan/Zombie. Anyway! I actually really enjoyed her POV. She’s one tough cookie but also in a different way than Cassie. So much of Cassie’s fight to survive is also for her brother and Ringer has her people she fights for but she is also very much self-reliant. Cassie’s protection feels more caring and Ringer’s protection seems a lot more straight-forward and intense. I just really liked the new mix of POVs and really ended up enjoying hers!

Kept Me Hooked On: Science-Fiction. I am very choosy about my science fiction and never would have picked up a series based on aliens without the glowing reviews from others but I still have tons of praise for this series from Rick Yancey! It makes me want to branch out and try some more straight-up sci-fi!
Left Me Wanting More: Memory of the first book? I read the Recaptains review before I started but even still, I feel like I wasn’t remembering a whole lot. I think maybe reading in one day sort of muddled my memory because the whole book melted together. The only thing I felt a little in the dark about was the secondary characters but they characters did their job of quickly catching me up anyway!

Addiction Rating
Buy it!

I’m still really enjoying this series and I also definitely want to take a look at Rick Yancey’s other books. There’s just something about his writing that TOTALLY hooks me.

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(Click the cover to see my review!)