Teen/YA Review: The Infinite Sea

Book By Book

Last year during my Big Book Summer Challenge, I read – and loved – The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey, and earlier this month, I finally read the second book in the series, The Infinite Sea, which continues the post-apocalyptic adventure of a group of kids and teens. It was action-packed and suspenseful – now I can’t wait to tread the third and final book in the trilogy!

This might be a very short review because I don’t want to give away any spoilers of book 1, The 5th Wave (you can read my no-spoilers review of that book at the link). The second novel continues to follow teenager Cassie and her little brother, Sammy, in this frightening post-apocalyptic world. Circumstances have become even worse since the first book, with fewer people left, worsening conditions, scarcity of food, and the fear of being discovered. The two siblings are hiding in an abandoned, broken-down hotel (much like the rest of their surroundings) with a small group of other children and teens from the first book. Ben, Cassie’s high school crush pre-apocalypse, is still a part of the story, as is Evan, whom Cassie is still not sure she can trust. The group, like all remaining humans, are being hunted by the human-looking aliens.

That’s the set-up at the beginning of the book (leaving out spoilerish details). From there, the rest of the novel is non-stop action, as the group of kids fights to survive against all odds. In fact, at first, the story seemed a bit too full of action and violence for my tastes (though my son says that’s why he liked book 2 even more than book 1!). The intriguing and complex plot that grabbed my attention in the first book continues here, though, and I was soon engrossed in the suspenseful thriller. By the time I came to the end of the book, I was eager to read book 3, The Last Year.

300 pages, SPEAK (an imprint of Penguin Random House)

My husband, son and I all want to see the movie adaptation of The 5th Wave, too! Here’s the trailer: