Book Review: The Infinite Sea

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.  Quoted from Goodreads

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I hardly know what to say about this book.  Did I enjoy it? Of course.  But it's in a hard position.  There was so much hype after the first one, that how could the second one live up to it?  Personally, I think it did a pretty good job. Did I have a few issues?  Sure.  Does it suffer a bit from second book syndrome? Yes. But it's still a well written, adventure filled book in a devastatingly tragic world.

This is a fast read.  Things happen and keep happening, breaking off at the worst possible moments so you have to keep reading or skip ahead, just to know if the characters you love survive . . . because some of them don't.

Just a heads up, the format in this book is a bit different.  The first two thirds is a nice rotation between the main characters we got in The 5th Wave, with the addition of Ringer (which, I'll be honest, kind of bugged me a bit. It's not that I didn't like her story or find it compelling because it was.  I just didn't care as much about her as I did Cassie, Ben, Sam, or Evan).  Then the last third is entirely Ringer, so while I came to care about her as a character and her story was interesting, I wanted to see more of the characters I loved so well from the first book.

Of course, loving characters is always a danger in this series.  People die.  It's sad.  It's shocking. and it tears your heart out just a little.  At the same time, there's just enough hope and mystery that you can't help but keep caring about the different characters in their struggle to survive. 

One of the things I enjoyed most was the mystery of why the aliens were destroying humanity the way they were. They talk about the dinosaurs being wiped out with one meteor, so why the different waves?  It's cruel, intended to destroy what makes people human, and I found it to be an interesting question I can't wait to explore in the next book.  

I read several reviews before reading the book, trying to gage how much I should lower my expectations, and one thing I found completely wrong was the repeated statement that there was basically no romance in this book. There is. In fact, it's the realistic, perfect amount for the situation. Sure, there's no great declarations of love or overly-detailed make-out scenes, but that would not have fit into the world that's created or the characters. 

I realize this book review is rather vague.  I just didn't want to give anything away and spoil the book for you. So, should you read this?  Absolutely---especially if you loved the first book. It's a nail-biting, heart-pounding adventure, full of betrayal, death, compassion, consequences, and promises.  I'm giving it a strong 4 stars. Now I'm forced to endure until the third book comes out, answers all the questions, and I know who survives this roller coaster.