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Infinity Son

(Infinity Cycle #1)

Adam Silvera (Goodreads Author)

3.49 · Rating details · 282 ratings · 193 reviews

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 ...more

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Hardcover, 368 pages

Expected publication: January 14th 2020 by HarperTeen

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Infinity Son (Infinity Cycle, #1)
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Adam Silvera (Goodreads Author)

Release date: Jan 14, 2020

Balancing epic and intensely personal stakes, bestselling author Adam Silvera’s Infinity Son is a gritty, fast-paced adventure about two brothers ...more

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Giveaway dates: Nov 18 - Dec 16, 2019

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Mar 21, 2017 Adam Silvera added it · (Review from the author) · review of another edition

Hint: PHOENIXES.

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Mar 08, 2017 Kai rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: owned, overrated, queer

A phoenix might live forever but my hopes just died with this book.

You might be shaking your head, thinking One star, for real? Bit of a dramatic move. Well, that makes two of us. I didn’t have high expectations when I started this book – both What If It's Us and They Both Die at the End were disappointing – and I thought I’d rate this with two stars, maybe three. The first few chapters were rocky but then I started to enjoy myself. And around the 100-page mark, it all went downhill again. So A phoenix might live forever but my hopes just died with this book.

You might be shaking your head, thinking One star, for real? Bit of a dramatic move. Well, that makes two of us. I didn’t have high expectations when I started this book – both What If It's Us and They Both Die at the End were disappointing – and I thought I’d rate this with two stars, maybe three. The first few chapters were rocky but then I started to enjoy myself. And around the 100-page mark, it all went downhill again. So much that I can’t justify giving more than one star. Never in my life did I think I’d rate a Silvera book so low.

Let’s start with something positive. I’m glad that a fantasy book with a gay main character written by a gay Latinx author receives such a hype. That would not have been possible ten or even five years ago. In addition, Infinity Son has lots of queer characters and people of colour, so the representation is there. Infinity Son also touches on the subject of body image, which seems to be a very important topic for the author. Now I wish all of this had been received a good plot and characters too but that’s not the case.

The world-building is non-existent. You are thrown into this world without any information and you have to make all the pieces fit somehow. Specters, Blood Casters, Spell Walkers, Celestials…I still have no idea what the latter is. There is no mention of the history of magical creatures such as phoenixes, how they came to be, what their relationship with humans is/was like.
The biggest problem though is the pacing. Attention to detail is crucial when you build any fantasy world. I’m not a fan of Cassandra Clare’s but what can be said for her is that she took her time introducing the characters, the magical object, the legends and lore. And we do get a glimpse of that at the beginning of the book when we learn about all the different sorts of phoenixes that exist. But with Silvera it’s mostly dialogue and then we dive straight into the action. There is no room for the magical world to unfold, for us to wonder about certain characters as we slowly get to know them.
That’s another major problem: Silvera hands you all the solutions to what could have been exciting mysteries on a silver platter approximately two pages after the mystery was created. When he doesn’t, the reveal or plot twist is easily predictable. And as I mentioned before, we don’t get to know the characters. There are loads of them. They’re from different backgrounds, different sides of the war, with different abilities and complicated relationships with one another. But then why do they so entirely interchangeable? The only person who has a distinct voice is Brighton, one of the two main characters. He may be annoying and self-centred and fame-hungry, but he totally has that down. It makes him unique, which is more than I can say for every other character. They don’t have depth, and as a result, I didn’t care whether they lived or died.

Let’s also talk about clichés. And the fact that they’re really not that bad when they’re a) gay and b) executed well enough. The thing is though, being “the Chosen One” doesn’t all of a sudden seem less realistic because you start pointing out how much of a cliché it is. It just makes it ridiculous. Then we of course have the tortured main character torn between fighting the good cause and not wanting to hurt and kill people. Which is a valid struggle but then make me feel it! (view spoiler)

What I’ll never understand is why authors won’t just call magic & superpowers “magic” & “superpowers”. Instead, we get “gleamcraft”. This is not the first time Adam used weird synonyms in his books to reference concepts (or fandoms) that already exist in fiction. But just because Rainbow Rowell did it doesn’t mean we all have to. It didn’t work for her, and it sure didn’t work for Adam.

If someone had given me this book ten years ago I would have eaten it up as twelve-year-olds tend to do. But this is Adam’s 5th book and I don’t understand how it turned out to be so amateurish. This was worse than everything he’s published before. Yes, I didn’t have high hopes for Infinity Son. I wanted to love it. But I’m disappointed to say that I was right.

Find more of my books on Instagram ...more

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Apr 17, 2019 Chaima ✨ شيماء marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Shelves: poc-rep, young-adult, lgbtqia-rep, 2020-releases, fiction

Adam Silvera + fantasy + gay is a combination that can defeat Thanos

flag 436 likes · Like · see review

Jul 23, 2019 Hamad rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: good-covers, 2019-reads, arcs, e-books

This Review Blog Twitter Instagram

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

I am going to be the villain in this story and say that maybe Adam should stick to writing contemporary novels and I am going to explain why. I initially gave the book 3 stars as I felt pressured to do so in support of Adam but that would not be honest. I think 2 stars is a rating I feel more comfortable with.

You see, there is an idea and it ...more

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Jul 04, 2017 emi marked it as to-read · review of another edition

I can't believe we are to be #blessed with an Adam Silvera fantasy book.

We don't deserve this.

~~I may or may not be stalking his social media everyday in hopes of just a sneak peak at this book. Love you Adam.~~

flag 75 likes · Like · see review

May 09, 2017 Farith marked it as need-this-like-air · review of another edition

A FANTASY BOOK BY ADAM SILVERA??

flag 71 likes · Like · see review

Apr 17, 2019 ✨ jamieson ✨ marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Shelves: anticipated-2020

INFINITY SON. 2020. ADAM SILVERA FANTASY. GAY FANTASY. YEE FUCKING HAW THIS IS NOT A DRILL

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Apr 22, 2019 megs_bookrack marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Adam Silvera writes fantasy!?!?
...I'm bringing my tissues...

Y'all know it's gonna hurt.

flag 47 likes · Like · see review

Mar 21, 2017 Cody Roecker rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

UPDATE 7/20:

Dreams have come true. I have finished this brutal book, and am so incredibly in love with each and every character.

Update: 7/13/19

Hell. Fucking. Yes. I. Need. This. Now.

Update: 12/2/18
Honestly it doesnt matter what this is, I'm sure to love it, and its sure to burn me to ashes so...I'm ready for.it
update 5/26/17: I have a theory that probably isn't true but would be cool.

what if this is the Scorpius Hawthorne series that are mentioned in his other books? I would die, tbh.

I am ...more

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Jan 23, 2018 N (they/them) marked it as unreleased

01/23/18
Does this book have a release date? No
Does this book have a cover? No
Does this book have a title? No
Am I going to add to my anticipated releases shelf? Of course I am, it's by Adam Silvera...

flag 44 likes · Like · see review

Nov 17, 2017 Elise (TheBookishActress) marked it as please-give-me-ii · review of another edition

Shelves: tbr-for-the-gays, i-love-these-authors

thanks for my life Adam

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Nov 09, 2018 Xandra (StarrySkyBooks) is currently reading it · review of another edition

UPDATE #2: It happened. I received the notice this morning! I got an eARC!

//

UPDATE: ADAM JUST RELEASED THE TITLE - It’s called “Infinity Son” !!!! - AND ITS GOING TO BE A SERIES?? I AM NOT OKAY
SOMEONE HOLD ME

(PS I also made a blog post!)

//

Fantasy AND Adam Silvera? Count me 110% in. ...more

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Aug 02, 2019 Sol ~ TheBookishKing rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: dnf, diverse, e-arcs, cover-lovin, lgbtqiap, absolute-trash, latinx, edelweiss

This book had so many elements that would have made me It's Bitch.

~ queer Latino main characters
~ a beautiful cover
~ magic and magical birds
~ Latinx families and upbringing

but this felt like I was reading a little kids third-grade free time essay ,,, it's messy, the writing isn't good at all, the storyline is so jumbled it just doesn't make sense, and on top of that this magic system isn't explained at ALL and it just throws you in expecting you to just know what all these terms mean. After ...more

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Aug 04, 2019 Jaye Berry rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2019, fantasy, ebooks

*Record scratch, freeze frame* So you're probably wondering how I got in this situation.

A couple days ago:
Friend: Hey I got an arc of Infinity Son do you want to borrow?
Me, knowing damn well I don't like Adam Silvera's writing: Sure!

And another 1 star book is born.

***

In other news: for as much as I've heard Adam Silvera talk about this book and how excited he was to write it, I really thought this would be a high fantasy but no. This is an urban fantasy with a magic system that never really ...more

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Sep 04, 2019 Claire ✨ rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: category-age-ya, great-concept-shoddy-execution, category-genre-contemporary, advanced-reader-copy, overhyped-and-underwhelming, rated-1-star, reviewed, category-genre-fantasy

An amateurish first draft of a book, INFINITY SON drags itself through juvenile writing and lifeless characters in a poorly-built world.

Yikes. I had never read an Adam Silvera book before INFINITY SON... and safe to say I'll probably not read anything else by him again.

His contemporaries, the premises of which don't interest me, are praised to the moon and back, so naturally when I heard he was writing a fantasy I was immediately piqued. INFINITY SON is about a teen in modern New York thrust ...more

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Apr 28, 2018 Cassandra {semi-hiatus} marked it as to-read

I love how we’re all at the point where we can say that we will read a book without a synopsis or title just because the master of all sass Adam Silvera wrote it.

What a time to be alive. :)

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Jul 24, 2019 Sabrina rated it it was ok · review of another edition

I can't fucking believe that I got a ARC of this book.

This had a unique concept (that I think wasn't executed as well as it could have been), multiple pov, a okay writing and LGBT representation.

-----

ARC received from publishers via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review

Official release date: 14th January 2020.

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May 26, 2019 Tucker marked it as not-released-tbr · review of another edition

Shelves: reviewed

well, Dhonielle Clayton told me that i "have to get myself a copy"

so...

i will...

THROUGH ANY MEANS NECESSARY

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Aug 04, 2019 Clephiro (The Book Coven) rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: ya, fantasy, lgbtq, arc

Wow. Well, that will be my last Adam Silvera novel. I hope he finds his audience, but it is not me. The whole narration style is written as if by a 15-year-old boy, 5 years in the past. So the whole book is stuffed with what feels antiquated slang. Coupled with the super casual narration that uses absurd comparisons, and I just couldn't. The writing style will work for someone, that someone is not me.

The plot is a mash-up of x-men and Harry Potter with much better diversity. Unfortunately, I ...more

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Aug 04, 2019 turniip rated it did not like it · review of another edition

I apologize for the gif use but... I really needed it today. Lindsay's my entire mood on this book.

I didn't like What if it's Us but I'd never read any Adam Silvera before that, and we all know I'm really a fantasy slut, so while I went in with very low expectations, there was a chance that I'd vibe more with this book. But it did not happen, and I'm left very confused about what I just read.

Look, I appreciate the author's note he wrote so much. I look for representation in what I'm reading too, and I'm happy that younger generations are getting to see themselves in stories. I respect that and will not belittle that this book contains a gay protagonist, multiple queer ships, reference of a genderqueer person (I can't really call them a character because they're... not), and normalization of diversity, if at times a bit repetitive.

But for my subjective eyes, this book was bad. The writing is so lacking in description that I'm almost thankful it's an urban fantasy because otherwise I'd have no idea where we were. The fight scenes are so cut and dry and over in two paragraphs that it felt like they were there out of necessity but lacking any passion. The dialogue serves to give every plot twist, giving no characters the chance to realize things for themselves, and was so melodramatic at times that I rolled my eyes.

Emil and Brighton were, for me, completely unlikable. They're both prioritizing all the wrong things at the wrong moments, and if I had to hear more about Emil's instagram or Brighton's youtube, I was going to screech, even with Brighton's "so selfless" motive. Dude wants attention and I'm Tired. They were simultaneously obsessed with social media (Brighton even insists on taking credit for the idea to memorialize someone on instagram, which just sealed in how annoying he was to me) while shitting on it: “...others get out their phones to record. Maybe if I was their favorite show that was about to get canceled they would care more, but instead I’m about to become a headline they’ll glimpse before moving on” ch. 7(this is from an arc and subject to change). This line in particular annoyed me because it happens early in the book and then they continue to constantly use and misuse social media to try to benefit their cause (which I really just could have done without because it felt lame and the implications at the end make it seem like it's a slippery slope from craving internet attention to Bad Things).

The plot and the villain were very underdeveloped, in my opinion. The villain is present a lot but no real development happens, just repetition of goals and some twists of "oh wow look who talks to me!!" There was no real reason to care about stopping the villain other than "more of what's been happening will continue and maybe worse but no specifics!" - there were personal incentives on the "good" side because of past actions but we had no real reason to care about these characters aside from their standing and these backstories, so it became and endless cycle of me trying to care and being unable to actually feel like there were high stakes.

The magic system didn't work for me at all - there's nothing else to say there. It felt corny and like an x-men ripoff (kinda the entire book, really, good mutants v bad mutants and all) and I, again, couldn't bring myself to care.

I can't recommend this book to anyone but people who enjoy the author's other works, because then maybe his plot choices and writing style here will work for you, but it was a huge miss for me and my friends.

1/5 ...more

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Nov 14, 2019 Sara rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: arc, lgbtq, young-adult, fiction, fantasy

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Infinity Son is the story of two brothers, power wars and phoenixes as a vigilante group rises up against those who seek to steal magic for themselves.

Although I liked the premise for this, I unfortunately think it was poorly executed. For one, there are too many perspectives, making the story unnecessarily confusing and convoluted. The world building is also none existent, with the magical system hardly explained at all leaving I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Infinity Son is the story of two brothers, power wars and phoenixes as a vigilante group rises up against those who seek to steal magic for themselves.

Although I liked the premise for this, I unfortunately think it was poorly executed. For one, there are too many perspectives, making the story unnecessarily confusing and convoluted. The world building is also none existent, with the magical system hardly explained at all leaving too many unexplained elements and unanswered questions. On finishing, I still couldn’t tell you exactly what Spell Walkers can really do, or why. It feels almost as thought the author tried to ground the fantasy world within our own and then add bits of magic to it as an afterthought, and it just all felt a bit messy as a result.

I also found the main characters unlikeable, or boring. Brighton is single minded, self centred and condescending - especially to his brother, who he’s suppose to love unconditionally. That love didn’t really come across to me, and felt forced. However, at least he was memorable. Emil by comparison is just a bit weak willed, and boring. He wants a quiet life, and it shows. He’s rather lack lustre, one dimensional and completely forgettable. I will say that I liked his diversity, and felt that this aspect of his personality was a breath of fresh air to the genre. I just wish he was a better, full rounded character to represent the LGBTQ community more positively within the fantasy genre. All the other characters are also forgettable and bland. I feel like the author should have concentrated on building the personality of the brothers more, instead of diluting their personalities by adding in all these different (uninteresting) perspectives.

I also found the plot predictable, full of tropes and cliches and painfully slow paced. There was nothing exciting about it, and when combined with my dislike for the characters I ended up not caring at all about the story. Full of promise, but this one failed to deliver. ...more

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Oct 06, 2019 Ben Jackson rated it did not like it · review of another edition

This is the first bad review I have written and it pains me a bit to do it because I was really, really (stand in a queue for hours) excited for this. All the ingredients for a great book were there; a gay, diverse fantasy novel, written by a talented author and Harry Potter Fan?!! What more could a fellow gay Harry Potter fan really ask for? But it turned into my biggest literacy disappointment of the year (ok the decade) so far. The best bit about it was the author's note at the start.

The book This is the first bad review I have written and it pains me a bit to do it because I was really, really (stand in a queue for hours) excited for this. All the ingredients for a great book were there; a gay, diverse fantasy novel, written by a talented author and Harry Potter Fan?!! What more could a fellow gay Harry Potter fan really ask for? But it turned into my biggest literacy disappointment of the year (ok the decade) so far. The best bit about it was the author's note at the start.

The book is set in some sort of magical version of New York. Luckily most people have an idea of what New York looks like as there was no world building at all. Imagine when you wake up from a dream and you are trying to remember it, but its all just blurry images and you can’t quite remember enough for it to make sense - thats how I felt when reading most of the book. There were words thrown about referring to different types of magical humans, but there was no explanation as to what these were - it would have been nice if we could have learnt at some point (ideally early on) some history about ‘Celestials’.

At around page 100 I thought it was all getting more interesting, a potential love interest was introduced and we got a little bit of history about phoenixes. Unfortunately this improvement lasted about a chapter. The book is basically a smash up of events and a couple of twists with no real flow. Two of the twists were basically the same thing happening to two different characters. Some story fillers every now and then might have helped with flow and given some sorely needed enrichment and substance to the world and its characters. I didn’t feel like I got to know or like the characters and so I just didn’t care enough about them for the twists to really provoke any sort of reaction in me (apart from mild exasperation at the second twist). There truly is a lack of character development and the two main POV’s are not really likeable. I thought I would like Emil but he became very whiny and also treated his mum like shit. Yes, she kept something from him because she thought that was the best thing to do. She also gave him a loving home for the last 18 years. I found his behaviour towards her childish and ungrateful. There are also too many POV’s - I would have been happier with one. If there really HAD to be more than one then a slight difference of writing style between the different POV’s might have been nice.

The story on the whole was very disappointing. I was expecting a magical book with some gay romance thrown in but this was far from that. It was as magical as a badly executed marvel movie and the romance involved prisoner and captor falling for each other with some physical violence thrown in.

The storytelling was unskillful and surprisingly amateur for such an established, experienced and talented author. I’m surprised the editor didn’t call for a rewrite. Unfortunately I think the publisher knows that the author’s name along with the books premise will sell copies, so they are probably not too bothered about the quality of the writing and the story. Ive honestly read better fan fiction. Some of the metaphors and comparisons were really strange - it was like the author was trying to be original but it came off as if he had asked a ten year old to think of a metaphor for him. There was also sometimes such a lack of imagination and abruptness when explaining events that should have been really exciting and thrilling, as though there was a bullet-pointed chapter outline and then there wasn’t time to flesh out the bullet-points so they were just organised into a sentence. Also the villain sucks so bad I almost forgot there was one whilst writing this review.

I am grateful to the author for what he has attempted to do and perhaps it opens the door for a fantasy sub-genre - but if you are searching for a diverse, queer, magical, Harry Potter-esq story; keep looking, you definitely won’t find it here. I’m still holding out for it because I think it’s really important that people see themselves represented in the books they read and grow up loving - I can’t imagine what that would have done for me as a teenager. So lets not settle for something that seems like its just reached publishing stage because a publisher knows it will sell, when we could have something queer and diverse that has substance, developed characters, an amazing plot, and a world you just want to delve into and experience again and again in all its gay glory. ...more

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Aug 25, 2019 Magdalena Deniz rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: lost-interest

Okay, so this is Bad.

(I have a lot to say, both about the book and its author and the fandom circulating around both, but I will start with the book.)

There is absolutely no world-building. The reader is violently catapulted into this fantasy/magical version of modern NYC. There are people called celestials (they have powers) and also there are specters (they also have powers, but they got them the Bad Way by drinking magical creature blood) and there are Spell Walkers (who do god knows what. Okay, so this is Bad.

(I have a lot to say, both about the book and its author and the fandom circulating around both, but I will start with the book.)

There is absolutely no world-building. The reader is violently catapulted into this fantasy/magical version of modern NYC. There are people called celestials (they have powers) and also there are specters (they also have powers, but they got them the Bad Way by drinking magical creature blood) and there are Spell Walkers (who do god knows what. Seriously, they go after specters and celestials, but no reason is given. like what the fuck is their purpose?). Adam Silvera has an entire fantasy world up in his head, with absolutely no way to communicate it. And, frankly, that's very disappointing. This is his fifth book. He should know how to clear things up for the reader. And also, he states in his author's note that he has wanted to write this book for 10 years. That is more than enough time to put together a brief explanation as to what the fuck the point is of all these people with powers.

Now let's get to the characters, Emil and Brighton. It's like Adam Silvera split up his personality, and projected them completely onto them. He tends to do this in all of his books (especially in What If It's Us...), but here, it's just downright cringey. Neither of the main characters is likable. All they do is whine about unimportant shit, and they're so self-absorbed, I want to hit them. I got to page 100 and realized I could not connect even the tiniest bit with either, which is just bad character writing, plain and simple. If by page 100 in a 300-page book, the reader still feels like the main character is a complete and total stranger, you're doing it wrong.

Now to the really important thing: This book shouldn't be successful. From what I read in the manuscript, it was rushed, poorly executed, and there was a complete and total lack of communication through the narration of the author's ideas to the readers. But knowing what happened with What if it's Us, this book is going to be a hit, and here's why: Because it features a gay poc romance.

I believe in representation. I believe it is important to shine a light on lgbtq+ relationships and ESPECIALLY lgbtq people of color, and their stories. I believe full-heartedly that there should be more books about heroes who aren't cis, straight, and white. But I also believe in good writing. And I think that lgbtq characters of color deserve to be in well written, well-developed books. Not this. Not anything like this.

To me, I feel like this book will become popular not because other lgbtq teens of color read and enjoy it (although if they do, it is fine, this review is just my opinion), but because 13-year-old cis straight girls who fetishize gay romance will read this just so they can add Emil to their "my gay sons" list. It's gross, and it's weird and it's disgusting, but it's the truth. Adam Silvera's books feed this particular audience; I have too many memories of bookcon when What if it's Us was coming out, all of them filled with me cringing at cis, straight preteen girls squealing over the fact that they had the chance to win an ARC of a gay romance book. I did not see ONE lgbtq person of color reacting to the book in that way. It was loved only because it featured a mlm relationship-- one that was, by the way, extremely unhealthy, with both characters being obsessive and weirdly possessive with one another, and their arguments being so nasty, I consider it to be verbal abuse. They feed off of it, and it's despicable.

I read the Infinity Son manuscript and only made it through 150 pages. That's halfway through the book. I did not like this book. Simply put: Adam Silvera should be better at writing by now. Yet this book reads as if it's the very first words he's ever written down on a page. There is no development of characters. There is no world-building. There is no clear, concise explanation as to what the fuck everything is in this new, magical world. There is only confusion, and random, dramatic cliches hrown in just for shock value, or for an easy explanation that doesn't require much thought. Things happen out of nowhere. Nothing makes sense. Nothing in this book has a purpose. This book has no direction. It's predictable and just plain wrong, and I really hope other people see that, too. But no one will say this for fear of looking mean. I think there are other lgbtq+ authors who are also people of color who have books and stories to tell, but they don't have the following or the means to share their books to the public in such a widespread way that Adam silvera does. This in itself is an injustice; we should not continue highlighting the same voice when he continues to fail and fail again, we should be branching out and discovering new talent that can actually shed a positive, beautiful light on necessary stories, like what Infinity Son should have been. ...more

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Apr 17, 2019 Lauren Lanzilotta marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Looks like our Lord and Saviour has chosen January 2020 to officially save YA fantasy.

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Jul 10, 2019 Acqua marked it as dnf-lost-interest · review of another edition

DNF @40%

This would have worked wonderfully as a comic book, and I think that it would also make a solid movie, because the bones of the story are there and there's a lot of potential (urban fantasy novel in which the gay Puerto Rican main character gets to be the chosen one!), plenty of which would also lie in the visuals (It's about modern-day Phoenixes, which as a concept is inherently cool.)

However, in the state it is currently? I read an ARC, but I think this needed at least another serious ...more

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Jul 31, 2019 *mk* rated it it was ok · review of another edition

DNF at 30% This book just isn’t for me, for several reasons. One, I’ve only ever really liked different perspectives in one book: Six of Crows. I’ve tolerated it in some other books, where it made sense. There were already four perspectives 30% of the way through and I honestly couldn’t keep track. This wasn’t helped by the jumbled world building. Now that I think about it, I don’t think I’ve ever enjoyed a fantasy book that is set in the modern day. I also prefer a slower beginning, especially ...more

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Jun 02, 2019 megs_bookrack marked it as to-read

Shelves: 2020-releases

...optimistically places on '2020-bookshelf'...

It's Pride Month and I believe in MAGIC ...more

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Aug 01, 2019 Ellie (faerieontheshelf) marked it as dnf-or-lost-interest · review of another edition

Shelves: recieved-for-review, lgbtq, urban-fantasy, fantasy

I’ve not read a Silvera book before but I’ve heard loads of great things, which was why I was incredibly intrigued about INFINITY SON. But sadly for now it’s a DNF and I’ll be passing my proof copy onto someone who will hopefully love it a lot more.

Everything just seemed to be going wrong for me: I didn’t sync with the writing style; I wasn’t in the mood; the worldbuilding was clunky and ill-explained and I was confused from the start; it wasn’t original enough to keep my attention and felt very ...more

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Aug 13, 2019 Bex rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: arc-s, reviews

Emil and Brighton are brothers who idolise a vigilante group known as Spell Walkers. Spell Walkers are attempting to rid the world of beings known as Spectres who are cruelly stealing the lives of endangered creatures to absorb their power. When Emil suddenly manifests powers of his own he his forced into the action he wanted to avoid, whilst Brighton is jealous that Emil could become the Spell Walker Brighton always dreamed of being.

There are some fun ideas within this novel, not least of all Emil and Brighton are brothers who idolise a vigilante group known as Spell Walkers. Spell Walkers are attempting to rid the world of beings known as Spectres who are cruelly stealing the lives of endangered creatures to absorb their power. When Emil suddenly manifests powers of his own he his forced into the action he wanted to avoid, whilst Brighton is jealous that Emil could become the Spell Walker Brighton always dreamed of being.

There are some fun ideas within this novel, not least of all the phoenixes – I loved reading about the different types and I felt like this was probably the largest piece of world building and development within the novel. Unfortunately that was precisely the problem – there was no world building.

The beginning of the story very much feels like the middle of it – the characters are hardly introduced, lots of terms (Blood Caster, Spell Walker, Spectre, Celestial, Gleamcraft) are used frequently with no explanation (I still have no idea what a Celestial even is) and they feel out of place within the world. Equally, a terrible Blackout is supposed to have occurred but, short of being told it was the worst thing to ever happen, we know nothing else about it to contextualise it or use it to visualise the setting. I think the intention here was for there to be a truly magical fantasy setting in which the various magical items, like wands for instance, would seamlessly fit into the story. But that isn’t the case, in fact many of these things (especially the wands!) feel really out of place and were quite jarring additions. Gleamcraft for instance was just a fancy way of saying magic – this might work in a high fantasy novel, but not in a half-contemporary-half-fantasy hybrid novel set in a normal place.

I really can’t tell you very much about the world aside from the terms used, because it was completely underdeveloped. Equally the characters felt really superficial, with both Emil and Brighton’s narrative voices blending into one and neither of their voices was likeable – when you have to check which perspective you’re reading from multiple times during a chapter you know something is amiss! On the bright side, Silvera injects an especially diverse cast of characters within this novel, which I really loved, and the cast is huge which could be interesting in later books in the series. Typically such a large cast would be tricky to keep track of but this was portrayed well, particularly because a number of the characters stood out because of their abilities.

This is my first Adam Silvera book and I am so disappointed I didn’t start with one of his contemporary novels because his venture into fantasy writing was difficult to follow and, really, it felt like a contemporary author was trying out fantasy for size. I won’t be carrying on with this series.

ARC provided free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
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Aug 22, 2019 Lunabookaddict rated it it was ok · review of another edition

wow I'm so disappointed actually

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YA Buddy Readers'...: Infinity Son by Adam Silvera - Starting August 3rd 2019	25	24	Aug 05, 2019 09:34AM

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About Adam Silvera

Adam Silvera

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Adam Silvera is the New York Times bestselling author of More Happy Than Not, History Is All You Left Me, and They Both Die at the End. His next book What If It's Us is co-written by Becky Albertalli (Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda) and releases on October 9th, 2018.
He writes full-time in New York City and is tall for no reason.