#91 Infinity Son

Infinity Son by Adam Silvera

Infinity Son is Adam Silveras first fantasy book. The book follows two main characters, Brighton and Emil who are twin brothers that live in New York City. This book is an urban fantasy so its set in a version of our world however in this world some people have magic powers. They are referred to as celestials and their powers come into being on their 18th birthday. There are also people in this world known as spectres that steal abilities from other worldly beings such as phoenixes and hydras. Brighton and Emil have dreamed of developing powers their entire life but on their birthday Emil develops the powers of the phoenix which are very rare whilst Brighton doesn't. The brothers find themselves amidst a conflict that begins to spiral out of control and thus the story begins. There is a group of celestials known as the Spellwalkers, i think they used to be good but now they are bad (its honestly so confusing) and they you have the Bloodcasts who are the spectre faction.

Oh Adam Adam Adam, where do i even begin? This was a hot mess! The reader is completely thrown into the story, no introductions and no world building and that really doesn't work for a fantasy book. I have read 3 of Adam Silvera's contemporary books and really enjoyed them, im not debating whether he is a good writer as i have enjoyed his stuff in the past but man i dont think fantasy is his genre and im really sad to say it as my hopes were really high for this one and i wanted to love it so much. Infinity Son was released mid January and i must admit i held off on buying it for a while whilst i awaited the early reviews, they weren't great and people weren't taken with this story in the way they were with his other books but im a firm believer in giving something a try and not purely going on others opinions but i must admit i could not get my head around this story at all. The book is told in multi perspective and its incredibly difficult to tell the characters apart as they are written fairly one dimensional. I listened to the audio book via scribd and all the voices sounded the same to me even though there was more than one narrator.

The only thing i liked about this book was the cover :( and that there was a gay character in a YA fantasy novel but thats it. I didn't DNF the book as the audio was only 8 hours (4 on double speed) so i didn't mind giving up my afternoon for it. Im such a advocate for Silveras writing as i love his LGBTQ+ characters and their stories but this really wasn't for me, like at all. It read a bit like Renegades by Marissa Meyer but just not as good. The biggest weakness for me was the sheer lack of world building, there was obviously some good ideas in this book but it just wasn't executed well enough unfortunately. There was SO much going on in this book and i think it would have read so much better if he had stuck to two perspectives instead of adding in side characters with added plots, that would have been an idea for the later books in the trilogy but a bit much for the first book. I really struggled to remember who was who, how they were relevant, what type of magic they had and what faction they belonged to. In all honesty reading should not be that difficult.