The Infinite Sea (The 5th Wave, #2) in Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge

Oct 18, 2014 Nadine in NY Jones rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fantasy-and-sci-fi, young-adult, aliens, dystopian-and-post-apocalyptic, stayed-up-way-too-late

squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee I've got it! it's in my sweaty little mitts RIGHT NOW

First of all, at about 25% of the way in, I gotta say I'm sorry it's been so long since I finished the last book. Because towards the end of that one I felt like I had a handle on things. It all fit. But now I'm all "glow - don't glow - infested or not - glow don't glow ... Why would she want to glow if she just shot someone who is glowing?" And I had forgotten who everyone was, so in the first part, I was reading Ringer squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee I've got it! it's in my sweaty little mitts RIGHT NOW

First of all, at about 25% of the way in, I gotta say I'm sorry it's been so long since I finished the last book. Because towards the end of that one I felt like I had a handle on things. It all fit. But now I'm all "glow - don't glow - infested or not - glow don't glow ... Why would she want to glow if she just shot someone who is glowing?" And I had forgotten who everyone was, so in the first part, I was reading Ringer as a guy ... There was no hint that she might be a gal ... So when she mused briefly about kissing Ben, I thought that was deliciously radical! " ooh the world is so changed that men feel comfortable if they briefly consider kissing men!" But, no. Ringer is a young woman. So okay then. It was interesting that I assumed she was a man. Does this mean I need to reconsider what a female's inner voice might sound like, or that Mr Yancey can't write the female voice very well?

AT the 50% mark! I was completely focused. By the 75% mark I Could Not Put it Down. I stayed up as late as it took (which happily wasn't TOO late).

In sum, I found this to be just as fantastic as the first book. I enjoyed the varying POVs, and never found any of the voices to be less interesting than another (although I do admit a small preference for Ringer). The action takes place over the span of about a month (there is a certain disconnect in time, because Cassie's / Zombie's storyline seems to be just a few days, but Ringer's parallel story is longer). The action is nonstop, the dystopia is satisfyingly grim, the characters are engaging, the good guy / bad guy twists are nicely done (I admit to being surprised by a twist or two) ... It's all good.

Gotta love Ringer.

She disconnects the IV and steps back quickly, as if she's afraid I'll leap from the bed and strangle her. Strangling her did occur to me, briefly, but I'd rather stab her to death with a pocketknife. I don't know how many stabs that would take. A lot, probably.

This book raises more questions than the first. Now, not only are we wondering why the aliens are here, and why they are attacking the way they are, but we are also wondering (well, I'M wondering) why Vosch did what he did and why he told Ringer what he did. How much can be trusted? WHO can be trusted?

While I was reading, I think I finally remembered the glow / don't glow thing from book 1. It went something like this: Recruits with an implant glow (and I suppose aliens also have implants, so they also glow), regular people don't glow. The aliens recruited humans and fooled them into thinking they were being trained to fight aliens, when actually they were being trained to kill other humans FOR the aliens. The aliens implanted the recruits, and gave them a scope that allowed them to see other recruits glowing. Then then aliens told the recruits that anyone who does NOT glow is "infested" with an alien. But the reality, of course, was that a non-glow was a regular non-recruited human. (Gahhh I got that whole thing wrong!) Humans with implants do NOT glow, humans WITH implants DO glow, and the recruits were initially told that the green glow means an alien. But of course the green glow just means a human "in the wild" so to speak, without an implant. Ringer, Zombie, Cassie and company have escaped the recruit camp, but they don't want to be caught, so they are still trying to look like recruits, which is why they are carrying around implants, so that they LOOK like recruits, and thus will not be shot by other (still brainwashed) recruits. Phew!

To avoid that confusion when book 3 finally comes out, I'm going to leave myself a little book 2 summary here. Don't read this, it will contain spoilers, and will be generally very boring.

DON'T READ THE SPOILER!!! IT IS REALLY A TOTAL SPOILER!!!!!

(view spoiler)[ When book 2 opens, Cassie, Ben/Zombie, Marika/Ringer, Sam/Nugget, Dumbo, Poundcake, and Teacup are holed up in an old hotel. (Ringer, lest we forget, is named because she turned out to be such an excellent shot, the drill sergeant wondered if she was a ringer; Zombie is named for the cold hard zombie stare he has sometimes; Zombie also happened to go to school w/ Cassie and be the class heartthrob/jock back in the "old days".) Winter is coming on fast. Zombie found a brochure to some nearby caves that stay at 75 degrees all year round - sounds like heaven! but maybe they are already inhabited by trigger-happy humans, or possibly by aliens or recruits. Ringer will run recon and come back in three days. ....

Meanwhile, Cassie is waiting for Evan Walker, the Silencer alien she fell in love with, to come back to her after helping them blow up the recruit camp and escape in book 1. ... Ringer heads out, Teacup (who is madly in love with Ringer as a mommy-figure) follows later, Ringer accidentally shoots Teacup (thinking she is an enemy recruit closing in on her), and at that moment alien helicopters are closing in. Ringer allows herself and Teacup to be captured (and scanned by Wonderland, which is alien tech to download all your memories) because it is the only chance Teacup has to survive. Cassie sees Teacup sneak away, and she and Zombie send Poundcake out after them ...

MEANWHILE Evan is burned and broken (literally) but on his way to meet up w/ Cassie at the hotel - their pre-arranged meeting point - but he is found by Grace, another Silencer. Grace patches him up, and then he attacks her and escapes so he can hot foot it to Cassie. He pushes his body so hard that the alien enhancements within breakdown. Grace, meanwhile, is not dead, and follows him. Evan sets it up so that aliens find them, and he runs while she fights them off (since she is at this point out of her zone, where she should not be).

Evan arrives in the hotel, chaos ensues, he knocks out Zombie (who is suffering from a gutshot wound delivered by Ringer that was part of their previous escape in book 1) and Dumbo, Sam opens fire but doesn't hit him, and then Cassie shoots him in the knee - the same place he shot her in book 1. Grace shows up. At some point Poundcake receives a soon-to-be-fatal gunshot from Grace. Evan stays behind to deal w/ Grace while Cassie, Zombie, Sam, Megan (new character) and Dumbo get the hell out of Dodge. Poundcake blows up the hotel with an IED they dug out of Megan's throat, killing Grace and Evan as well as himself. One assumes. But maybe no one is ever really dead here ...

MEANWHILE, Ringer has been superduper enhanced by the aliens, and Vosch gives her all kinds of interesting tidbits about the aliens purposes ... then Razor (who had been guarding her) helps her escape Vosch's clutches, but then it turns out that Razor was on their side all along and this was just a final test set up by Vosch, but then Razor has a change of heart again, and at the last minute (after some impromptu sexy times with Ringer in some abandoned warehouse somewhere) shoots Teacup and is then shot by some other recruit, allowing Ringer to make a run for it. She runs. ...

Somehow, Evan survived the explosion at the hotel and he joins up with Cassie. Hopefully that covers all the highlights I might need to know in book 3!!

Here is a quote from the book that kind of wraps up all the reveals that Vosch shares with Ringer:

His boot slams into my neck and stamps down.

"What is the answer, Marika?"

He doesn't have to explain. Finally, I understand the question. Finally, I get the riddle: He isn't asking about our answer to the problem of them. He never was. He's asking about their answer to the problem of us.

So I say, "Nothing. Nothing is the answer. They're not here. They never were."

"Who? Who's not here?"

My mouth is full of blood. I swallow. "The risk ... "

"Yes. Very good. The risk is the key."

"They're not here. There are no entities downloaded into human bodies. No alien consciousness inside anyone. Because of the risk. The risk. The risk is unacceptable. It's a ... a program, a delusional construct. Inserted into their mind before they were born, switched on when they reached puberty - a lie, it's a lie. They're human. Enhanced like me, but human ... human like me."

"And me? If you are human, what am I?"

"I don't know ..."

The boot presses down, crushing my cheek against the concrete.

"What am I?"

"I don't know. The controller. The director. I don't know. The one chosen to ... I don't know. I don't know."

"Am I human?"

"I don't know!" And I didn't. We'd come to the place I could not go. The place from which I could not return. Above: the boot. Below: the abyss. "But if you are human ..."

"Yes. Finish it. If am I human ... what?"

I am drowning in blood. Not mine. The blood of the billions who died before me, an infinite sea of blood that envelops me and bears me down to the lightless bottom.

"If you are human, there is no hope."

So, basically, according to THAT ... Evan (and Grace!) really IS a human! Which would explain why he could fall in love with another human. But that would seem to introduce a bigger risk: humans have human feelings, he can't be the only one to "go rogue."

Other questions:
Why did Vosch tell Ringer all that?
Can Evan be trusted? (how DID he survive the explosion?)
Are the child-IEDs real? Or yet another set-up to sow fear and mistrust?
(hide spoiler)] ...more

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Dec 27, 2015 Una rated it liked it

I didn't like it as much as the first one but the story kept me reading and I must admit I am curious to see how Hollywood will interpret this in a movie. ...more

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Aug 15, 2014 Julie rated it really liked it

Shelves: teen, dystopian, fantasy-scifi

Love this series! The 2nd book started out a little slow, but I was on the edge of my seat the last 200 pages. I like that the secondary characters in the first book became primary characters in this book. I would definitely put this in the same vein as The Hunger Games. Deeper thought into bigger issues. Can't wait for the last book to come out!! Highly recommended. ...more

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