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kainemone 's review for:
Infinity Son
by Adam Silvera
***I received this ARC as a bookseller and am providing an honest review. These are my thoughts and mine alone. I'm not a professional reviewer, publisher, or author. This is just an honest review of a passionate reader who loves Silvera's writing.***
For the first time reading one of Adam Silvera's books, I'm... Disappointed. This book just doesn't feel like his writing at all. I appreciate what he was trying to do, and I was SO stoke to finally have an LGBTQ fantasy novel. But... This just fell flatn
; too much was crammed into 350 pages.
Everything was glossed over, major events were rushed, characters weren't fleshed out the way they have been in his other books... It made it really hard to care about Emil, the protagonist, and everyone else.
I feel like to many things were being juggled at once. And the ending doesn't feel like an ending at all. There's no real climax (or what's supposed to be the climax is rushed) and what's meant to be a cliffhanger just... Isn't. Then there is the issue of world building--which is non-existant. You're thrown into this world with little to no explanation of its inhabitants (humans, creatures, and celestial alike). When it comes to the 'Blackout', which is meant to be this book defining event, you learn nothing about it. It's mentioned dozens times, but no one actually says what it really is, what happened, and why it's screwed over the Celestials so bad. You get a brief understanding when your introduced to June later in the novel, but it's not nearly comprehensive enough for me to definitively say I know why the Blackout is so important.
The way Silvera handles the LGBTQ protagonist in this book is just weird. Like Emil being gay is used more as a selling point for this 'inclusive fantasy' rather than it being an actual character trait. It's thrown out there at the weirdest moments and totally glossed over. Like you need occasional reminders that the protagonist is queer. At one point I actually found myself surprised that Emil hadn't randomly mused about his sexuality in quite a few pages. Then literally on the next page, there it was. Inserted in the strangest context just to raise a flag and remind the reader that this is an LGBTQ fantasy.
Honestly... It feels like this is a first book rather than a fourth or fifth by an author.
Overall, I'm just really disappointed. But I have faith. Silvera is an amazing author, and I really hope the second book blows away the first. The premise is interesting, with fantasy creatures and magical powers being a part of every day common life. (Funko Pops are mentioned quite a few times through out the novel.) I think it could really be a good series if it just had more of the voice I've come to expect from Silvera's work.
For the first time reading one of Adam Silvera's books, I'm... Disappointed. This book just doesn't feel like his writing at all. I appreciate what he was trying to do, and I was SO stoke to finally have an LGBTQ fantasy novel. But... This just fell flatn
; too much was crammed into 350 pages.
Everything was glossed over, major events were rushed, characters weren't fleshed out the way they have been in his other books... It made it really hard to care about Emil, the protagonist, and everyone else.
I feel like to many things were being juggled at once. And the ending doesn't feel like an ending at all. There's no real climax (or what's supposed to be the climax is rushed) and what's meant to be a cliffhanger just... Isn't. Then there is the issue of world building--which is non-existant. You're thrown into this world with little to no explanation of its inhabitants (humans, creatures, and celestial alike). When it comes to the 'Blackout', which is meant to be this book defining event, you learn nothing about it. It's mentioned dozens times, but no one actually says what it really is, what happened, and why it's screwed over the Celestials so bad. You get a brief understanding when your introduced to June later in the novel, but it's not nearly comprehensive enough for me to definitively say I know why the Blackout is so important.
The way Silvera handles the LGBTQ protagonist in this book is just weird. Like Emil being gay is used more as a selling point for this 'inclusive fantasy' rather than it being an actual character trait. It's thrown out there at the weirdest moments and totally glossed over. Like you need occasional reminders that the protagonist is queer. At one point I actually found myself surprised that Emil hadn't randomly mused about his sexuality in quite a few pages. Then literally on the next page, there it was. Inserted in the strangest context just to raise a flag and remind the reader that this is an LGBTQ fantasy.
Honestly... It feels like this is a first book rather than a fourth or fifth by an author.
Overall, I'm just really disappointed. But I have faith. Silvera is an amazing author, and I really hope the second book blows away the first. The premise is interesting, with fantasy creatures and magical powers being a part of every day common life. (Funko Pops are mentioned quite a few times through out the novel.) I think it could really be a good series if it just had more of the voice I've come to expect from Silvera's work.