In the beginning I was really excited as I had read some books by Adam Silvera and enjoyed it. Then I saw the first reviews coming in being very mixed. This is one of the reasons why I started putting off reading the ARC netgalley graciously provided me with. In the end I am very glad I did read it and did not listen to the mixed reviews whatsoever.

I do think the worldbuilding and pacing might be the biggest issue but because this is not an epic fantasy and there is not too much about the world that I need to understand to understand the overall story it is an element that I am ok with de-prioritizing. I can see how readers who find both of these things to be an if not the most important element of a good book could potentially struggle with Infinity Son. I do think I also benefited from reading this in a rather short amount of time (in two sittings) - it did not feel as stretched and disconnected as it could if I would have taken more breaks in between. I might have had a harder time getting back into the story with more breaks.
I thoroughly enjoyed the characters and the plot. It was not my favorite story but I am also generally not into superhero stories and I think this one has a lot of parallels to that type of story. I do think that the book could do with a bit more depth but with the worldbuilding and depth that this still could do this easily would become a heavy tome which I then would not be willing to invest for this type of story.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an advance copy of the book in exchange for this honest review.

I will not be giving feedback on this book as I couldn’t really get into it but I think others may enjoy it.

Full disclosure: This was provided via Netgalley in return for an honest review.

I think this is a pretty good book, nothing too amazing but I'm not mad that I spent the time to read it like some other reviewers seem to be.

There's action, cool magic stuff, a little bit of romance which is always nice to have sprinkled in.

I'll probably still read the following ones in the series as I am intrigued to see where it goes in the future but its not going to be the Adam Silvera book that I recommend to people first.

Silvera has a writing style that lends itself well to a certain type of story and I just felt as though this wasn’t quite right. As a first foray into the fantasy genre it’s an ok read but the initial interest waned pretty quickly personally. I went from finding it quite enjoyable to hating everything about it so quickly. I feel like non fantasy readers might find this more enjoyable than readers that read fantasy often. The characters were insufferable. Overall I just didn’t feel as though the execution did the concept justice. I will be reading more from Silvera one day but for now it’s a no from me.

I liked the differences between the brothers, Emil being shy and believing that people deserve a second chance, and Brighton desiring to have his own powers and trying to be famous in a world full of people with magical abilities.

GERMAN REVIEW:
Emil und Brighton sind Zwillingsbrüder, aber sie sind sehr unterschiedlich. Während Brighton nur zu gerne magische Fähigkeiten entwickeln würde und sich bemüht, berühmt zu werden, will Emil sich da eher raushalten. Er liebt Phönixe und andere Kreaturen, die von machthungrigen Menschen oft getötet werden, um ihre Magie zu stehlen und zu Specters zu werden. Die Celestials hingegen werden mit Magie geboren.

Für manche sind sie Helden, aber die Menschen mit übernatürlichen Fähigkeiten werden auch oft von der Gesellschaft ausgeschlossen, weil man sie fürchtet. Brighton bewundert besonders die Spell Walkers, eine Gruppe, die sich gegen die Specters einsetzt, aber er findet Magie generell faszinierend und versucht mit seinem YouTube-Kanal etwas von diesem Ruhm der Celestials in seiner Nähe mitzunehmen, wenn er schon selbst nichts kann. Als dann auch noch ausgerechnet Emil Kräfte entwickelt, während Brighton leer ausgeht, ist das für Brighton ein sehr schwerer Schlag. Er will noch mehr beweisen, dass er es wert ist, berühmt zu werden.

Emil ist entsetzt, dass er Kräfte hat, denn es sieht so aus, als wäre er ein Specter und nichts liegt ihm ferner, als einem wunderschönen Wesen seine Magie zu klauen. Außerdem ist er eher friedlich und nicht wirklich bereit, für die Sache der Spell Walkers zu kämpfen. Er glaubt an das Gute in Menschen und ist bereit, ihnen eine zweite Chance zu geben, dazu ist er ein hoffnungsloser Romantiker, der schon bei der ersten Begegnung davon träumen kann, zusammen alt zu werden.

Ich mochte den konfliktscheuen Emil lieber als den selbstsüchtigen Brighton, aber weder die Protagonisten noch die Nebencharaktere konnten mich so ganz überzeugen. Ich fand aber die Welt schon gut gelungen, diese Mischung aus Magie und Moderne, es war schon wie eine der modernen Superheldengeschichten.

Fazit:
"Infinity Son" hat mir schon ganz gut gefallen, ich mochte die Unterschiede zwischen den Brüdern Emil und Brighton und fand die magische Welt auch vielversprechend.

This was both better and worse than I expected.

I knew going in that the world-building would be chaotic and hard to follow. Pretty much every review mentions that. And actually, at the start, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. In fact there were some nice ideas, albeit not particularly well-executed - people getting powers from passing constellations, humans experiencing phoenix rebirth, the difference between those who were born with powers and those who got their powers from draining other creatures (this I particularly liked). Unfortunately it got even more chaotic as it went along - there was this whole thing with the ghosts that I still don't understand, important dead characters are mentioned but we don't really know who they were, and I struggled to understand why Emil's powers were such a big deal. Like really, a lot of other characters had far more impressive powers than him in my opinion.

Having said all that, if the world-building (and resulting chaotic plot) had been the only problem, I would have given this book at least 3.5 stars. Deeply flawed though it was, it was at least inventive, and different, and that's hard to come by in YA fantasy.

Alas, it wasn't the only problem.

The biggest problem I had with this book was its characters. There were far too many for a book of this size (not even 400 pages!), and the only one who got enough time to really shine was Brighton. A lot of reviews regard his unlikeable personality as a bad thing, but it's intentional and actually pretty well done, especially since he's more complex than the one-dimensional, outright villainous characters like Luna and the Senator. Ness and Maribelle were also pretty interesting on paper, but both their stories were rushed. I think Ness should have remained a character of mystery in this book, and that Maribelle's backstory should have been left for the sequel, where it would have more space to breathe. Neither of them should have had POVs - in fact, in my opinion, the only POVs we should have had in this book were Emil and Brighton's.

Speaking of Emil - I really liked him in the beginning as a good guy but reluctant hero, but he became lost in the sea of characters that followed. While Ness and Maribelle were pretty interesting, as aforementioned, no one else really had a personality to speak for. Some didn't even have a purpose, like Prudencia and Wesley, and most of the Bloodcasters could have remained nameless in this instalment - did we really need to know anyone other than Luna, Ness, and June? Dionne has a connection to one of the celestials - Eva, I think - but Eva's such a minor character, there's no real emotional pull there, and Dionne easily could have been cut. (It may not even have been Eva who was her friend, which says a lot about how hard it is to remember all the little tidbits of information we get about characters in this book).

There were so many things here that I could have enjoyed in a longer, better-structured book. You can really tell this is the author's first foray into fantasy - good ideas, bad execution. At least it had some heart (there were some good character moments on the rare occasion the story had time to breathe), and didn't annoy me in the same way Graceling or The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter did. I'll likely try out Silvera's contemporaries in the future, as I've heard they're a lot better, but unless I hear that the sequel is a huge step up from this, I don't think I will be continuing this series.

I was really excited to pick this one up but unfortunately I didn't love it! The characters were not likeable and the plot was slow and just not very compelling.

A great book for representation but when I finished this book I couldn't remember half the story it didn't grip me at all and I found I kept putting it down regularly. If you are a fan of the author I would still recommend it but otherwise I would recommend reading one of their other books.

I keep trying Adam Silvera in the hope that his books will finally click for me. Unfortunately, I think he's just one of those authors whose writing style is better suited to other readers.

I was really excited to read this after loving They Both Die At The End and What If It's Us.

Adam Silvera's new novel introduces you to Brighton and Emil, twin brothers with very different views. Brighton dreams of joining the Spell Walkers where as Emil wants to complete opposite. But it's Emil that finds himself thrust into the middle of the conflict.

I wasn't really a fan of this, despite loving Adam's other books. I would definitely recommend it to my students though as I know some of them would really enjoy this sort of book.

This book unfortunately didn’t grab me. There were too many perspectives which made it confusing and hard to follow, the cliffhanger was weak, and the main characters aren’t very likeable. Overall it just felt quite boring and dull and didn’t make me want to read more.

Unfortuntely it has taken me a really long time to read this book. It just wasn't my cup of tea. I can see what Adam was trying to do - but I think I am the wrong audience for the book. There is potential there but sadly the story didn't connect with me

I'd put off reading Infinity Son for months because of the poor reviews that I'd heard, but I decided to finally dive in with a friend and we buddy read it together. Overall the book was ok, but not amazing - it had a good concept but I didn't feel that it was expanded upon enough? Emil was great, really liked him, but Brighton - ugh, I strongly disliked him. He had no redeemable characteristics that I could see, he was selfish and came across as spoiled and extremely jealous.

The plot was at times confusing as there was were little world building; and it felt like there was an info dump of random facts that had no real bearing on the story. Disappointing read for me unfortunately, unsure if I would read the sequel.

Unfortunately this novel did not meet my expectations at all. I was looking forward to reading Silvera's first fantasy series and there was quite a lot of hype surrounding it. I had expected something different than what I read - rushed writing, confused and disjointed world building, and a plot which didn't engage me at all.

I will look forward to other novels which Silvera writes but I will not be continuing with this series.

DNF at 30%

This was okay, but I didn't love it as much as I do Adam's contemporary. I really struggled with the magic system in this book, it felt very confused and by the end of the book I still wasn't sure what each of the different types of being were or how they were linked. I also found the action scenes very repetitive, but I think someone who enjoys real action-driven plots might like this more. I enjoy much more character-driven books, so this wasn't for me. I loved the relationship between the two brothers and the story that unfolded between them and could not get enough of this aspect of the book.

3 stars

*I received an earc via netgalley however this in no way influenced my opinion*

So this is my first Adam Silvera book and I was so excited when I heard about this, it has LGBTQ+ rep with a gay MC written by a gay author. However, I have to say I am a bit disappointed.

The biggest issue I had while reading this was the lack of world-building. We are introduced to Celestials, Specters, and Blood Casters with little to no information on what that actually is. Therefore for the first few chapters, I was super confused about what was going on. I also felt that the pacing was a bit off.

I liked Emil’s character, it was fun to follow his journey and see his powers develop throughout. However I strongly disliked Brighton, I thought he was incredibly selfish and only cared about his youtube views and being famous. There were many side characters that I wished were developed more like Iris.

Overall I was a let down by this, I felt there was an issue with world-building and pacing.

I attempted this one but sadly it just wasn't for me . I appreciate the writing but I think the general feel of it and the content just didn't appeal to me personally

Unfortunately I am no longer interested in reading this book, therefore I will not be reviewing it any further.

New York brothers Emil and Brighton always idolized the Spell Walkers, a magical vigilante group who fight against the essence-stealing spectres, but when Emil manifests is own powers both his heroism and brotherly bonds of love are tested.

This is an exciting and gripping narrative! Alonside the elements of brotherhood, romance, gang war, dark rituals and a narrative that spans across time, Adam Silvera's first fantasy novel also features an authentic inclusion of LGBTQ characters. Fair warning - classic Silvera heartbreak and plot twists in abundance!

- DNF at 39% -

Emil and Brighton are twin brothers who live in a world where two groups of people with powers are at war with each other - the Spell Walkers and the specters.
Brighton is a superfan of the Spell Walkers and wishes he had powers of his own. Unlike his brother, Emil doesn't want powers, he just wants the violence to stop, and to stop living in fear of the enforcers.
Then one day, accidentally getting into a fight, Emil discovers that he has a power of his own, and finds that the Spell Walkers and specters both want Emil on their side.
Emil doesn't want to fight, but does he have a choice?

I have to admit that I was a bit hesitant going into Infinity Son having seen quite a few people say that they were disappointed by the book, but I was determined to give it a fair chance, which I feel like I have.
The premise was interesting and I liked that there were mythological creatures like phoenixes and hydra in a modern day setting.
One of my favourite things was the diversity.
None of the characters really stood out for me.
Emil and Brighton were very different people, and I found Emil much easier to relate to. Brighton did annoy me a bit at times.
What I read of the plot was okay, but it didn't hold my interest and not that much happened in the 39% that I did read.
I struggled to connect with the characters and didn't care what happened to them. I also couldn't connect with the writing style.
It got to the point where I was just skim reading and not actually reading the book properly, so I decided to DNF.
I'm disappointed that I didn't enjoy this more as the concept intrigued me.

Unfortunately, this wasn't for me.