Marion Bell
Period 6
Book review
The Infinite Sea is the second book in the 5th Wave series by Rick Yancey. The series is
about a 16 year old girl named Cassiopeia (Cassie) Sullivan trying to survive and find her
younger brother Sam in the midst of alien apocalypse. When she was separated from her
brother Sam, he gave her his stuffed bear he cleverly named Bear. She holds onto to Bear and
keeps him as a reminder of the promise she made to Sam.
In the first book, she met and fell in love with Evan Walker. Evan saved her when she
was shot by one of The Others. She hid under an abandoned car, on an abandoned highway.
Leave or stay? Either way she would die. She had a choice between running and being shot
down, or staying and bleeding out. “Stay, die. Leave, die”- Cassie
Evan rescues her. He takes care of her and helps her recover from the bullet wound. He
also teaches her how to aim and shoot a gun. Once she has learned how to defend herself, Evan
helps her find her brother. While trying to find him, they find themselves in the middle of The
Others and their complicated technology.
The second book begins with Cassie and her group of newfound friends hiding from The
Others in a creaky, old hotel that has an infestation of rats. Most of the windows in the hotel
are broken, letting the frosty air into the smelly hotel rooms. Sleep is terrible and they have
little food or water to live off of while they wait for Evan Walker, who went missing in a fight
against The Others, but promised Cassie he would return.
They don’t want to wait any longer; it’s only a matter of time before The Others find
them.
The Infinite Sea is an amazing book with very original ideas on how an alien apocalypse
would happen. There were many unexpected things, along with many twists and turns. As soon
as you think you know what the Others are, you are soon proven wrong. As soon as you think
you know why they’re there or where they came from, you learn something new that leads you
to a whole new set of ideas and predictions.
The book isn’t just about Cassiopeia’s difficult romance with Evan Walker, or her
struggle to keep Sam alive. The book switches points of view, showing you the promises all the
other characters have made, and their struggles to keep them. You get to see all the characters
thoughts and feelings. Most importantly, you get to know them through stories from their past.
You get to learn what made them the way they are, and what they were like pre-apocalypse.
While the characters have many external struggles, they also have many internal
struggles. Most of them aren’t sure if they want to stay in the hotel or if they want to leave.
Some contemplate how they could have saved their dead family members, or ponder the last
cruel words their family said to them under the influence of the Red Tsunami plague virus. One
promises they will never make a promise to someone else, because they think promises get you
killed in this terrifying apocalyptic world.
Their external struggles can also be very complicated. For example, most people in the
group don’t trust Evan, and this results in Cassie becoming very defensive and angry.
Poundcake doesn’t speak. He hasn’t since the last of his family members died. This frustrates
some people in the group because they can’t figure out why he refuses to talk, or what his
name is. Ben (Zombie) curses more than a sailor, and wants to leave the hotel. He won’t leave
without Sam, but Cassie won’t let Sam leave without her. Sam also refuses to go without Cassie.
The people that all of them were before The Others hovered above the earth’s
atmosphere, sending electromagnetic pulses, incurable viruses, and lightning storms, are gone.
Towards the middle of the book Cassie realizes that the Ben Parish she used to crush on in
school is gone. In this same moment she realizes that the high school girl who used to crush on
him, is also gone. No one is who they used to be and will almost definitely never be that person
again.
All the characters have some kind of rule or something they think will keep them alive.
Ringer believes that rage is what will keep her alive. Cassie’s rule is trust no one. However,
through recent events, Ringer learns that rage isn’t what will keep her alive and Cassie learns
that her rule isn’t the best way to stay alive.
One of the themes of this book is that having faith and courage can help get you
through any hardship or struggle, which you learn from almost all the characters as they deal
with their struggles. Another strong theme is that love, with all of its unpredictability, can lead
to the most unpredictable of actions. "They all understood the risk in donning the human
mantle. Sharing a body with a human psyche carried with it the danger of adopting human vices
-- as well as human virtues. And far more dangerous than greed or lust or envy or any of those
things -- or anything -- was love." Pg. 73
The one thing I don’t like is that when you reach a new section and switch characters
points of view, it doesn’t state which characters point of view you’re switching to. This
confused me because I would sometimes read half way through a chapter before I figured out
the point of view.
Besides that, this is an excellent book, with an amazing plot. It doesn’t just show the
external hardships of apocalypse, it also shows the characters emotional hardships, and how
they deal with them. The book shows you that love can affect what people do and how courage
and faith are a powerful thing. It describes the thoughts of teenagers in an apocalyptic world
almost perfectly. This book kept me guessing, wondering, and wanting to know what was going
to happen next. I brought the book with me everywhere I went with hopes that I would have a
spare minute to read just a little bit more. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone
looking for an excellent sci-fi series to read.