Thursday, August 5, 2010

Review: Infinity (Chronicles of Nick #1)

Infinity
Sherrilyn Kenyon
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Release Date: May 25, 2010
Pages: 448

Ratings: 2 Stars

Summary (from Goodreads):

 At fourteen, Nick Gautier thinks he knows everything about the world around him. Streetwise, tough and savvy, his quick sarcasm is the stuff of legends. . .until the night when his best friends try to kill him. Saved by a mysterious warrior who has more fighting skills than Chuck Norris, Nick is sucked into the realm of the Dark-Hunters: immortal vampire slayers who risk everything to save humanity.

Nick quickly learns that the human world is only a veil for a much larger and more dangerous one: a world where the captain of the football team is a werewolf and the girl he has a crush on goes out at night to stake the undead.

But before he can even learn the rules of this new world, his fellow students are turning into flesh eating zombies. And he’s next on the menu.

As if starting high school isn't hard enough. . .now Nick has to hide his new friends from his mom, his chainsaw from the principal, and keep the zombies and the demon Simi from eating his brains, all without getting grounded or suspended. How in the world is he supposed to do that?

I was really hoping to like this book, but I was sadly disappointed. The plot hand so much potential but the writing style got in the way.

Infinity is the first in the Chronicles of Nick series and is a prequel to Sherrilyn Kenyon’s adult series Dark Hunters series. This was Sherrilyn Kenyon’s first YA novel and I feel it was an unsuccessful transition. While I enjoyed the plot, the writing style got in the way and made me not want to continue reading the book.  I was confused when I first started the book because of the point of view. While it was third person, it focused mostly on Nick and showed all his thoughts. When the story suddenly jumped and focused on some other secondary character it was extremely confusing, since the book focused mostly on Nick and felt at time like it was from Nick’s first person point of view. I wish it was told from Nick’s point of view because he was an interesting character and had a great personality and this series is about him becoming who he is later in life.

While I had a problem with the point of view of the story, I also had a problem with the writing style. It felt overly simplified at times, like it was dumbed down for Sherrilyn’s readers. There were phrases like “massive loser dork” and “ coolest awesome dork” that made me cringe. While writing for YA does have a different style then adult writing it does not mean it has to be written poorly.

While I was distracted by the writing style for most of the book, I really enjoyed the plot. While the book started off slow, I was drawn in by the mystery of who Nick really was and why students at his school were being turned into living zombies. The end had plenty of zombie fighting action which is always a plus. The characters also drove the story. While I did not like some characters, I loved others, such as Bubba and Nick. Nick had a great, unique voice that was entertaining to read and Bubba was just one of those great secondary characters who has a strange obsession with zombies.

Unfortunately, the plot wasn’t strong enough to hold my attention the whole way and I felt, at various times, like I was forcing myself to finish the book. I feel if I have read Sherrilyn Kenyon’s adult books then I would have enjoyed this book more, but I have not read those books. When the second book in the Chronicles of Nick comes out, I most likely will not check it out.


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