”The world is a clock winding down.”

From Rick Yancey’s The 5th Wave: The Infinite Sea.

This second book in the series picks up just after the end of the previous book; Cassie and Sammy have been reunited, Ben is leading a small group of child soldiers, Evan Walker is missing (believed to be dead by everyone except Cassie), and they are all fighting to stay alive during the alien invasion. If you thought that The 5th Wave started in such a bad place that the characters could barely manage, you’d be wrong because Yancey plunges into the disasters very quickly even quicker in this book. The Others have not been defeated after Camp Haven’s destruction, but instead have returned with even more evil plans to wipe out humans. Everyone that escaped from Camp Haven (except for Evan… who we learn is alive, but held prisoner by an Other named Grace), are hiding out in a hotel waiting for a safety and/or battle plan to form. Ringer and little Teacup head off to scout an escape route, but both are captured by the Others; at the same time Evan is trying to escape from his captor and get back to Cassie, but he ends up leading Grace (one of the most confusing characters) to Cassie, Sammy, Ben, & Company. There are lots of battles that must be faced by each character in this book, and it quickly becomes clear that everyone will have to make choices packed with major consequences. Tempers fly high, plans get twisted, motives become skewed, and personalities clash at almost every turn. It quickly becomes clear that Cassie, Evan, Ben, and all the other kids are in a battle far more dangerous than anyone could expect; a battle that will be a deciding factor in the fate of the entire world.

The story moves seemingly quicker in this sequel, but it does follow the same entertaining writing style as the first. While the first book was split between Cassie and Ben, this story is split even more to allow a richer, more complex storyline. Yancey gives more “page time” to the present-but-secondary characters from Ben’s half of the story, which is definitely an improvement from book 1. For the most part, the characters are open to the reader’s interpretation, but the characters that are supposed to be mysterious (or revealed over the course of the story) instead come off as incomplete. Ringer, Evan, and Ben’s perspectives act almost like a story of espionage with hidden enemies; while Cassie and Sammy’s perspectives bring a slightly traumotized lens, which helps to cement the characters as human.  The end of the novel brings clarity to the characters and big picture plot, but also leaves enough questions to draw readers back for the next book. The story is complex, but it does flow nicely from start to finish; The Infinite Sea stands strong as both a part of the series and as a story that is independent.