Well heck, this book ends basically exactly the way I expected the first book in the series to end, but it was so much better for the extended time, character development and plot that went into it.

This is a much darker story than the first one. Already established are bad guys and good and good definitely starts on the back foot as both Luna and Ness' father Senator Iron join forces against celestials. Why, yes, it is very strange that Luna, someone with celestial powers, allies herself with someone who is actively working to reduce their rights. But she is hardly the only one to do so, something which is commented on a fair amount during the course of the novel.

Oh, and yeah Ness isn't dead and has just been captured by his father and forced into doing vids that make it look as though celestials are the bad guys to Senator Evil's public good guy image.

The political side of this novel is incredibly topical, especially given the way that Republican and Democrat parties are still the ones used in this alternate version of our world. The celestial candidate is the hopeful head of the Democrat party, and she pushes for progression and rights and all that good left wing stuff. Senator Iron is the Trump-like Republican. But smart. Like, scarily one step ahead of our good guys the whole way through.

What's hard to watch is that, as the bad guy team only get stronger in this book, the good guys only get more and more fractured as to which way they should move forward. This is partly due to the fact that the Spell Weavers join forces with the Halo Knights, and these two groups have vastly different ideals. But it's also because Eve and the main characters' mother are kidnapped at the same time as Ness.

One of the cool things that appeared in this book was a love triangle between only gay/bisexual men. I actually don't think I've seen that in YA before, even as prevalent as the love triangle trope is.

ARC kindly provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

POTENTIAL SPOILERS FOR INFINITY SON BELOW

What the hell was that ending?

I honestly still need to wrap my head around that one even though I knew that it would go down that path anyway. Infinity Reaper definitely set things up for the next book, the grand finale of this series and I already came this far, I want to know how this will end. I just hope it doesn't leave on an Adam Silvera cliffhanger.

Infinity Reaper starts straight after the events of Infinity Son. You might want to reread the last five or so chapters just as a refresher. I didn't because I read Infinity Reaper soon after finishing the first book but even then it took me a while to reorientate myself with the action and the world of Celestial/Specter New York.

The very first chapter is from Brighton's perspective which, now looking back and having finished the book, was a kind of innuendo that Brighton will be front and centre in this one. If you hated Brighton in Infinity Son then I think you'll hate him even more in Infinity Reaper. He was egocentric... more than usual especially with his new abilities and influence and I found myself disliking a lot of the chapters in his perspective. A lot of his dialogue both internally and externally followed a greedy path with the main vein being "I'm special", "I will be the most powerful person in the world. People will remember me as the Infinity Saviour" etc. Honestly I'm barely scratching the surface but yes, I did find that annoying and I was tired of Brighton's perspective by the end.

BUT and there's a big but here, I did understand the relevance of having Brighton's perspective in there because it served a massive purpose towards the end. I'll try treading lightly here because I feel like I'm slightly going into spoiler territory here (which I'm really trying not to do). I felt like despite the annoyingness of Brighton's narrative voice and egocentric personality, it was important and necessary to include for the ending. That being said, I felt like Silvera really could've elevated that ending and the effect of it by slowly inclining Brighton's jealousy and greed. It felt overwhelming at times but I reckon if it was given in digestable bits then readers would've understood Brighton's perspective better and potentially might've empathised with him.

Brighton was a bit full-on. I didn't mind him in Infinity Son but he definitely changed in Infinity Reaper as seen by his previous actions which obviously had grave consequences. By explicitly showing that transition from the Brighton he was at the start of the book vs the Brighton he became by the end I reckon it would've developed his character more and would've added another dimension to his character dynamic which seemed shallow despite all attempts to explain his thoughts and feelings. I felt like that point could be applied with all the other characters. I expected to see more of Emil's personality shine through but I didn't see anything different to how he was like in Infinity Son. The same goes for Maribelle. I felt like a lot could've been tapped into with her grief, anger and loss. Yes she was angsty, Silvera got her character voice down really well however, I wanted more dimensions, more layers. We saw her desire for love and for family but I wanted that to be drilled in more than it was.

Ness was probably my favourite character though and I always celebrated internally whenever his chapters came up. I felt like he was the most developed out of the whole cast of characters since his childhood and trauma was looked into a lot. I felt sorry for him and was cheering him on from behind the screen that I was reading the book on. I could empathise with his feelings of being trapped under the Senator's evil regime and his feelings of weakness and hopelessness. I also liked how his feelings towards Emil were explored however, I also felt like they were glazed over a little bit. I wanted more emotion from him to really set apart his character voice which like the other perspectives, seemed to blend into one.

Characters aside though, I found that the pacing was really slow for a 500+ paged book. The main action happened after page 300 and that's when I felt the story pick up. Usually my interest would've dropped by then but I enjoyed Infinity Son the two times I read it to push through the slow bits.

I did like the political aspects of the book however it left a lot of questions unanswered such as the aftermath of the debate and also everything that happened with Senator Iron. I won't go into details but I felt like they either were left unanswered (to be answered in book 3) or they were answered but they were just brushed over. Which ultimately leads to my overall criticism of the book: a lot of things felt rushed from the action to the characters, both factors of which could've been drawn out more and would've made the book more interesting and enjoyable. I did like this book overall but I felt like there were so many opportunities to turn this from a good book into a great or fantastic one and those opportunities were not taken.

Nevertheless I will still read the last book in the series just because I genuinely want to know how Adam Silvera will take the Infinity Cycle and the great story and world. I just hope that Silvera and the editing team behind the book will really draw out those characterisation layers and dimensions because I think that would really make this book shine. I've read other books by him such as They Both Die at the End and More Happy Than Not and I've seen the calibre of writing Silvera displays and I know that he can really pack a punch to his readers but that desired effect will only occur if a real focus is put on the characters more than the action.

ACTUAL RATING: 3.1 STARS

I really enjoyed the first in this series. The concept is really neat - love a good phoenix story! - but alas, I did not enjoy the sequel that much. It had its moments of goodness, but on the whole, I realised I didn't care for any of the characters, and when you don't really like the characters, the story isn't going anywhere for you.

I still do like the idea, though, hence the 2 stars.

One of the issues I had with Book One in this series was the lack of world building. That posed less of a problem in Infinity Reaper, since I already had some background from the previous volume. However, I still had the same disconnect with most of the characters. Brighton is not a particularly likeable character, but he remains the one who comes across the best. Emil I find a little too perfect in comparison for me to really accept him, though Ness is more engaging. I was a little put off by the sudden inclusion of a cliched YA love triangle, but I'm willing to wait to see how that plays out in the final installment. Having dealt with the negatives, I want to add the positive aspects. Firstly, I felt the pacing was improved in this second book. For the most part, the story flowed along nicely and was a reasonably quick and easy read despite a 500+ page count. Secondly, I enjoyed the teasing of a morally grey area through Brighton's actions, which gave a little more depth to the piece. Finally, there were plenty of good action scenes that were well described and which you could conjure in your mind with a cinematic feel. Overall, I am giving this book three and a half stars. It has some problems, but it's still an enjoyable read if you are a fan of YA fantasy-adventure tales, and I will certainly read the final book when it releases, as I would like to see how the story concludes.

Unfortunately this sequel is not as captivating as its predecessor.

I absolutely ADORED Infinity Son and devoured it in 24hrs but I really struggled to read Infinity Reaper. Maybe I would enjoy it more if I did a re-read and really got back into it but I felt there was a lot of dialogue and not much plot progression and I couldn't connect with the characters anymore.

It sucks because I was so excited for this book. 2.5 stars because it's not badly written per se. Just average.

If your looking for an urban fantasy, with xmen like celestials and good old queer love triangle this is your book!

Infinity Son was a slow burn however ended on the mother of all cliff hangers, this one was actioned packed from the get go. There are no spoilers for Infinity Reaper however if you’ve not read Infinity Son there are potential spoilers ahead.

They beat the bad guys and get out barely alive. Brighton stupidly drank the reaper blood bringing it would make him immortal, but the position is slowly killing him. Emil the heroic bother he is races against the clock to find an antidote and save his brother.

Enlisting spell walkers to help him Emil wants a cure to rid himself of the Phoenix power to go back to living a normal life. War against their enemies is on the brink and everyone’s out for revenge. Throw in some politics, kidnapping and some family drama and the battle begins.

Emil looses Ness and becomes closer to Wyatt only to find out that Ness is alive and the triangle gets complicated. Emil battles in his own head working out who the real enemy is, he knows what he’s willing to give up but others use their powers for all the wrong reasons.

Bring on book three!

With thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a digital arc of this book, all opinions expressed are my own.

Infinity Reaper by Adam Silvera is the second book in the Infinity Cycle trilogy. I enjoyed the first book (Infinity Son) and was looking forward to seeing where the story went next.

Infinity Reaper made for an enthralling read. There was excellent characters development, including the building and changing of relationships between characters. There was tingly romance. There was epic battle(s). There was quite restful moments with the Phoenixes. There was an ENDING 😱.

Safe to say I thoroughly enjoyed this book. A fabulous 4 star read.

Pros: handy glossary at the start as a quick catch up for everything you missed in the first one, Infinity Son. So much more world building. Dystopian fantasy. Diverse representation. All gay love triangle. Phoenixes. Not so subtle digs at recent American politics and people who profit off private zoos (I'm looking at you, Joe). It's the second in a trilogy.

Cons: reprehensible protagonists, huge cast that's hard to keep track of and all blends into one narrative that's very difficult to have any empathy for, common YA tropes, gross and awkward depiction of teen hetero sex, bloated at over 500 pages and it still feels like lots of descriptive stuff was cut out, massive plot lines where the protagonists have problems are always solved easily or instantly by magic.

Read if you liked Infinity Son, are an Adam Silvera completionist, aren't fussed about having deep emotional connections with fictional characters, are a massive phoenix fan, love The Boys on Amazon, have a thing for alternative or flawed superheroes, enjoy fantasy and/or magic and are here for the diversity

I loved reading Infinity Reaper by Adam Silvera. This was an excellent sequel to Infinity Son and really launched the trilogy forwards, leaping off from right in the middle of the action where Infinity Son left us. Absolutely brilliant action read for what is likely to be a bingeworthy series when all books have been published.
I'm so glad that this series will be a trilogy as Adam originally envisioned. I just can't imagine having this book fit even more into it. There was so much developed and so much action that the balance would definitely have been disrupted if this was the conclusion to the story. As a second book, it is exquisite.
The character arcs were excellent and I love the way they unfolded. Nothing felt unnatural, forced or rushed. They all just felt like real people dealing with their circumstances and changing as they moved through the world for both the good and the bad. It was an honest portrayal of the characters and felt true to the world Adam has created. He is a brilliant contemporary writer and I love the way he captures the emotional truths of our world even in fantastical stories.
I also loved the changing relationships. These were a result of the changing characters so I won't jump into them and share any spoilers, but again they felt honest, fresh and real.
If you're after an awesome light fantasy with tension, racy plot and ever increasing stakes then this is the series for you. This book was just everything I would want or expect from a sequel.