Infinity by Sherrilyn Kenyon (REVIEW)

Infinity (Chronicles of Nick #1) 

Genre: YA Paranormal -- Publication date: May 2010 -- Source: Library

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? (Goodreads.com)

I'm really not sure what to say about this book, so I'll start with the cover. I admit, I'm kind of a cover freak and I do indeed judge books based upon the covers. I've always loved Infinity's cover. I remember the first time I saw it, I almost bought it, but then decided against it only because I was getting Spirit Bound by Richelle Mead. Every time I would walk by the book, my eyes were drawn to it and when I finally found it in my library I was like, "HECK YES!" However, the content on the pages is by no means as beautiful as the artwork on the cover. I'm not saying that the book is bad, because it wasn't horrible, it just didn't hold that spark for me.

The plot was definitely original, I'll give it that, but it just seemed a little scattered to me. The main focus is the zombies that are beginning to take over New Orleans, but then there's the fact that people want to control Nick, and Nick learning his powers, and a bunch of other stuff that are just there. It wasn't exactly confusing, it just left me unsatisfied. I guess that is why there is a series, though, because it left me with so many questions.

The writing was mediocre, in my opinion. Kenyon didn't craft words together in a particularly stunning way. The descriptions didn't create vivid pictures in my mind. It wasn't horrible, obviously. It was good enough for me to be able to finish the book and not be banging my head against a wall the entire time. One problem I had, though, was that Kenyon would randomly switch perspectives with no warning! I thought it was, like, writing 101 to at least make a paragraph break before switching point of view. Granted, it was in third-person, but one minute the narration would be Nick's feelings and then I'd get thrown off by a switch to Caleb's feelings. I had no problem with the pacing, for the most part, but as I mentioned before I didn't like going in and out of Nick's head.

As for the characters, well, it was pretty easy for me to feel connected to Nick. I really liked Bubba and Mark because they were so intelligent and whacky, and fun. A lot of the dialogue in the story was sort of unnecessary and just rambled on, but it was still fun to read.

There was a total lack of foreshadowing, which made the story a lot less interesting. Nick would come to conclusions and explain how he got there, but it would have been helpful if we had seen some of the things. Does that make sense? An example (as unspoilery as possible) would be that Nick had to do something super duper important in order to save himself and his friends, and he wasn't sure how he was supposed to do it, and then suddenly, "Oh yeah! So-and-so once told me about this, and that's what I'm going to have to do." Does that clarify anything? Probably not! See, this is what I meant when I said I wasn't sure what to say about this book. I guess you could say that this book has more telling than showing.

All together, this story wasn't painful, but it wasn't magical either. I'd definitely be interested in the sequel, but I'm not dying to get it into my hands.

• The voice. Nick has a really strong voice that just screamed at me! He is tough and dry and stubborn as all get-out!
• The secondary characters. They each had fun personalities and I loved them all.
• Zee breaking of zee stereotypes. Nick's mom is a stripper, but she isn't strung out on drugs or always bringing men home. She hates what she does because it's the only way that she can support her son. And Nick may be kind of idiotic, but he's surprisingly smart and well-behaved for someone who was raised in the ghetto. He's got a pretty good moral compass going for him.