Infinity Kings by Adam Silvera

Infinity Kings by Adam Silvera. Quill Tree, 2024. 9780062882363






Rating : 1-5 (5 is an excellent or a Starred review) 3.5



Format: Hardcover



Genre:  Fantasy



What did you like about the book? Two brothers. Two sides to the war. One king. Emil the Infinity Son and Brighton the Infinity Reaper must fight each other in a final epic battle for celestials, immortality, magical creatures, and humanity. Brighton, refusing to relinquish power, seeks out an ancient scythe that can kill anything and become the most powerful and unstoppable force. Emil finally rises as the leader of the Spellwalkers and plans to stop his brother from corrupting his soul even further. Maribelle desperately seeks to resurrect her fallen love Atlas, but will have to team up with her most hated enemy to succeed. And Ness is determined to sabotage his father’s political conquest and kick him out of the race for good. But all goals have unforeseeable consequences, and everyone will have to prove to each other and themselves who the heroes and villains are in this war. Who will come out above the rest as the Infinity King?



Infinity Kings is the epic, high-stakes conclusion to the Infinity Cycle Series. Where the first two books established the four main characters, the complicated plot, and the world-building, the trilogy’s last book expands upon these concepts and improves the writing. The pacing is better and hooks readers into the complicated narrative, Ness’s growth, difficult situation, and personality easily make him the best character, Emil, despite his flaws, changes for the better, and the story wraps up nicely in a bittersweet and satisfying conclusion. Brothers Emil and Brighton are Latine, Ness and Maribelle are bi-Latine, and there is LGBTQ+ representation. I read the entire trilogy for this review. Silvera has written a great fantasy series full of heroes, villains, brotherhood, identity, and a complicated cast of characters who struggle to make a better world while staying true to their hearts.



Anything you didn’t like about it? The Infinity Cycle series has some major setbacks throughout its run. Infinity Son was a good start (Rating: 4), Infinity Reaper was almost intolerable (Rating: 3), and Infinity Kings falls in the middle. It still has some issues, so here are some condensed footnotes: 1) The book is WAY too long – A third could have been cut out to create a tighter storyline. 2) There are too many side characters, and they are all flat, either having no progression, just being a plot device, or dying for character emotion. 3) The love triangles are contrived and why do we need two of them? 4) Many times, it is really hard to find a likable character that readers can relate to (see: Maribelle and especially Brighton) 5) The polarizing “good vs. evil”  view of the world. The last point is especially frustrating because both villains and heroes will commit atrocious crimes, but the book presents it as okay when the “heroes” do all these terrible acts and shame the villains. It makes the story unfairly biased/hypocritical. 



To whom would you recommend this book? Teens who like urban/alternate fantasy, brothers, superpowers, heroes vs. villains, Latine representation, magical wars, and epic series. The Sunbearer Trials by Aiden Thomas , An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir , Infinity Alchemist by Kacen Callender, So This Is Ever After (and most books) by F.T. Lukens .



Who should buy this book? High schools and public libraries



Where would you shelve it? YA Fiction or YA Fantasy



Should we (librarians/readers) put this on the top of our “to read” piles? No



Reviewer’s Name, Library (or school), City and State: Laila Carter, Cheltenham Township Library System, Glenside, PA



Date of review: April 30, 2024