The Infinite Noise is a YA love story and also a superhero origin story. It’s also a story in which nothing much happens. If you like m/m romance with angsty teens, this is fine, but because of the superpower angle I expected more plot and none is forthcoming. The entire book reads like a very slow prequel that never pays off.
Caleb and Adam are both sixteen. Caleb wears sports gear/Adam wears Emo shirts/Caleb plays football/Adam’s on the bleachers. Taylor Swift references aside, Caleb is a running back and Adam likes the arts, gets good grades, and tries to avoid bullies. Adam struggles with severe depression and has self-harmed in the past, so TW for that.
Caleb starts to experience a problem with heightened empathy. When other people become angry, he becomes angry. If they are sad, he is sad. In a group setting, he either soaks up the strongest emotion in the room or is disoriented by the flood of conflicting feelings. He sees emotions in colors and, to a certain extent, reads people’s thoughts.
Caleb sees a therapist, Dr. Bright, who tells him that he is an Atypical who “can do things that other people cannot.” She suggests that he find someone at school with whom he feels more calm. Caleb discovers that this person, for him, is Adam. The two spend time together and fall in love with a lot of awkwardness while Caleb learns to control his powers. That’s the whole story.
All reviewers dread the “Meh” review. It’s easy to review a book one loves, and it’s easy to review a book one hates, but the book that falls into the realm of, “eh, it’s fine,” is pure torture. Here’s my review:
Eh, it’s fine.
I can’t explain the let down without spoilers, so if you don’t want SPOILERS then STOP HERE.
This book is inspired by The Bright Sessions podcast, which I have not heard. I suspect that something was lost in translation from the tighter podcast format to a full-length novel. I can’t really criticize the characters for brooding, being torturously awkward, and failing to communicate, because teen relationships ARE awkward, and DO frequently cause brooding not to mention second-guessing, and often DO involve failures to communicate. The fact that Caleb has not previously experienced attraction to men, and the social pressures gay teens face, makes the awkwardness all the more plausible. Alas, that does not make the book fun to read.
Meanwhile, NOTHING HAPPENS. Caleb and Adam break up and get back together. They suspect Adam’s parents of nefarious doings but actually they are just perfectly nice people. They worry that Caleb will be chased by nefarious powers but none show up. This is the most anti-climatic book in all of recorded time. Adam continues to battle depression. Caleb continues to play football.
I’m always happy to see m/m romance portrayed in a positive way, and when Caleb and Adam went to a post-game party together with the football team my heart grew three sizes. However, I did not need 328 pages of repetition. This book isn’t horrible, but it’s not great either. It’s sweet, but boring. It’s fine, I guess.
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Disclosure: I haven’t read this book yet but I have listened to much of The Bright Sessions.
In the past month I’ve seen Discourse popping up on Twitter and Tumblr discussing fanfic vs. novels. Much of the chatter has centered on the idea that fanfic can be more emotionally satisfying than professionally published work because in fanfic you don’t necessarily need to ride the Plot Train, and instead you can just have 100k of characters you like having a nice day. Professional authors have chimed in, noting their agents and editors demand A Plot because That Is How Things Are Done– but that sometimes they wish they could just publish a book of “this tortured character has coffee and pets a dog”. Because in this day and age, sometimes you need that.
Which is a long way of saying, as someone who has followed the adventures of Caleb and Adam on TBS, I am actually totally down for 328 pages of them having low-stakes, normal high school stuff. This may have been a “meh” review from your perspective, but it’s one of those reviews that tells the reader EXACTLY what we want to know. And makes me more likely to buy the book. Thank you!
I also thought it was a little bit of nothing happening, but like the above comment I’ve listened to The Bright Sessions and it was basically everything I wanted from a book about Caleb and Adam because all of the drama happens in the podcast. It was a little weird how she kept it so separated from the book, so I’m hoping if she writes more of them she’ll have a better balance of retelling the podcast and assuming readers have already listened.
Now I want to check this podcast because it sounds like my kind of things! Thanks for the rec!
I’m always on the lookout for LGBTQA YA so I’ll probably check this book too. See, even meh reviews are useful 😉
Huh, until I got to the end of the review I would’ve guessed this is precanon Superbat au fanfiction with the serial numbers filed off. Interesting!