Review: Infamous by Sherrilyn Kenyon

Infamous

Author: Sherrilyn Kenyon
Series: Chronicles of Nick, Book Three
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Genre: YA Fantasy
Format: Hardcover, 468 pages
Release Date: March 13, 2012
Source: Mid-Columbia Libraries
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Synopsis from Goodreads:

The world has fallen in love with Nick Gautier and the Dark-Hunters.

Now Nick’s saga continues in the next eagerly anticipated volume...

Go to school. Get good grades. Stay out of trouble. That’s the mandate for most kids. But Nick Gautier isn’t the average teenager. He’s a boy with a destiny not even he fully understands. And his first mandate is to stay alive while everyone, even his own father, tries to kill him.

He’s learned to annihilate zombies and raise the dead, divination and clairvoyance, so why is learning to drive and keep a girlfriend so dang hard? But that isn’t the primary skill he has to master. Survival is.

And in order to survive, his next lesson makes all the others pale in comparison. He is on the brink of becoming either the greatest hero mankind has ever known.

Or he’ll be the one who ends the world. With enemies new and old gathering forces, he will have to call on every part of himself to fight or he’ll lose everyone he cares about.

Even himself.

My Review:

The first two books in this series have been focused on various attacks from supernatural creatures such as zombies in Infinity or the evil football coach who wasn’t quite what he seemed in Invincible. Well in this book, we still have our fair share of supernatural creatures and Nick gets attacked by plenty of them, but the main focus of this one is on something much more human: bullying. A website has popped up at school that is spilling everybody’s dirty little secrets, whether they are true or not. Obviously this is causing a lot of tension within the student body and fights are breaking out every which way. I felt like Nick spent most of his time in this book in the hospital because of various fights/attacks.

While I do believe that bullying is a real issue that deserves to be examined in a closer light, I was kind of disappointed that this is where this book went. I expected more gross demons or strange creatures, but turns out it was just the mean kids at school. Aside from that, there were still plenty of supernatural attacks going on in the background.

We learned a lot more about Nick’s dad Adarian in this book and what his ultimate plans are. Nick begins to discover what it means to love someone and at the same time, is faced with the horrible thought of what it would be like to lose someone he loves. He learns that the dark power that is the Malachai in him threatens to overtake every ounce of his humanity and he fights again and again to remain true to himself with the help of his ever faithful friends, mainly Caleb and Nekoda.

Caleb continues to pretend that he can’t stand Nick, but deep down I think that he loves him. I hope he does anyways because I love Caleb and if he turns out to be a bad guy I will be seriously crushed. Caleb continues to protect Nick no matter the cost even if that means protecting him from the man he serves.

Nekoda. I still have no idea what she is or who she works for, but after the epilogue in this book, I have a feeling we’re going to find out in the next one. At least I really hope so because it is driving me crazy! Nekoda and Nick are together in this book and Nick claims that he loves her. Personally, I had a hard time believing in their relationship. It seemed kind of insta-lovey to me which makes no sense since they met in the first book and didn’t start dating until the end of the second one, but I just feel like they haven’t spent enough time together to be in love. Her jealous streak also annoys me a bit, but I still really enjoy her character. She is very insightful and helps pull Nick back from the darkness multiple times throughout this book.

Characters I missed in this book: Bubba, Mark, and Simi. Simi had one tiny little scene where she showed up and then left. It didn’t really serve much purpose and I think it was just in there to say she was in the book. Bubba and Mark were in the book, but not very often or for very long. Although we do learn more about Bubba’s past and it’s enough to rip your heart out. Poor Bubba.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. The second one in the series has been my favorite so far. While I thought the focus on bullying was interesting, it didn’t seem to mesh with the rest of the series. I think it’s a great idea to make it a part of the books, but I didn’t like it as the main focus of the plot. But there are lots of new demons and creatures to meet and fight and I continued to be confused about which characters to trust and which ones to not. This one ended on a major cliffhanger so I can’t wait to read the next one, Inferno. Happy reading all!