The Infinite Noise by Lauren Shippen

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***MY REVIEW IS BASED ON AN ARC COPY***

Synopsis

Caleb is an Atypical, an individual with enhanced abilities. Which sounds pretty cool except Caleb's ability is extreme empathy—he feels the emotions of everyone around him. Being an empath in high school would be hard enough, but Caleb's life becomes even more complicated when he keeps getting pulled into the emotional orbit of one of his classmates, Adam. Adam's feelings are big and all-consuming, but they fit together with Caleb's feelings in a way that he can't quite understand.

Frickin Rad

Okay, this book isn’t what I expected. I love the subtlety of super humans that Lauren has laced into the story. At first it was just Caleb’s mild ability to feel other people’s feelings and then slowly Shippen introduces us to a whole new world. 

Caleb and Adam

Sometimes authors just throw readers into the deep end but all the plots in this story were 

executed so smoothly. I loved the practicality in the relationship between Caleb and Adam. You can really see the development from a platonic connection to something more romantic. The dialogue between them both was so realistic and relative. The miscommunication, the stubbornness and hesitation. No matter the gender, we all have these issues in dating. 

Small Dislikes

Bryce was a pain and I hated the fact that he kept making an appearance in the book. He just wasn’t a good bully. Lol and yes, there is such a thing as a good bully in books/movies. He was just corny and overkill. I didn’t like how his character was written at all. But I get the feeling his presence is gonna be incorporated in the next book. Maybe he’ll come across some mind power like the rest of them. Or he’ll find out about Caleb. Who knows. 

I also would've wished that Caleb’s sessions with Dr. Bright were a little more detailed. The same for Adam’s discussions with his parents. But I suppose there’s time for that. 

Another problem i kept running into was the fact that Caleb and Adam were sometimes indistinguishable. Their dialogue was so similar and it was hard to tell them apart. Sometimes i had to go back to the beginning of the chapter to remind myself who’s POV i was reading. 

Overall

The concept of the book combined with some really normal issues and some not so normal ones just feed all my cravings. Shippen’s  writing was great. It was accurate to the ages of the characters and it had an easy flow to it that made it reader fall right in. I am definitely excited for the next installment. Just sad that I’ll have to wait!

Quotes

"We don't always have to love ourselves in order to receive love from others. Sometimes that's how we learn to love ourselves." 

"Just because I can feel her emotions, doesn't mean I can understand them." 

"They keep putting their big brains together to puzzle out the equation of their son, and - even though they get the math, they know to how to do the long division, the addition, subtraction-they can't quite comprehend the answer they end up with." 

"I know I can't tell him the truth. Because that's not how we work as a society. We don't have the liberty of telling each other, "Hey, I'm having a depressive episode so I'm sorry for being distant or weird or useless or making myself bleed. I wish I could say that this is a one time thing and will never happen again, but it isn't and it will. I don't want to be around you right now or during those times at all, but I would love if you took care of me and sat silently in the corner of the room for when I need someone to hug me. You will get nothing in return except for maybe my friendship when the cloud lifts and I can be human for two seconds. Hope that's all good with you!" 

But we don't say that. We say, "I'm fine." We say, "It's nothing." We make excuses that we know aren't true and that THEY know aren't true but we both pretend anyway like we've all agreed to have this collective hallucination together. And it gets us nowhere."