Book Review - Chronicles of Nick: Infinity

By Sherilynn Kenyon
Published by St. Martin's Press
Release Date: May 2010
Source: Bought
3.5 Stars - It was a very good read.

Synopsis (from Macmillan/St. Martin's Press): 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?

Let me admit a bias right off the bat. I didn't read any of Sherilynn's Dark Hunter series and I realized from perusing her website that ooops, this was a prequel series. Now on her website, it states that you do not have to read the books sequentially, here. This was fortunate for me because, as you know, I stick to pretty much YA fantasy and don't venture often into grown-up paranormal romance.

Having admitted this bias, I have to say that the voice of the protagonist, Nick, captured my heart from the very first page. Sherilynn wrote this snarky, beaten down, broken boy in such a way that his words and actions tugged at this Mundie Mom's heart. And I know it's far-fetched to imagine a Mundie Mom liking a broken, snarky male protagonist. Nick's own description of himself as a "kid born standing up and talking back" (p. 421) says it all perfectly.

What took me by surprise was how the world unfolded. One minute, Nick's in school, where his only demons are the school bullies who try to involve him in troublesome pursuits and the next minute -- whoa! zombies are actually invading the school. It was a sudden plunge into a world Nick only believed existed in video games. Because Sherilynn presented everything through Nick's eyes, I felt his world being turned upside down. And I felt his quick grasp on this new reality as he understood that zombies, demons and vampires were all real. In fact, they were all after him.

Other characters were introduced at a fairly fast pace. I believe that if I had read the other books, I may have understood their personalties faster and grasped their influence on Nick a little bit more. But, I credit Sherilynn's excellent writing for allowing me to keep them straight as well as begin to see how they will tie into Nick's future.

My favorite of these secondary characters is Bubba, the owner of the largest gun store in town. Bubba is a one-of-a-kind man, who delivered some of the best lines in the book, including: "There is always infinity, strap on your big-boy pants, hiking boots and go." (p. 410).

This book was another great summer escape. Just think of it, Mundie Moms, you get to spend some time with Nick in New Orleans fighting off zombies. Sounds like a perfect way to while away a hot, summer's evening.