One of my favorite contemporary authors is Adam Silvera, but at this point, this is an opinion based solely on only half of his bibliography. Silvera’s first three novels each absolutely shattered my heart into pieces I’m still picking up off the floor. More Happy Than Not features a protagonist who would rather erase his own memory than face the truth about himself, History Is All You Left Me is about a young man recovering from the tragic death of his first love, and They Both Die In The End is about two characters falling in love when they know they only have 24 hours left to live. His books manage to be as equally cruel and tragic as they are vivid and life-affirming. To me, a sign of a good book is that they leave me in a kind of malaise for days afterwards, and if you apply that rubric, these are top tier novels.
Like I said, though, these three novels only make up half of Silvera’s work. What If It’s Us, a collaboration with Love, Simon writer Becky Albertalli, is a bit of an awkward marriage of Silvera’s tragedy-tinged world and Albertalli’s frothy teen romances, leading to an ending that straddles the line between happy and sad in a way that felt interesting but not all that satisfying. It’s Silvera’s next two novels, though, that led me to write this newsletter.
A running theme throughout all of Silvera’s works is that his characters love fantasy, especially Harry Potter, and several are aspiring writers who create their own fantasy stories online. By his own admission in interviews, these elements are autobiographal, and Silvera’s most recent releases have finally allowed him to scratch that fantasy itch that’s been bothering him since he was a child. Infinity Son and Infinity Reaper are the first two parts of a trilogy of novels, pieces of “contemporary fantasy,” a story set in modern-day New York City, but a NYC filled with phoenixes and potion markets and humans born with fantastic abilities they were granted from the stars. It’s an interesting world, but I find myself struggling to connect with these stories the way I have Silvera’s previous ones.
I wouldn’t call either of the Infinity books bad; in fact, if I had to grade them on a scale of one to five stars, I’d give them a solid 3.5. The characters are varied, the world unique, and while the plot isn’t the most novel, it is engaging. Actually, one reveal late in Reaper was just about perfectly executed, leaving me going “what?!” for a minute before quickly recalling all the set-up from earlier in the book that made it make perfect sense. There was even a chapter in Reaper that it took me a solid half-hour to force myself to start because I was so fearful of what was about to happen. There’s definite talent in these books.
Yet, they just don't entrance me the way Silvera’s early work did. Perhaps it’s just that I’m not all that enchanted by fantasy1, but even then, this world is closer to X-Men than Lord of the Rings. No, I think there’s two primary reasons why. First, these books are awfully plot-heavy. Things keep happening, whereas Silvera’s earlier work are a bit more meditative, character studies that really dig deep into the minds of their characters. This means that Silvera isn’t as able to delve quite as deep into his cast as he has in previous books, but it also means that this his prose often feels more clumsy and rushed, just describing what characters do rather than taking the time to be elegant or poetic.
This leads into my second reason: Silvera just isn’t all that good at writing action sequences. I’d be a hypocrite to claim that action doesn’t work in prose — not after all the Dragonball Z FanFiction I’ve written and read in my time — but it’s certainly one of the more difficult mediums to craft effective fight sequences in, and Silvera just hasn’t really landed it yet. For a series about brothers who have inherited the powers of phoenixes with infinite lives behind and ahead of them, the action feels awfully mundane; rarely does he bring a sense of grandeur to the proceedings, and actually, the action begins to feel rote after a while, with Silvera returning to the same descriptions over and over. I wouldn’t recommend taking a shot every time you read the words “shoulder roll” or “fire arrow” unless you’ve got a surgeon and a spare liver on hand.
It’s a weird metaphor, but bear with me; the Infinity series feels like watching Michael Jordan’s career circa Space Jam in 1996. Sure, dude, maybe it’s your life’s dream to play baseball, but you know you were born to play basketball. Silvera is a more than competent fantasy writer, but these won’t be the books he’s remembered for.
I’m (purposely) not involved much in the fandom surrounding Silvera or his books, but a quick look at the reviews for Infinity Reaper reveals a surprising amount of vitriol. Some of the complaints are valid; some I’ve even repeated here in this piece. But the sheer level of anger and hate surrounding these books from fans (albeit a seemingly small, particularly vocal group; Reaper otherwise has a 3.7 out of 5 score on Goodreads and Son is a Best Seller) seems a bit out of proportion. I saw one reader say they were revoking all the five star reviews they gave Silvera’s early books because they hated Reaper so much and it’s just like…you’re entitled to your emotions, but that seems entirely overblown.
Writers have to have a thick skin, but I wonder what it’s like for Silvera to read stuff like that, if he does. I can’t help but to think of the failure of Pinkerton sending Weezer’s River Cuomo into a seven-year depression, or the failure of In Reverie filling Saves the Day’s Chris Conley with a kind of rage that took three albums and a hell of a lot of therapy to fully sort out. Fans have the right to react to work, but how much of a duty do we have to think about the ways our reactions, especially public reviews, effect creators as well?
I suppose that’s the eternal, inherent conflict between artist and fan, right? How much does the creator owe the fan? How much can the fan expect from the creator?
Personally, I admire Silvera using the fame he’s garnered through his early work to get his passion project printed, and I’m happy for him that they’ve been successful sales-wise. Yet, as a fan I can’t help but be disappointed that he’s not putting out more of the books that made me a fan in the first place.
I’ve got no real concrete answers here, just a lot of thoughts swirling around in my head. At least I’ve got plenty of experience contemplating this sort of thing. I’ve loved enough bands to not be thrown all that much anymore when one of them takes an artistic detour or even a massive swerve into a new sound; I appreciate it if I can, or if I can’t, I try to be disappointed in private and not make a big fuss being owed anything. It makes me happy to see bands, writers, creators in general putting out work that makes them happy, even if it doesn’t really vibe with me the way I want.
But it’s still a bummer when I don’t enjoy work from an artist I’ve always loved when they try something new.
TOP “WAS GARFIELD FUNNY TODAY?” OF THE WEEK
Seriously, throw a filter over that middle panel and it could be hanging up next to Andy Warhol’s soup paintings somewhere.
ABOUT
“Do You Know What I Love the Most?” is a newsletter from Spencer Irwin about his relationship with the stories he loves. Spencer is an enthusiast and writer from Newark, Delaware, who likes punk rock, comic books, working out, breakfast, and most of all, stories. His previous work appeared on Retcon Punch, One Week One Band, and Crisis on Infinite Chords, and he can be found on Twitter at @ThatSpenceGuy. If you like this newsletter, please subscribe and share with your friends!
Logo by Lewis Franco, with respects to Saves the Day.
Oddly enough, despite my penchant for superheroes and sci-fi, typical fantasy tropes have always just kinda bored me. I missed something foundational there.