Review: The Infinity Courts (The Infinity Courts #1)

Title: The Infinity Courts (The Infinity Courts #1)
Author: Akemi Dawn Bowman
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Science Fiction
Publisher: Simon and Schuster Canada
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: April 6, 2021
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

Eighteen-year-old Nami Miyamoto is certain her life is just beginning. She has a great family, just graduated high school, and is on her way to a party where her entire class is waiting for her—including, most importantly, the boy she’s been in love with for years.

The only problem? She’s murdered before she gets there.

When Nami wakes up, she learns she’s in a place called Infinity, where human consciousness goes when physical bodies die. She quickly discovers that Ophelia, a virtual assistant widely used by humans on Earth, has taken over the afterlife and is now posing as a queen, forcing humans into servitude the way she’d been forced to serve in the real world. Even worse, Ophelia is inching closer and closer to accomplishing her grand plans of eradicating human existence once and for all.

As Nami works with a team of rebels to bring down Ophelia and save the humans under her imprisonment, she is forced to reckon with her past, her future, and what it is that truly makes us human.
From award-winning author Akemi Dawn Bowman comes an incisive, action-packed tale that explores big questions about technology, grief, love, and humanity.

Review:

Eighteen-year-old Nami Miyamoto was preparing for her high school graduation when she was suddenly killed. She wakes up in a place called Infinity, where she’s offered a pill to numb the human pain that her consciousness still feels. She’s rescued by a team of rebels who are working against Queen Ophelia. Ophelia was the virtual assistant that everyone used on Earth, but she’s taken over Infinity with plans to erase humans and fill the world with her Residents. Nami is special because though she is human, she can alter her appearance to look like a Resident. Nami has to work with the rebel group to save the humans and defeat Ophelia and her sons.

This was an original story about death. I was enjoying Nami’s story in the first few chapters, where she was living like a normal teenager. Then, she was murdered and sent to Infinity, the afterlife for human consciousness. It was strange to be thrown into this new world that is so different from our world, but it was fast paced and mysterious that I had to keep reading.

This world had complicated relationships between the humans and the Residents. The humans served the Residents, and didn’t have awareness. The pill that they were offered after waking up in Infinity removed any awareness they had, so they could follow orders from the Residents. There were different courts that they could be sent to, including War and Death, which didn’t have positive outcomes for the humans sent there. The rare few who could escape without taking the pill and keep their awareness tried to rebel against the Residents.

The final chapters of this book were really surprising. There was a character who I found suspicious from the beginning. I was right in suspecting there was something wrong with that character but I couldn’t figure out what it was. I hope there will be a sequel because I really want to know what happens next!

Thank you Simon and Schuster Canada for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

What to read next:

Have you read The Infinity Courts? What did you think of it?