Invincible: The Chronicles of Nick

Invincible is the second installment in Sherrilyn Kenyon’s first foray into the young adult market. It follows the first book in the series, Infinity. This series stars Nick Gautier, a 14-year-old boy. Ms. Kenyon has written this saga with a focus on one of her adult characters as he was as a youngster. It shows how he grew into the person that he is in her adult books.

In the first book, Nick found himself the target of a number of supernatural creatures, zombies being foremost among them. This time, the story isn’t zombie intensive, but unnatural creatures such as shapeshifters and demons still have Nick in their sights. He harbors a dark, all-encompassing power, a power that will define him as an adult, but while he is still young and immature, powerful forces are anxious to capture him and suck up that dark energy for themselves.

Invincible takes up directly where Infinity left off, on the same day as a matter of fact. As Nick tries to understand and grasp the intentions of the supernatural guardians now placed in his life, he still has to negotiate school and a single, often overprotective mom. Let’s not leave out the new principal who thinks he’s a low-down hoodlum and the coach who threatens to have him put behind bars if he doesn’t go along with his unsavory plans.

Once again, Ms. Kenyon has done a great job of capturing the voice of a teen boy. Nick’s inner monologue and dialogue exemplify a well fleshed out character with a distinctive point of view. There were a number of laugh-out-loud moments as this teenager confronts all manner of supernatural episodes as only a teen boy could— a truckload of attitude and a take-no-prisoners bravado.

She weaved in enough pertinent information and backstory from book one to give the reader a good sense of the trajectory of the story, but without impeding the tale’s forward momentum with needless detail.

Ms. Kenyon utilizes a forthright style that is brash and to the point. You won’t find any flowery writing here. Her characters don’t hold back or indulge in self-analysis. They’re not angst-ridden, but are often blunt, handling their problems by taking immediate action—very likely of the physical kind, as in a good and vigorous fight.

As in the first installment, Invincible ends on an eye-opening note that leaves the reader with a big clue and scrambling to understand what it means. That can only be solved by continuing on with book number three, which if the first two books are an indication, will be sure to please.