The Infinite Noise cover art

The Infinite Noise

The Bright Sessions, Book 1

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The Infinite Noise

By: Lauren Shippen
Narrated by: Briggon Snow, James Fouhey
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About this listen

"Narrators James Fouhey and Briggon Snow give stellar performances in this quiet YA romance.... Both narrators authentically capture the ups and downs of teen romance and keep listeners engaged." (AudioFile Magazine)

Lauren Shippen's The Infinite Noise is a stunning, original debut based on her wildly popular and award-winning podcast The Bright Sessions.

Caleb Michaels is a 16-year-old champion running back. Other than that his life is pretty normal. But when Caleb starts experiencing mood swings that are out of the ordinary for even a teenager, his life moves beyond "typical".

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.

Caleb's therapist, Dr. Bright, encourages Caleb to explore this connection by befriending Adam. As he and Adam grow closer, Caleb learns more about his ability, himself, his therapist - who seems to know a lot more than she lets on - and just how dangerous being an Atypical can be.

"What if the X-Men, instead of becoming superheroes, decided to spend some time in therapy?" (Vox on The Bright Sessions)

©2019 Lauren Shippen (P)2019 Macmillan Audio Coming of Age Fantasy Fiction LGBTQ+ Literature & Fiction Science Fiction & Fantasy Young Adult

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All stars
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The interactions between Caleb and Adam are equal parts sweet and awkward and it's relatable in a way few writers fail to capture. Once you've read this, go and listen to the Bright Sessions Podcast, AM Archives and the College Tapes. There's still a whole world to explore and I can't wait to start again with the glow of this book still in my head.

Sweet, Heartwarming and Engaging 6/5

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I haven’t been able to stop listening to this. Easily one of the best books I’ve read (listened to).

The way Adams depression is portrayed, I’ve never heard a more accurate description of what it feels like, and it honestly brought tears to my eyes (not the only time I cried whilst listening to this!)


I have been recommending this left right and centre, and am now going on to listen to all of the ‘Bright Sessions’ podcasts, as I just need MORE.

I wish I could rate it higher!

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I obviously loved this but if you haven't listened to the bright session podcast, do that first (it's free wherever you get your pods) and then come back because you need the context of that, to really appreciate this book.

Love Caleb and Adam

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But the real question is ARE YOU OKAY?
(i have to leave extra words here so I can send this)

Um

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I think that if I hadn't listened to The Bright Sessions podcast I might not have enjoyed this as much. As someone coming straight from the podcast, I listened to the audio book version and whilst it was a little jarring not hearing the voices of the other characters it was significantly easier than having to play out all the voices on my own. Briggon Snow and James Fouhey did a good job in their narrations and it was fun listening to the original Caleb and a different version of Adam throughout the book.

I was worried where the book would end considering that the original podcast goes on until their graduation, but I think the book ended at a pretty decent point in their relationship - though, as always, I wanna see more of them.

I rated the story three stars because my experience with Caleb and Adam in the podcast gave me extra context for certain situations/conflicts that appeared in the book and so none of what happened was that much of a surprise. However I also enjoyed seeing some of my favourite moments from them and seeing the development of their relationship throughout the whole canon. I love how this story adds onto The Bright Sessions universe a bit more, and it's a lot easier understanding the difficulties Caleb faces as an empath as well as how Adam handles his own depression. So whilst none of it was technically "new" it was still fun to see more interactions from my favourite characters in TBS series.

Overall, I would say that I enjoyed the book however my previous experience with the podcast definitely influenced that a lot. If you haven't, then I highly recommend heading over there for a listen (it can be found free on Spotify or Youtube) as it gives more indepth explanation on the world of atypicals, even if Caleb and Adam aren't at the forefront of each episode.

A fun listen

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Lovely story but to short I has hoping to here then at college but will just have to hope the next one brings us to up to speed

Too short

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Wow. Just wow, I loved this so much, I was going to listen to it at work a couple of hours at a time but once I started I couldn't press pause. Its so different to other books in this genre, there is an intensity as you are put firmly inside the heads of these two characters and there mile a minute angst filled, doubt-ridden monologues as they battle with their demons and their developing feelings towards one another. Its this aspect that makes this such a good read/listen.

I came to this book having already gotten to know and love the characters and the much of the story in the Bright Sessions podcast. There are a number of moments of recognition from the Caleb episodes, the book filling in the gaps and developing our understanding of the characters, Adam in particular.
I'm not big on sci-fi but the podcast was more about the characters, their personality and how they learn to live possessing these super powers/special abilities and its the same here. You may scoff at empathy being labelled as such but the way its written, how we experience it through Caleb you could believe it to be real, like a personality disorder or something on the autism spectrum.

The voice actors are brilliant, Briggon Snow plays Caleb in the podcast and it was absolutely the right choice for him to narrate him here -I know he loves this character and embodies him. Adam is voiced by a different actor in the podcast but my tinge of disappointment was misplaced as James Foughey does a super job as Adam.

I highly recommend this book, it isn't the usual coming of age m/m story, its not about sex and even the romance is pretty light but what it does so brilliantly is transport you into the mind of these teenagers. If you are undecided give the podcast a go, I feel having listened to that first made this a much richer experience.

I couldn't stop listening

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I wasn't sure what to expect, I suppose I was expecting a little more sci-fi and a little less romance. But this was really just a m/m romance with a touch of sci-fi. I'm good with romance, I enjoy m/m romance a lot, I think I was just expecting something a little different than what I read.

If you're looking for a nice m/m teen romance, you'll enjoy this. If you're wanting a lot of sci-fi, you might be disappointed. Since this is a series, the sci-fi might become a larger part of the story as it progresses. But that's just a guess. It's definitely indicating something developing in the background.

As for the narration. It was good enough. But it took me a chapter or so to adapt to the voices and accents as I had just been listening to the magnificent Stephen Fry read the Harry Potter series. And for me, narration doesn't get much better than that. But soon enough I had adjusted to the new narrators.

A good read...

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I thought it was a really interesting plot, narration was great and characters are just lovely!

I absolutely loved it!

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I thought I wouldn’t like this because I already knew the story of Adam and Caleb. Or so I thought. I hung on the story start to finish and am so happy to have discovered another piece of the atypical universe! There is overlap of course but it’s very minimal. Only thing that bugged me was monotone narrating style for Adam. But after a while I found my piece with it and it actually kind of matched with his personality.

Amazing add to the atypical universe!

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