Our Infinite Fates – Vicious Cycle

I did not want to finish this book, but I did. I set a goal this year to DNF anything I wasn’t enjoying at the 50% mark, but the hype for Our Infinite Fates by Laura Steven was too big, and my bewilderment too incomprehensible, that I had to see it through.

Evelyn has lived thousands of lifetimes but has never lived to see her 18th birthday. In each life, Evelyn waits for her friend, lover, and immortal enemy Arden to reappear and take her life. Sometimes Evelyn beats Arden to it and kills them before Arden can deal the final blow. But it doesn’t matter who dies by whose hand, the two must die before they turn 18 to be reincarnated and forced to find another once again. But in 2022, when Evelyn is reincarnated in Wales, she can’t bear to leave behind a grieving mother and sick sister. This time, she wants to live, and she’s desperate enough to try and prevent Arden from completing yet another death cycle.

It was bold for this book to be marketed to fans of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue when the only connective tissue between the two is a plot that follows an immortal weaving through time. This is not an appropriate story for Addie LaRue fans or any experienced fantasy reader, for that matter. The prose is so simple, so repetitive, and delivered via a spoon airplane that I often questioned if it was a middle-grade book. I was endlessly bored and frustrated by the book’s repetitive structure, flat characters, lack of any sort of deep emotional connection, and the worldbuilding dump that was thrown at me at the end. There was no meat to this story. It cycled through Evelyn’s same emotions over and over again. She loves Arden, but she dreads when they appear. But no wait, she actually loves it when Arden is near. This cycle happens in every. Single. Chapter. Until finally the lore is monologued to us by two characters at the 85% mark. 

Our Infinite Fates is annoyingly repetitive, and the vignettes of the past lives don’t pull their weight to add substance to the story. Between the present-day chapters set in Wales in 2022, the story jumps back in time to highlight a moment between Evelyn and Arden; however, the significance of these chapters is minimal. More often than not, we visit a random point in history only to watch Evelyn repeatedly express dread and love for her endless cycle with Arden. It rinsed and repeated, which made each little adventure back in time feel rote and pointless. As for Addie LaRue comparisons, if you just like timey-wimey books, then sure, Infinite Fates is obviously that. However, V.E. Schwab writes to put the reader in Addie’s shoes so that we suffer with her and live through the poignant events of her past and present. Each event in time is filled with purpose and reveals complex connections that shape the woman Addie is now and the relationships she has with others. In Infinite Fates, the shallow writing keeps us at arm’s length, and everything just seems to happen to Evelyn without grounding us in the trenches with her. I felt disconnected, and the chapters are utilitarian in the description department, like hungrily looking at a sparse pantry shelf with a tin of cookies, only when you open the lid, there’s only one morsel left.

I got the sense that the story didn’t have enough to say, hence the repetitiveness. Not only would the plot repeat, but the same sentiments would be shared over and over again. For instance, Evelyn would ask Arden if they remember how good the coffee was in Constantinople, and then in the following chapter, Evelyn is conveniently drinking coffee in a hospital scene and has to remark that it’s not as good as the coffee in Constantinople. Or Evelyn lamenting that she didn’t have as nice clothes as she did when her mother was a designer. The story jumps back in time to witness Evelyn in her smart suit telling us how much she loves the clothes from her designer mother. This happens over and over again with different, and honestly, quite useless elements from their historic paths. So not only did I swirl in the same plot, in every era, on all sides of the globe, but I had to be constantly reminded of Evelyn’s one weird quirk from that era. 

I don’t know who Our Infinite Fates is for. New fantasy readers? Newly burgeoning young adult readers? It’s certainly not for anyone who enjoyed Addie LaRue. If that was you, avoid the disappointment and scratch your time-jumping itch elsewhere. 

Rating: Our Infinite Fates – 4.0/10
-Brandee