“If he’s blue and I’m yellow, being around him makes everything green … I guess I just really like being in that green place.”

The Infinite Noise by Lauren Shippen is a lovely dual perspective narrative based on The Bright Sessions podcast. Caleb is an Atypical, a human with the enhanced abilities to feel the emotions of everyone around them. He gets particularly caught up in the feelings of his classmate Adam, who struggles with his own mental health issues. Their lives come together in ways that neither of them could have predicted, but that feels somehow right to both of them.

This is very much a character driven book. There’s little in the way of over-arching plot, and I wasn’t at all bothered by that, because the journey of self-discovery I went on with these beautifully complex souls was really fascinating. I’ve just added the podcast this book is based on to my queue, and will be tracking down the next book in the series. A good solid 4/5 read for me – probably not going to crack my favourite books list for the year, but only because I’ve read so many 5 books already that I know it’s going to be hotly contested! Content warnings: mental health/ serious depression, including self harm.