do yourself a favor and get this book ASAP
“We don’t always have to love ourselves in order to receive love from others. Sometimes that’s how we learn to love ourselves.”
Within the first few minutes of “Patient #11-A-7 (Caleb), Session 9,” of Lauren Shippen’s critically acclaimed podcast, The Bright Sessions, I knew that Caleb would be my favorite character. Empathic perception has long been one of my favorite superpowers, but one thing that I didn’t notice before listening to The Bright Sessions was that Empathy is normally seen as a “feminine” power. I began to fall in love with the way Shippen broke down all of these stereotypes throughout Caleb’s sessions, the way that Caleb learned to deal with both his own emotions and those of everyone else. In the weeks that I utterly inhaled the entirety of the podcast, I became so inspired by the story that I sought out help and attended my first therapy session. While I certainly am not a football player with a superpower, I related immensely with Caleb and, when he was introduced, Adam, and they grew very close to my heart. With this in mind, you can imagine my excitement when not only was The Infinite Noise announced, but I got an advance copy.
“So why do his feelings keep making themselves known to me? There’s no canyon between us--I don’t have to reach. His feelings swell up like a wave, crashing onto my shore, pushing me deeper into the sand.”
The Infinite Noise follows Caleb Michaels, the Empathic high school football player we all know and love from The Bright Sessions, and Adam Hayes, Caleb’s classmate. If for some reason you haven’t listened to The Bright Sessions (you should totally go listen to it right now, it’s amazing), Caleb loses his temper and gets into a fight with someone from school, resulting in his parents scheduling an appointment with Dr. Bright. She soon makes it clear to Caleb that he is not normal; in fact, he is Atypical, meaning that he as a superhuman power, namely Empathy. Over many weeks of working with Dr. Bright, he realizes that one of his classmates, Adam, has a more powerful effect on his ability than anyone else. Whenever Adam is around, all of the other emotions swimming around the high school fade. Dr. Bright encourages Caleb to pursue a friendship to better figure out why Adam’s emotions feel so right.
Fans of The Bright Sessions: I would like to say that this book does not contain any plot points on Caleb’s side that are not already in the podcast. Some of the key sessions are verbatim from the episodes and almost everything that happens in the book is mentioned sometime or other in either Caleb’s episodes, the stakeouts, or a few of Chloe’s episodes. That being said, this book provides a whole new series of layers to Caleb’s arc, as well as expands immensely on Adam’s character. The backstory that we get on Adam in the podcast is very minimal until a lot later in the series; he doesn’t even make his first appearance until the seventh episode of season two. In The Infinite Noise, however, virtually every other chapter is narrated by Adam himself, allowing for a much deeper understanding of the character.
“To be or not to be. One of the most famous lines and, in my opinion, kind of the wrong question. It’s not ‘to be or not to be,’ Hammie-- you are. Whether or not you like it. The question is how?”
Without spoiling anything, one of the central problems Adam's character faces--both in the podcast and the book-- is his struggle with mental illness. I bring this up because while it is a very difficult subject to talk about, I find it to be one of the book's greatest attributes. Yes, both The Infinite Noise and The Bright Sessions are bursting with representation of all kinds, but I find the representation of mental illnesses to be the most accurate and, frankly, inspiring. Shocking, I know, for a series that is literally centered around therapy, but I genuinely appreciated the love and care that Shippen used when writing these characters. Because of this, however, I do have to issue a content warning. There are some topics discussed in this novel, like depression, suicide, and self-harm, that might be triggering to some. That being said, rest easily knowing that it was not done flippantly; all of the discussion of mental illness in the book was handled with extreme care.
I made a good decision when I listened to the first episode of The Bright Sessions, but the even better one was when I decided to keep listening. Without that, I wouldn’t have found myself in Caleb. Without that, I wouldn’t have read this book. Do yourself a favor and pre-order this book as soon as you can; you will thank me. Stay strange.
Within the first few minutes of “Patient #11-A-7 (Caleb), Session 9,” of Lauren Shippen’s critically acclaimed podcast, The Bright Sessions, I knew that Caleb would be my favorite character. Empathic perception has long been one of my favorite superpowers, but one thing that I didn’t notice before listening to The Bright Sessions was that Empathy is normally seen as a “feminine” power. I began to fall in love with the way Shippen broke down all of these stereotypes throughout Caleb’s sessions, the way that Caleb learned to deal with both his own emotions and those of everyone else. In the weeks that I utterly inhaled the entirety of the podcast, I became so inspired by the story that I sought out help and attended my first therapy session. While I certainly am not a football player with a superpower, I related immensely with Caleb and, when he was introduced, Adam, and they grew very close to my heart. With this in mind, you can imagine my excitement when not only was The Infinite Noise announced, but I got an advance copy.
“So why do his feelings keep making themselves known to me? There’s no canyon between us--I don’t have to reach. His feelings swell up like a wave, crashing onto my shore, pushing me deeper into the sand.”
The Infinite Noise follows Caleb Michaels, the Empathic high school football player we all know and love from The Bright Sessions, and Adam Hayes, Caleb’s classmate. If for some reason you haven’t listened to The Bright Sessions (you should totally go listen to it right now, it’s amazing), Caleb loses his temper and gets into a fight with someone from school, resulting in his parents scheduling an appointment with Dr. Bright. She soon makes it clear to Caleb that he is not normal; in fact, he is Atypical, meaning that he as a superhuman power, namely Empathy. Over many weeks of working with Dr. Bright, he realizes that one of his classmates, Adam, has a more powerful effect on his ability than anyone else. Whenever Adam is around, all of the other emotions swimming around the high school fade. Dr. Bright encourages Caleb to pursue a friendship to better figure out why Adam’s emotions feel so right.
Fans of The Bright Sessions: I would like to say that this book does not contain any plot points on Caleb’s side that are not already in the podcast. Some of the key sessions are verbatim from the episodes and almost everything that happens in the book is mentioned sometime or other in either Caleb’s episodes, the stakeouts, or a few of Chloe’s episodes. That being said, this book provides a whole new series of layers to Caleb’s arc, as well as expands immensely on Adam’s character. The backstory that we get on Adam in the podcast is very minimal until a lot later in the series; he doesn’t even make his first appearance until the seventh episode of season two. In The Infinite Noise, however, virtually every other chapter is narrated by Adam himself, allowing for a much deeper understanding of the character.
“To be or not to be. One of the most famous lines and, in my opinion, kind of the wrong question. It’s not ‘to be or not to be,’ Hammie-- you are. Whether or not you like it. The question is how?”
Without spoiling anything, one of the central problems Adam's character faces--both in the podcast and the book-- is his struggle with mental illness. I bring this up because while it is a very difficult subject to talk about, I find it to be one of the book's greatest attributes. Yes, both The Infinite Noise and The Bright Sessions are bursting with representation of all kinds, but I find the representation of mental illnesses to be the most accurate and, frankly, inspiring. Shocking, I know, for a series that is literally centered around therapy, but I genuinely appreciated the love and care that Shippen used when writing these characters. Because of this, however, I do have to issue a content warning. There are some topics discussed in this novel, like depression, suicide, and self-harm, that might be triggering to some. That being said, rest easily knowing that it was not done flippantly; all of the discussion of mental illness in the book was handled with extreme care.
I made a good decision when I listened to the first episode of The Bright Sessions, but the even better one was when I decided to keep listening. Without that, I wouldn’t have found myself in Caleb. Without that, I wouldn’t have read this book. Do yourself a favor and pre-order this book as soon as you can; you will thank me. Stay strange.