Nick Gautier is basically what happens if you put a sarcastic fourteen-year-old from the wrong side of New Orleans into a D&D campaign where the DM keeps escalating encounters and nobody remembers to take a long rest.
I picked this up during a late-night coding session — was supposed to be debugging my procedural dungeon generator for my thesis, but the code was fighting me and I needed something to keep me from alt-tabbing to Reddit. Invincible is book two of Sherrilyn Kenyon's Chronicles of Nick series, a YA spinoff from her adult Dark-Hunter universe, and it hits this weird sweet spot of urban fantasy meets high school survival horror that kept me up way past when I should've been sleeping.
When Your Character Sheet Says "Malachai Demon" But Your Alignment Is Still Chaotic Good
Here's what surprised me: this book leans harder into its mythology than I expected from a YA series. Kenyon isn't messing around with the world-building. Nick's discovering he's essentially being groomed as a vessel for cosmic-level dark power — think warlock patron dynamics but the patron is capital-E Evil and the pact wasn't exactly consensual. The shapeshifters, demons, necromancy lessons, and the ever-expanding web of supernatural factions all pile on in ways that feel like Kenyon is pulling from a sourcebook she's been writing for decades. Which she has. The Dark-Hunter universe is massive, and you can feel its weight underneath this YA entry.
But — and this is where it gets interesting — the book also spends a lot of time being a high school story. Nick dealing with a new principal who's out to get him, navigating social dynamics, trying to figure out what's going on with the girl he's not-dating. It's a balancing act. Sometimes that balance works great, like when supernatural elements bleed into the school setting and the tension ratchets up. Other times you feel the book treading water between the mythology and the teen drama, and the pacing dips. This is a seven-hour listen, which is pretty lean, but there are stretches in the middle where I caught myself zoning back into my code.
If you loved book one (Infinity), temper expectations slightly. The consensus I've seen lines up with my own take: Invincible is a solid continuation but doesn't quite hit the same highs as the first installment. The setup is heavier here — Kenyon is laying groundwork for what's coming — and setup books in a series always carry that slight "middle chapter" tax.
Holter Graham as the Voice of a Kid Who Can't Catch a Break
Okay, so Holter Graham. The man has won AudioFile Best Voice of the Year for a reason. His narration of Nick is spot-on — he nails the sarcastic, street-smart tone of a kid from the projects who's trying to be funny because the alternative is being terrified. And he should be terrified, because everything in this universe wants a piece of him.
What Graham does well is differentiation through tension. When Nick's talking to his mom, there's warmth. When he's facing down a demon or some ancient being trying to manipulate him, Graham shifts the register — not just pitch but energy — so you feel the power differential before anyone explains it. Minor characters stay distinguishable too, which is clutch when Kenyon throws a lot of supernatural players at you in quick succession.
Is it Steven Pacey? No. (Steven Pacey walked so other narrators could run. This is known.) But Graham is really good at what this specific book needs: a performance that keeps YA-paced dialogue snappy while selling the darker mythological moments. The production is clean, no weird audio artifacts, no distracting background noise. Just a solid single-narrator performance.
Who's Rolling Initiative on This One
If you're into urban fantasy with big mythology, this is worth your time — especially if you've already read Infinity. The progression is satisfying even when the pacing wobbles, because you can feel Kenyon building toward something massive. My D&D group would love this, honestly. The "chosen one resisting dark powers" arc, the faction politics, the necromancy — it reads like a campaign journal from someone's really well-prepped homebrew.
If you're coming in cold without reading book one, don't. You'll be lost. And if you don't like info-dumps, this isn't for you (but you're wrong). The same dense-mythology-as-feature-not-bug energy shows up in Pretties, which also bets hard that readers will lean into the world rather than bounce off it. Kenyon's world-building requires some lore delivery, and she's not shy about it.
For parents: there's violence, some language, and light sexual content. It's YA, but it's the older end of YA. Think age 14+.
My Thesis Can Wait Another Seven Hours
I read this instead of writing my thesis. (Dr. Patel, if you're reading this — I was technically researching procedural narrative structures. Nick's supernatural power progression is relevant to my work. Probably.) At seven hours, it's a quick listen that doesn't demand the same commitment as a Sanderson doorstopper, but it delivers enough world-building and character development to feel substantial. Graham's narration elevates a good-not-great second installment into something genuinely fun to listen to. Not a must-buy, but if you're already in the Chronicles of Nick, it's absolutely worth spending a credit on.
