Skip content
Celebrate indie bookstores with our limited-time sale! Shop the sale
The Infinite Noise by Lauren Shippen
  Send as gift   Add to Wish List

Almost ready!

In order to save audiobooks to your Wish List you must be signed in to your account.

      Log in       Create account
IBD balloon logo

Shop the sale

In celebration of Independent Bookstore Day, shop our limited-time sale on bestselling audiobooks from April 22nd-28th. Don’t miss out—purchases support your local bookstore!

Shop now

The Infinite Noise

A Bright Sessions Novel

$28.34

Get for $14.99 with membership
Length 9 hours 51 minutes
Language English
Narrators Briggon Snow & James Fouhey

This audiobook uses AI narration.

We’re taking steps to make sure AI narration is transparent.

Learn more
  Send as gift   Add to Wish List

Almost ready!

In order to save audiobooks to your Wish List you must be signed in to your account.

      Log in       Create account

"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 sixteen-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)

LAUREN SHIPPEN, author of The Infinite Noise, is a writer best known for her work in fiction podcasts. She is the creator and sole writer of the popular audio drama, The Bright Sessions. She went on to executive produce The AM Archives and co-produce Passenger List before founding Atypical Artists, a company dedicated to audio storytelling. She wrote MARVELS, an audio adaptation of the popular comic, released in 2019 by Marvel and Stitcher. Lauren was named one of Forbes's 2018 30 Under 30 in Media and one of MovieMaker Magazine's and Austin Film Festival’s 25 Screenwriters to Watch. She was born in New York City and grew up in Bronxville, New York. She currently lives in Los Angeles but travels frequently to New York.

IBD balloon logo

Shop the sale

In celebration of Independent Bookstore Day, shop our limited-time sale on bestselling audiobooks from April 22nd-28th. Don’t miss out—purchases support your local bookstore!

Shop now

Reviews

Praise for The Bright Sessions

"Narrators James Fouhey and Briggon Snow give stellar performances in this quiet YA romance. Caleb, portrayed by Snow, is an Atypical--an empath who can feel other people's emotions. Adam, portrayed by Fouhey, is a bookish loner with a lot of big feelings. As Caleb learns to manage his ability, the two boys are drawn together. When Caleb is overwhelmed by emotions, Snow increases the volume and speed of his narration, bringing listeners right into Caleb's churning mind. Fouhey perfectly captures quiet, observant Adam with a slower narration, reflecting both the careful way Adam thinks and the pain of his depressive episodes. Both narrators authentically capture the ups and downs of teen romance and keep listeners engaged with an audiobook in which emotions, rather than plot, take center stage." -AudioFile Magazine

“Created by the brilliant Lauren Shippen, The Bright Sessions is probably my number one favorite podcast right now.” —Patricia Thang, Book Riot

“[The Bright Sessions] combines shades of The X-Files and the HBO psychotherapy drama In Treatment, plus the youthful characters of a WB drama like Roswell or Smallville, into one compulsively listenable tale.... A testament to the simple power of good storytelling.” —Vox

“Radio dramas for the podcast age often veer towards either solid writing or engrossing performances. Rare is the show that satisfies on both fronts like The Bright Sessions.... Shippen never loses sight of the impressive character work that drives the show.” —IndieWire

“Part Professor X, part Sigmund Freud, Dr. Bright has a specialty: treating 'the strange and unusual....' Start at the beginning and binge away an afternoon on Dr. Bright’s couch.” —WIRED

Expand reviews
Celebrate indie bookstores with our limited-time sale! Shop the sale