Thursday, September 18, 2014

Book Review: The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey

Now reviewing...The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey




I decided to give this book 4 stars!!

This was an awesome book! The story is very original (unless apparently you have read The Host by Stephanie Meyers, which I haven't...so I thought it was neat!) and the characters are interesting! Here is a blurb about the the book:

"After the 1st wave, only darkness remains. After the 2nd, only the lucky escape. And after the 3rd, only the unlucky survive. After the 4th wave, only one rule applies: trust no one.

Now, it's the dawn of the 5th wave, and on a lonely stretch of highway, Cassie runs from Them. The beings who only look human, who roam the countryside killing anyone they see. Who have scattered Earth's last survivors. To stay alone is to stay alive, Cassie believes, until she meets Evan Walker. Beguiling and mysterious, Evan Walker may be Cassie's only hope for rescuing her brother--or even saving herself. But Cassie must choose: between trust and despair, between defiance and surrender, between life and death. To give up or to get up."

Sounds interesting, right? I thought so! Through my "bookstagram", I had heard so many good things about this book and many people seemed to genuinely enjoy it so I thought I would give it a shot. Most of my opinions on this book are good, with only one or two things I didn't enjoy. I would definitely suggest this book to anyone who likes supernatural, YA books! Without further adieu, what I did and didn't like about this book.


SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!

Things I did like:

I really liked Cassie, the main character. You might be thinking, "Oh, Cassie for Cassandra" but as stated in the book, it is "Cassie for Cassieopia." I thought that Cassie was a very strong character and had a very unique train of thought in regards to other characters I have read about in other YA novels. Even when she is faced with hardship, she pushes through and does what needs to be done which is very admirable. Aside from her, I also like Evan and Ben. First, let's talk about Evan Walker. He seems like a very genuine guy and legitimately seems to care for Cassie. I was a little confused about him at first, but then I thought, "Well, he must just be kind of weird." Then we find out that he is a SILENCER. WHAT?! I am not going to downplay this any, but I was seriously sad when I thought that she was going to leave him and their relationship couldn't move forward since, you know, he is one of the aliens that invaded the Earth. However, she sees past that and then they work together to save her brother, Sammy. Seems like a happily ever after, except we have no idea what happened to Evan at the end of the book :,( Regardless of how the plot went, I liked the fact that Evan was trying to overcome his natural state because of love. I approve of him. Then there was Ben (Zombie). I know that he was brainwashed to be one of the bad guys, but I believe that he is really good at heart. Otherwise, he wouldn't have gone through all of the trouble to also go back and save Sammy (Nugget). At the end of the book, it seemed like maybe him and Cassie will have a potential romantic relationship in the future? Until I read The Infinite Sea, I won't know. Regardless, Ben is a good guy turned bad, then turned good again after his and Ringer's realization. Good for them.

Aside from the characters, I thought that the concept/plot was great and kept me wanting more! I cannot wait to begin TIS when I get it, hopefully sometime next week.

Things I didn't like:

Okay, so I have read plenty of books where the POV alternates between two characters. I have really come to enjoy that style of writing, it has definitely grown on me. This book was setup in a similar fashion, however, it was between more than just two characters. Here, we are looking at two main POV's and then two sub-POV's. Cassie and Ben are the biggest portions of the book, while Evan/Silencer and Sammy take up a small sliver of it. Don't get me wrong, I liked the style of bouncing between characters, however it drove me crazy that they were not labeled as to who it was. When I first started reading and finished the first section (Cassie) I moved on to the next one and it took me about 4 pages to realize that it was:

1. Not Cassie anymore

2. A male character with no name

Then, you don't find out this guys name until the end of his first section! It was super confusing for awhile which is the main reason I gave this book 4 stars. Even once you knew who the characters were, you would have to read a page or two usually to realize whose POV it was at that time since it didn't clearly state it at the beginning. All-in-all, I found the style good, but didn't like the lack of information on the character speaking.

Otherwise, I still really enjoyed this book and look forward to reading The Infinite Sea. I hope you found this review useful!


Happy reading! :)

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