The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey
Series: The Fifth Wave, #1
Published: May 7, 2013 by G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers
Genre: Young Adult, Science Fiction, Dystopia
Pages: 457
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
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Get it on Amazon: https://amzn.to/2QhwtFM
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.
Review
This book was recommended to me by a friend, but the idea of science fiction plus alien invasion didn’t catch my attention at first. But I still added it to my reading list, although not on my priority reads. After accidentally watching the film-adaptation of this book, that sealed its fate in my list, hahahaha.
I guess that’s also the reason why I have such massive expectations for this book. But to my dismay, the first half of this book was quite dull. I’m not saying it was dull because it wasn’t well written, but because the story telling on what happened after the 1st, 2nd 3rd and 4th waves was kinda not my liking. It was well-written alright, but for a dialogue reader like me, it was kinda hard to keep up. Actually, I think I could make up at least 2 full chapters for those parts that I’ve skipped, hah!
Also, I didn’t anticipate how the story is going to start. It reads like I am listening to a girl who’s telling me her life story after the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th waves. It was actually good, for I love that kind of narrative but I guess this time it wasn’t that effective to catch my full attention. Maybe the only positive thing I could think about during the first half of the book was to finally be able to understand the story, which the film-adaptation failed to tell us (or maybe just me, hahaha). And also, this is actually the time that the title of the story totally makes sense, haha, I could be slow sometimes ya know. What I also didn’t like is the shifting of the characters. It was kinda confusing because I thought it was still Cassie who’s talking, but then it’s not anymore.
I’ve already read a book or two on the science fiction genre but these kinds of books still fail to totally catch my attention, so I guess that’s also one of the reasons why I haven’t been able to enjoy this story that much. The plot and the scenes were really catchy, but I still don’t know why I can’t really feel the story. So I guess it’s safe to say that it’s not the book that has a problem, it’s probably me!
But when I reached the other half of the book where we’ve got to know more about Evan, deym, this book finally caught my attention. Hahaha, I’m really a sucker for romance so when I’ve got to read those parts where Evan and Cassie is hitting it off, my attention level just spiked to 100. The next scenes then started to get exciting which makes my reading experience more bearable.
I don’t really remember having some complaints with the characters. Even from the movie, I already admire Cassie’s character. I love how she is living up her promise to her younger brother that even if it’s dangerous, she still managed to be brave despite everything. Also, even if she’s showing bravery in this story, I adore the author for making her character reflect her age. I love that even after all that happened, we’re still able to realize how young her character is because there were times that she cried and missed her life way back when there wasn’t any danger against aliens and the only problem she had is how to tell her crush, Ben Parish, of her feelings.
And for my favorite character, Evan, deym! I really can’t help but smile everytime his character comes to mind. I just love how mysterious yet charming he is. I’m not saying he’s perfect, but deym, I still think he is! (insert deafening squeal here) I really need to cut it off or I’ll end up talking about him in this review, hahaha.
This book may not be able to entertain me that much, but I am still recommending this to everyone 🙂
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