Review : The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey
The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey
Pages : 457
Genre : YA, Speculative fiction
Series : The 5th Wave, book 1
My Rating : 4/5
About the Book :
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.
My Thoughts :
Having read all kinds of reviews for the book, I expected nothing of The 5th Wave, so I was quite pleasantly surprised when I finally read it this week! If I rated the book on entertainment alone it would easily be a 4.5 out of 5. But, I did feel like the story went on too long in parts, and that the plot lacked a bit of originality.
The 5th Wave is a slow-moving story – something I’ve seen many readers complain about, but something that I, personally, absolutely loved. I enjoy getting to know the characters at a slow pace rather than in constant action, and I felt like Rick Yancey did that well, introducing Cassie, Ben and Evan (and even Nugget!) each on their own. The story is told through multiple point of views, though it focused mainly on Cassie and Ben, and I thought the author did a great job of writing them distinctively. Despite some similarities, they each had their personality.
One of the things I enjoyed about the book was how Yancey mixed lots of genre. There’s a bit of survival, some science-fiction, some army life and a bit of horror even. I loved that the story started in an already “post-apocalyptic” setting (I use the term loosely), but still soon enough after the events that it felt fresh, new, easy to relate to. I was immediately curious about Cassie’s past and the journey that had brought her where she was. From the start, I was eager to find out how she would find her brother and meet the other characters.
It’s been a while since I’ve read a YA book that gave me such a “complete” feeling; I knew just enough about the world around the characters, and I knew just enough about the characters themselves, to thoroughly enjoy the story. I love the characters’ humor and how they interacted together. I liked the romance and I loved the friendships. Even the minor characters had a lot of personality and felt very alive to me. The story also felt a bit more “grown-up” than some others – while still being very true to its YA roots.
Was the story original? Eh, not so much. In fact, a lot of the twists, while interesting, felt predictable to me. But it worked. I’m not sure why, but it seemed Rick Yancey managed to pull me into the story so well that I didn’t care about originality or surprise. Plus, I think some readers new to the genre will find the story unexpected and just enough different!
I guess I was in a 5th wave kind of mood after all, because I wanted to start the next book as soon as I finished this one. It’s on the way home, so I’ll have to wait!
As for the movie, which was released just last week… So far it doesn’t appeal to me, and it saddens me very much. From what I’ve seen it seems to have a different “feel” from the book and like it could be missing what I enjoyed so much from it, so I’d rather wait to rent it. But, if any of you have seen it, please let me know what you thought, good or bad!
I loved this one as well! I’ve been very saddened to read all of the negative reviews of the movie adaption; a lot of people have said it sidelines Zombie’s character and a lot of the action is skipped… Great review!
Yes, that saddens me too! I still want to see it, but I’m keeping my hopes very low…