The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey Reviewed

Title: The 5th Wave
Author: Rick Yancey
Genre: Sci-Fi, YA, Adventure

 

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.

This book was picked as book for the month by the online book club I am part of. Aside from that one of my friends have been gushing about this and was encouraging me to read it so we can talk about it later. That’s why I’m all set to love this book when I was given a copy.

My expectation of this book even went higher when I learned that it’ll be a movie. Then I read the introductory chapter… that really raised my hopes up. The beginning of this novel was very interesting and really hooked my interest.

However, after a few chapters I was slowly losing the intensity with which I started the book with. It took me forever to get past chapters because I always end up falling asleep. I have to read the same paragraph every time I get back to the book because I can’t remember what I read last.

I guess part of the reason I always end up asleep was because I was so confuse about the whole alien apocalypse thing. If the characters were confuse about what really was happening, I maybe twice as confused as they were. Honestly I felt like I was some kind of stupid because I didn’t really get what was going on and it wasn’t a nice feeling. I also have questions that didn’t get answered and I’m not sure if that was because it is a series.

Also, there are times that I can’t stand Cassie (for Cassiopeia not Cassandra). Especially when she start to talk about how cute a guy was and how they don’t pay attention to girls like her. I felt that that portion of the novel was a little forced and made Cassie sound a bit annoying instead of endearing. But there are also several things I like about her. Her tenacity and will to keep on living even if she feels she’s all alone in the planet. And I like how she’s all set on keeping her promise to Sam.

Now, Sam is my favorite character. He’s young but he showed intelligence and strength much bigger than his age and probably much bigger than he is. His faith for his sister was touching. His attempt to be brave and stand on his feet even giving that thing that was his source of comfort to his sister was pretty inspiring.

Ben and Evan’s character were a little tougher to figure out. I find myself always second guessing if they are part of the bad guys or the good guys. But Ben get my vote for coming back for Sam despite the odds.

Truth is, I ended the book still confuse about this whole alien ordeal. I’m not so sure if the next book will give a better light to it. But the beginning and the end parts of the book specially those parts under Ben’s POV had me entertained and awake.

I can’t say I enjoyed the whole book. But I can honestly say I enjoyed the beginning and Ben’s POVs and the last 30% of the book.

And I rarely do this but here’s my favorite quotes:

“There’s an old saying about the truth setting you free. Don’t buy it. Sometime’s the truth slams the cell door shut and throws a thousand bolts.”

“You can’t force yourself to trust. So you put all your doubts in a little box and bury it deep and then try to forget where you buried it.”