Book Discussion: The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey

Title: The 5th Wave (The Fifth Wave #1)
Author: Rick Yancey
Genre: Young Adult, Post-Apocalyptic
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The Passage meets Ender’s Game in an epic new series from award-winning author Rick Yancey.

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 by Nara

A book discussion is a review where any aspect of the book can be talked about. Therefore, there are spoilers. Seriously, only read the spoiler section if you've only read the book, there are MAJOR spoilers there.

Personally, I found that The 5th Wave was an interesting read, but wouldn't call it one of my favourites. There was so much hype about these books, and book trailers, and teaser quotes and what not- and I found that The 5th Wave was indeed really good. Just not as good as I had hoped. (It was still really good. Don't get me wrong there.)

Basically, in the book, we have this badass, jaded (although not by choice) teen who is on the run from Them (i.e. the aliens). Cassie has been separated from her brother and is trying to find/rescue him. Random guy turns up (Evan) and lo and behold he's hormonal and therefore willing to help her.

Spoiler time!

Click me to read spoilers

Okay, so, I present to you the aliens' Grand Extermination Plan:
The 1st Wave: Lights Out- turn off the electricity.
The 2nd Wave: Surf's Up- tsunamis
The 3rd Wave: Pestilence- disease
The 4th Wave: Silencer- specialist alien snipers pick off any remaining humans
The 5th Wave- steal all the human kids and turn em on the humans. Um, okay.
While the grand plan is pretty epic, why do the aliens even need 5 waves to destroy the humans? Really, to be honest, turning off the electricity should be enough to destroy mankind. Not even sure if the other waves were necessary (unless they wanted to do it really quickly or something, I guess). And come on! Are the specialist snipers not enough! What's with the kid stealing!

I quite like how Cassie talks about current Cassie vs past Cassie- how she's been changed by the arrival of the Others. I think it's quite an accurate portrayal of what I would expect to happen. I think that's one of the things I like most about The 5th Wave- there aren't any unrealistic "heroes" who keep somehow keep their morality and their pure heart in the face of danger or whatever.

Cruelty isn't a personality trait. Cruelty is a habit.

In terms of the romance, candidate 1 is Ben. It was so funny how Cassie had this big plan to talk to Ben- like "remember that time we talked about babies". I mean, seriously, let's be honest, the only reason she really liked him was because he was hot. And of course Ben Parish would survive. And of course Ben would somehow meet up with Sammy. I have to admit though, Ben with Sammy was so cute! How he helped him say the prayer that first night, I was like :')

Random, but how awesome was this line:

"Fear...for the gazelle, fear of being eaten. For the lion, fear of starvation. Fear is the chain that binds them together."

Okay, the romance with Evan. That was weird. That was definitely a major instalove. However, I do feel that it was appropriate in the setting of the post-apocalyptic world where pretty much everyone is dead. But seriously people, did you suspect that Evan was an Other? Because I did not see that coming. Tell me in comments! (But use a code to keep it spoiler free. Maybe say "I did/didn't suspect that Evan liked pink, or something else random, and I'll know you're talking about the fact that he's a "shark").

The action scenes were all so damn epic! Just the tension level and the fast pace- they were awesome. That being said, I am really excited for the next book, and the book after that. I want to see these freaking aliens destroyed! Or I guess they could work it out peacefully...I guess...But I would prefer they were destroyed! (More epic action scenes that way haha).

The 5th Wave was quite well written, and there was definitely enough action and adventure to keep the ball of interest rolling. I would recommend it to people who want a fairly unique post-apocalyptic read.

Really liked it

Ratings
Overall: 9/10
Plot: 4/5
Writing: 5/5
Characters: 5/5
Cover: 4/5