Tuesday Reviews: The 5th Wave

Title: The 5th Wave (5th Wave #1)

Author: Rick Yancey

Publisher: G.P. Putnam Sons Books for Young Readers

Release Date: May 7, 2013

Format Read: Hardback

Rating: Four stars

Description from Goodreads: 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.

I finished THE 5TH WAVE last Friday, at like four in the morning because I couldn't go to bed without finding out what happened in the end. Which ended up being a terrible idea, since the book ended in a bit of a character cliffhanger, and I ended up having to spam my best friend and gets some answers, since I know it'll be a while before I finish my current TBR and can get my hands on THE INFINITE SEA. But anyway, THE 5TH WAVE wasn't quite what I had expected...

The concept of this story was ingenious. The idea of aliens looking like us and invading earth, causing us to not be able to trust anyone-- to turn on each other-- it's a perfect showing of human nature. And the plot was so extremely juicy and enrapturing that I hated having to put the book down. I have a soft spot for sibling rescues, especially when the sibling is as adorable and perfect as Sammy, so this story had all of the elements that stole my attention and made me want to read faster. 

It even had fantastic quotes. There were quite a few good ones, but I wanted to share my favorite with you. Part of the quote is spoilery, so I'm going to cut that chunk out with a "---".

"But if I'm it, the last of my kind, the last page of human history, like hell I'm going to let that story end this way. 

--- 

Because if I am the last one, then I am humanity.

And if this is humanity's last war, then I am the battlefield."

Said quote gave me chills and set me reading faster. Just saying.

I loved nearly every part of this book, though I did predict most of the twists and turns. (I think that happens when you read dystopia and post-apocalyptic YA- things start to seem familiar and you can draw parallels to predict the outcomes- but as long as the story's main elements and characters are fresh, I don't mind.) The only things that I really didn't like about the story was the inconsistency with which it switched POV's, and the way that it backtracked. For example, one instance was a Cassie pov, and it ran through her day, and then when it switched to a different pov, it backtracked time, documenting THAT character's day. 

Those are the two small things that bugged me, so obviously it was a pretty solid story. 

And I have to admit, reading this book was a bit of an interesting experience, because in many ways, Cassie is a lot like me. Her snark, determination, dedication, are a few to name. But there are also ways in which we differ, and those ways were tremendous. The biggest one was the way she treated Evan, in which we were exact opposites, but I cannot explain in case some of you reading this haven't read the books yet. 

I would give THE 5TH WAVE four stars, and recommend it to those who enjoy thought-provoking alien encounter stories, or dystopian/post-apocalyptic. Even though I'm getting to where it's hard for me to read books from this genre, THE 5TH WAVE was a fantastic read, and I'm glad that I finally picked it up.