Book Review: The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey

Release Date: May 7th, 2013
Read: January 22nd - February 8th, 2016
Publisher: G.P Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers
Series: The 5th Wave, #1
Format: Hardcover, 457 pages
Source: Borrowed, Class Library

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.

Review:

   That's a lot of bloody tears.
   Having been released for a few years now, most people have known about The 5th Wave for a while. The same went for me, expect I first discovered it when its sequel, The Infinite Sea was being released. At the time dystopian books were just coming down from their trend, and I had just become so bored of them. It wasn't until they released the first trailer for the movie adaption, that my interest was peaked and I wanted to give the book a try.
   After reading The 5th Wave, I found myself not impressed with the story. There was nothing special about it, the aliens or even the characters. I thought with the waves being so advanced that these aliens would be exciting and special, but really they were just spirits inhabiting human bodies. For once when someone says aliens I want a odd looking green guy, not another human looking creature. If I wanted another human inhabiting alien book I would have read The Host again, or even the Lux series. 
   The characters like I said, were nothing special. I felt no connection to either of them, even with the 3 different point of views that we got. Not to mention the confusion I had when we switched the narratives, when we first swapped from Cassie to Ben I had no idea that it had happened and so I went on thinking I was still experiencing Cassie's point of view. Even with the black page separating the views, I'd have at least liked to know whose view I was swapping to.
   Another item that I could just not comprehend was Cassie repeatedly going back to Evan, she knew he was lying and eventually even found out the truth about him, but the second he mentions saving her brother she was all for trusting him to get Sammy back. You're a very bipolar one there, Cassie.
   Even though The 5th Wave was not my favourite, I still look forward to seeing it's movie as well as possibly reading its sequel in the future.

Rating:

Favourite Quote:

"Love is a weapon they have no answer for. They know how you think, but they can't know what you feel."

"Nothing is not important anymore."

Recommend to People Who Enjoy:

Young Adult, Science Fiction, Dystopian, Aliens,