Review of The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey
Series: The 5th Wave #1
Genres: Sci-Fi, Apocalyptic
Pages: 457
Publisher: G. P. Putnam's Sons Books
Release Date: 07/05/2013
After the 1st wave, only darkness remains. After the 2nd, only the lucky escape. And after the 3rd,
only the lucky 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.
The problem with reading a book before you watch a movie is that you go in with expectations about the movie, even if you don't mean to. It turns out that the reverse is the same too. I didn't initially remember that I'd seen The 5th Wave movie with Chloe Moretz, as we'd watched it with a multitude of other movies during Christmas but I slowly started the remember the plot as I read the book.
The story is one of my favourite types, the post apocalyptic style where out characters are trecking across America and camping out in creepy forests. I have no idea why I love that trope so much but I do. In this story there's been an alien invasion, everything has gone to hell and Cassie, our main character is trying desperately to find her little brother who was taken (sadly not by David Bowie in very tight pants).
This is a multiple POV book featuring four different characters, Cassie, Ben, Evan and Sam. I felt like this could have been cut down to just two POVs, Cassie and Ben as the others were nearly always around with these two main characters.
Cassie and Ben, apart from being the obvious main characters, were also great characters overall. I loved being in the conflict with them, following their struggles to do the hard thing, battling their way through a war that they never expected to happen. Cassie knows how to look after herself and isn't shy to use a gun if she has to, I always appreciate a badass, while Ben finds himself training for war under brutal conditions.
I felt that Evan was a seriously problematic character. He comes across as creepy, a little controlling and I don't think his actions should be forgiven just because he has a nice ass and brown eyes. I didn't really get his whole explanation for what he'd been doing either, it seemed like a forced Romeo scenario. I'm sensing one hell of a love triangle for the next book and I sure as hell will not be rooting for this guy.
This is listed on Goodreads as having 457 pages and boy does it feel like it has 700. I think it could have easily been cut down 100 pages without any missing plot, a lot of scenes did wear on me and it felt like a hard slog to the finish line. When the action starts, it's really, really gripping but the inbetween is just boring.
I'm going to be honest here, I thought that the movie handled a lot of the story better. I felt that the pacing was better and last three quarters weren't such a garbled mess, as the book wasn't only messy but quite unbelievable. Without spoilers (hopefully), I'll just say that these are supposed to be our evil alien overlords that have taken over the world. It's not meant to be that easy.
Love triangles, meh. They are hardly ever well-done in YA, so I tend to aviod them. Hopefully you'll enjoy the rest of the series more.
ReplyDeleteRonnie @ Paradise Found