Book Title: The 5th Wave
Author: Rick Yancey
Series: The 5th Wave #1
Series: The 5th Wave #1
Date Started: June 20th 2013
Date Completed: June 23rd 2013
Genres: Action, Romance, Sci-Fi, Dystopian, Thriller
Rating: Four stars
Review:
When I first started reading this book I was really worried. The first hundred pages or so is quite confusing and, being the impatient person I am, I didn't like the fact I didn't really know what was going on and who all these people were. I would have stopped reading it, had it not been for the hype surrounding this book. I'm very glad I didn't stop reading it - because once I got my head around the baffling set-out the story was good enough to make me want to read more when it was over.
The 5th Wave happens during an alien invasion. No one has seen the aliens, but a huge mothership is in constant orbit above the earth, and four waves of destruction have been sent out, wiping out around 75% of the world's population. The book starts by following the story of a sixteen-year-old girl, Cassie, and her fight for survival as she tries to find her little brother and reunite what's left of her family. But when her father is murdered soon after her brother's departure, Cassie finds herself attacked and alone in the wilderness. She has one rule: trust no one. But can she save her brother if she sticks to it?
One of the things that confused me about this book was the writing style. There's nothing strange about it, but since the story is shown from two people's first-hand perspectives it got a bit confusing to understand who was narrating (until you realise that each 'part' is told by a different character - where is becomes incredibly simple). I think I was trying to read a little bit too hard into the structure, when actually the very simple style had enough detail to make the reader understand everything and appeal appropriately.
Usually, I'm not all that fond of humour being used in first-hand perspective in dystopian books like this, because I feel it takes the seriousness out of the story; the futures portrayed in these books are bleak, and sometimes I find it hard to take seriously if the characters are constantly making jokes about everything like they're in a high school drama. But actually the humour was strict in this novel - just so that it lightened up the plot when it became a little too dark, but didn't take away from the story.
The plot was very well done. It did confuse me at the beginning, but that's my fault for being so impatient. Although the story does start off quiet slowly, it does build up reasonably quickly, so that by the second 'part' it's already quite action-packed.
What really impressed me was how well the plots fitted together. Different sub-stories are usually intertwined in books, but these ones snapped together so well that you can tell Yancey actually sat down and worked out how everything was going to work thoroughly before actually writing the book. The story was actually very detailed, as well. Most Young Adult novels tend to have fairly simple plots and focus more on the characters and their development. The 5th Wave did focus a lot on characters, and I feel I did see them change and grow as the story continued, but the plot and twists and turns were actually very interesting and engaging also.
I really liked the characters. I don't think there were really any characters I disliked, apart from maybe Ringer.
Cassie was a good protagonist: she isn't the best I've seen, but she was still very good. Clever, funny, sensible, and still a little reckless and childish. She was very real to me and I liked the way her story was probably the main one, but it still didn't completely overshadow the other parts.
Ben (Zombie, whatever) was also very good. I kind of wish he hadn't been a popular boy, just because it didn't really come out later on, where you might expect it to. But I was surprised when he wasn't really the main love interest - which was good; he didn't fantasise all the time about kissing girls or anything. He actually thought about his job and surviving and the things you should be thinking about in his situation.
Sammy is completely adorable. I don't usually like little kids, but Sams is a strong, loveable character who was presented very well considering his age.
Evan is my favourite character, because he's the most interesting. You know throughout the whole thing that there's something a little off about him, but it's subtle enough so that you don't get it right away. I love him the most because he's honest, both in his personality, but also his character. I think Yancey did a brilliant job of emphasising with him and the way he might react. I'm also glad that Cassie was always wary of him, even if reluctantly, because it stopped the novel from being a chick-flick romance.
The only person I'm not sure about is Ringer. I can't tell if there's actually something going on with her, or if she's just there in the background for the sake of it. Her arrogance also really annoyed me - I know it's part of her character, and I don't think it was a bad idea to include her, I just don't like the kind of person she is.
Continuing on from a previous point, I was very happy with the way the romance was written. It's definitely there, but it didn't take over the story - yet it was a big part in it. Cassie and Evan's relationship was always on the tipping scales; sometimes they were both fine with it; sometimes suspicion got in the way. I think that really worked well, because it's the kind of thing the characters would probably do in the circumstances. It also kept the tension up for the reader.
I have no idea what the hell's going on with Ben and Ringer. Or Ben and Cassie.
I just don't know.
The pace was pretty constant: always something going on, but not so much that when it actually got to the main climaxes, that they were lost and didn't mean a whole lot. It was evened out very well.
However, I don't really like the way it was set out. Most books that are written from alternate perspectives break them up through chapters. This novel, however, separated the different stories through whole 'parts'. I found this a little harder to understand when the stories were supposedly going on at the same time, but were a hundred or so pages apart; by the time you got to a different person's perspective, you had forgotten what had happened in the first place.
It was also a little slow for some parts, since you were waiting to find out the resolution to a cliffhanger from a previous part - this made it quite distracting from the story you were actually reading.
Also, near the end, when the stories start to come together, the parts became very short - this just made it a little inconsistent. There's nothing terribly wrong with this way of writing, I just prefer to have more of a variety throughout the book.
I didn't really realise how attached I was to the characters until right at the end, where my heart was ripped out. Didn't cry, I'm afraid, and there was actually no definite of what actually happened, but it still hurt. Since this book leads on to a trilogy (thank god) there is plenty of opportunity to get that disaster back - which I suspect was planned (tut tut). But yes, good ending.
I would recommend this book to anyone who likes action (there's loads of it, and really detailed well and excitingly too), romance, dystopian, sic-fi etc. If you're like me, very impatient, just remember that is does actually make sense a little further in - and it's actually better because of that. If not, you're fine.
Image Source: http://www.seventeen.com/cm/seventeen/images/za/5thwavebook.jpeg
When I first started reading this book I was really worried. The first hundred pages or so is quite confusing and, being the impatient person I am, I didn't like the fact I didn't really know what was going on and who all these people were. I would have stopped reading it, had it not been for the hype surrounding this book. I'm very glad I didn't stop reading it - because once I got my head around the baffling set-out the story was good enough to make me want to read more when it was over.
The 5th Wave happens during an alien invasion. No one has seen the aliens, but a huge mothership is in constant orbit above the earth, and four waves of destruction have been sent out, wiping out around 75% of the world's population. The book starts by following the story of a sixteen-year-old girl, Cassie, and her fight for survival as she tries to find her little brother and reunite what's left of her family. But when her father is murdered soon after her brother's departure, Cassie finds herself attacked and alone in the wilderness. She has one rule: trust no one. But can she save her brother if she sticks to it?
One of the things that confused me about this book was the writing style. There's nothing strange about it, but since the story is shown from two people's first-hand perspectives it got a bit confusing to understand who was narrating (until you realise that each 'part' is told by a different character - where is becomes incredibly simple). I think I was trying to read a little bit too hard into the structure, when actually the very simple style had enough detail to make the reader understand everything and appeal appropriately.
Usually, I'm not all that fond of humour being used in first-hand perspective in dystopian books like this, because I feel it takes the seriousness out of the story; the futures portrayed in these books are bleak, and sometimes I find it hard to take seriously if the characters are constantly making jokes about everything like they're in a high school drama. But actually the humour was strict in this novel - just so that it lightened up the plot when it became a little too dark, but didn't take away from the story.
The plot was very well done. It did confuse me at the beginning, but that's my fault for being so impatient. Although the story does start off quiet slowly, it does build up reasonably quickly, so that by the second 'part' it's already quite action-packed.
What really impressed me was how well the plots fitted together. Different sub-stories are usually intertwined in books, but these ones snapped together so well that you can tell Yancey actually sat down and worked out how everything was going to work thoroughly before actually writing the book. The story was actually very detailed, as well. Most Young Adult novels tend to have fairly simple plots and focus more on the characters and their development. The 5th Wave did focus a lot on characters, and I feel I did see them change and grow as the story continued, but the plot and twists and turns were actually very interesting and engaging also.
I really liked the characters. I don't think there were really any characters I disliked, apart from maybe Ringer.
Cassie was a good protagonist: she isn't the best I've seen, but she was still very good. Clever, funny, sensible, and still a little reckless and childish. She was very real to me and I liked the way her story was probably the main one, but it still didn't completely overshadow the other parts.
Ben (Zombie, whatever) was also very good. I kind of wish he hadn't been a popular boy, just because it didn't really come out later on, where you might expect it to. But I was surprised when he wasn't really the main love interest - which was good; he didn't fantasise all the time about kissing girls or anything. He actually thought about his job and surviving and the things you should be thinking about in his situation.
Sammy is completely adorable. I don't usually like little kids, but Sams is a strong, loveable character who was presented very well considering his age.
Evan is my favourite character, because he's the most interesting. You know throughout the whole thing that there's something a little off about him, but it's subtle enough so that you don't get it right away. I love him the most because he's honest, both in his personality, but also his character. I think Yancey did a brilliant job of emphasising with him and the way he might react. I'm also glad that Cassie was always wary of him, even if reluctantly, because it stopped the novel from being a chick-flick romance.
The only person I'm not sure about is Ringer. I can't tell if there's actually something going on with her, or if she's just there in the background for the sake of it. Her arrogance also really annoyed me - I know it's part of her character, and I don't think it was a bad idea to include her, I just don't like the kind of person she is.
Continuing on from a previous point, I was very happy with the way the romance was written. It's definitely there, but it didn't take over the story - yet it was a big part in it. Cassie and Evan's relationship was always on the tipping scales; sometimes they were both fine with it; sometimes suspicion got in the way. I think that really worked well, because it's the kind of thing the characters would probably do in the circumstances. It also kept the tension up for the reader.
I have no idea what the hell's going on with Ben and Ringer. Or Ben and Cassie.
I just don't know.
The pace was pretty constant: always something going on, but not so much that when it actually got to the main climaxes, that they were lost and didn't mean a whole lot. It was evened out very well.
However, I don't really like the way it was set out. Most books that are written from alternate perspectives break them up through chapters. This novel, however, separated the different stories through whole 'parts'. I found this a little harder to understand when the stories were supposedly going on at the same time, but were a hundred or so pages apart; by the time you got to a different person's perspective, you had forgotten what had happened in the first place.
It was also a little slow for some parts, since you were waiting to find out the resolution to a cliffhanger from a previous part - this made it quite distracting from the story you were actually reading.
Also, near the end, when the stories start to come together, the parts became very short - this just made it a little inconsistent. There's nothing terribly wrong with this way of writing, I just prefer to have more of a variety throughout the book.
I didn't really realise how attached I was to the characters until right at the end, where my heart was ripped out. Didn't cry, I'm afraid, and there was actually no definite of what actually happened, but it still hurt. Since this book leads on to a trilogy (thank god) there is plenty of opportunity to get that disaster back - which I suspect was planned (tut tut). But yes, good ending.
I would recommend this book to anyone who likes action (there's loads of it, and really detailed well and excitingly too), romance, dystopian, sic-fi etc. If you're like me, very impatient, just remember that is does actually make sense a little further in - and it's actually better because of that. If not, you're fine.
Image Source: http://www.seventeen.com/cm/seventeen/images/za/5thwavebook.jpeg
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