Book Review: The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey

Book: The 5th Wave (Book #1 in the 5th Wave series)
Author: Rick Yancey
Rating: 4.5/5 stars- I think I'm rating it higher than I enjoyed it but I DON'T CARE KIND OF

Synopsis (as found on Goodreads):

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:

After the much craze about this book, I finally hopped onto the bandwagon and decided to see what this book was about. I had heard sci-fi dystopian tagged along with it and I was excited.

Stupidly enough, I didn't expect aliens.

OK I KNOW WHAT YOU'RE THINKING

"CARMEN IT SOUNDS PRETTY DAMN OBVIOUS FROM THE SYNOPSIS IT'S ALIENS."

I'm kinda dense sometimes ok oops.

For the first quarter/third or so of this book, I was mega confused. Literally I was like




I was like wait the waves the plot the characters WHAT.

But then the way the author unfolded Cassie's backstory, what had happened to create this apocalypse world, and how it melded with the current plotline was well structured and it gave a sense of urgency and mystery, as the reader rushes to find out more about what happened.

Then it all starts clicking together around maybe 60-70% of the book or something and I'm like AHAHAHAHAH I KNOW NOW

And then the action really starts clicking in and I'm like YEAH DIE ALIEN SCUM HAHAHAHAH

I was a little excited as you can see.

I liked Cassie, although the romance with Evan? Meh. I thought that could've been done better. I liked how Ben, Sammy, and Cassie's story all came together, but if you had to call Ben a love interest I would be like...
Meh.

Honestly, I kinda of knew beforehand that he was a possible love interest, but I totally thought (and still think!) he was going to be with Ringer.  (Is that spoilery? I don't think so but if you did SORRY) I liked him as a character, but I didn't care for him as a love interest.

Evan Walker. Hm. Well, I didn't like him all that much in the beginning, I just thought he was... kinda of cliche. Around the end though, I started feeling that he really was a decent guy, and there was some sympathy, and I was starting to like where the romance was going, but I liked how Cassie gritted her teeth and was focused on her one goal- her brother Sammy.

My solo issue with the book: POV SWITCH.
Look, multiple POVs are not my favourite to begin with, but my biggest irritation with this novel is that it switches point of view with almost no notices and I have to try and figure it out as I'm reading who it is. When they first switched POVs I was like:


Normally, I would only give this book maybe 4 stars or so, but I gave it .5 higher, really due to the writing and world development- I really enjoyed how they came together and clicked and became a whole big storyline.

I suggest that you give The 5th Wave a try if you're one those sci-fi movie geeks or maybe you just want some aliens in your life.