The 5th Wave

By Rick Yancey

After the 1^st wave, only darkness remains. After the 2^nd, only the lucky escape. And after the 3^rd, only the unlucky survive. After the 4^th wave, only one rule applies: trust no one.

Now, it’s the dawn of the 5^th 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.

 

Bring on the apocalypse. Another premier in the ever-growing end-of-the-world survival novels, this book is quiet in-depth and well structured. The story was fast-paced and the characters memorable. Loads of teens are going to love this book, which is why I read it in the first place: you can’t escape the hype sometimes. So that being said, I do have some issues with this book. First: the language. It was pretty raunchy at times (beware sudden dropping of f-bombs) and does discuss sex (but does not include any actual scenes). This story bounces between 2 perspectives, that of Cassie and Zombie. There is a small chapter (which ruined what had potential to be a big surprise) from the perspective of another character. This book has been compared to Ender’s Game and The Passage. Now, I’ve read Ender’s Game, and I can see where the comparison was drawn from, but I thought it was hardly fair to compare the two. They had some similar plots, but the overall messages were vastly different. Ender’s Game had some serious questions and messages threaded throughout the book to the last page, this book however is more a ‘horror story’ of what happens when the unexpected happens. I’d call it a psychological thriller more than I would a love story—which I’ve heard it called. It’s meant to be horrible and scary and make your brain feel a little sick at the twists. The love story was interesting and I was reminded (spoiler) of The Host by Stephanie Meyers. It was more of a side-line than anything else, a way to keep a plot going that probably could have (and should have) ended with one novel.  It’s not a cheery book, nor was it meant to be—it’s the end of the world people. It’s graphic and people kill and are being killed throughout. Be warned; this should have more mature audiences.

 

I give it a 3.25 out of 5- average, save for the actual delivery of the story which was incredibly well thought out.