The 5th Wave (The Fifth Wave #1) - Rick Yancey

It did not take me long to finish The 5th wave at all, i really did enjoy the book but there was a few things that bugged me and it was the use of swear words all the time, Don't get me wrong i swear all the time more then i should but when i am reading a book it bugs me. I really hope there will be a 2nd book cause the ending kinda leaves you a little confused. What i did like about this book was it suppressed you like when you think you have figured it out what was going on and then twisted it to where you are like what? When? How?

This book kinda reminds me of The host but with The hungers games and The tv show falling skies all twisted in one.

The 5th Wave was easily one of most anticipated books of 2013. Penguin seriously caught my interest with their insanely fantastic advertising campaign for this book. After several Goodreads members compared this to The Hunger Games, I knew I had to read this. I was going to go to the library to pick up The 5th Wave which I had on hold when the UPS delivered an ARC of the book to my house. I didn't expect Penguin to send me an ARC and it was such a pleasant surprise.

Truthfully, I didn't expect The 5th Wave to take the direction it did. Even though I had read the description and countless reviews, The 5th Wave still completely surprised me. Rick Yancey created a completely original spin on the classic alien invasion tale. I have never read a book quite like The 5th Wave. I didn't think any author could surprise me anymore, to my surprise Rick Yancey proved me wrong.

Cassie is the kick-ass protagonist of The 5th Wave. For the most part, I really liked Cassie and I enjoyed reading from her point of view. I love Cassie's attitude and humor which added some comic relief to this dark sci-fi book. Cassie's determination and dedication towards finding her little brother Sammy. The only negative thing I need to comment regarding Cassie, is her relationship with Evan.

Alot of reviewers seemed to like Evan and his relationship with Cassie. Truthfully for most of the book I found Evan to be a creepy stalker who lacked chemistry with Cassie. Evan undresses and bathes Cassie, he watches her sleep, and is constantly watching her. Doesn't this strike you as creepy and odd? Later on in the book, I started to like him more but I still couldn't get over his strange demeanor.

The romance in The 5th Wave isn't done particularly well and it comes across as superficial. I didn't really believe Cassie and Ben had any chemistry for most of the book. Their romance was extremely fake and it seemed like Cassie and Ben instantly fell in love. The way Cassie spoke about Ben was extremely cheesy and way too melodramatic. Seriously? Thankfully this book didn't have a love triangle but I have a bad feeling that book #2 will feature a love triangle.

The 5th Wave alternates from the POV of a few characters, my favorite POV was definitely Cassie. I really enjoyed the multiple POVs and how Rick Yancey connected their stories into one. Alot of reviewers said that they weren't a fan of Sammy's point-of-view, I actually really enjoyed reading from his POV. Some commented that his POV was repetitive and badly written, but I think Yancey perfectly captured how a little kid would react to an alien invasion.

The 5th Wave definitely started with a bang but the plot definitely became a bit sluggish after the first couple chapters. Luckily Rick Yancey threw in a few plot twists that perked my interest and kept me turning the pages. Keep in mind that The 5th Wave is more focused on humanity than the Others, which are The 5th Wave's aliens. This book is extremely intense and that ending of The 5th Wave was simply epic. I can't believe that the next book comes out in August 2014. I need book #2 immediately, I really hope it's not called The 6th Wave because that would be so cliche.

Is The 5th Wave the next Hunger Games? The 5th Wave could definitely be the next big YA book! I am pretty excited by the fact that Sony has the movie rights because this could be an epic film. I'd highly recommend this book to fans of Sci-Fi books like The Host, and The Knife Of Never Letting Go. The 5th Wave definitely deserves the hype it's receiving!

Nothing...

After all the mixed review this book got on Goodreads, I was a bit hesitant to read this book. But it turned out to be a great read, revolving around an alien invasion of the Earth. This invasion goes in waves, the first 3 have already taken place (1: electricity out, 2: flood, 3: pestilence).

There are 4 different POV's in this book, which gives you different views of the invasion.

The book starts with Cassie. She's a 17 year old girl, she survived the the first three waves and she is determined to survive the following waves too. She is a very strong character, she has a gun and is not afraid to use it and makes sarcastic comments about the world. From her we learn step by step about the first three waves and who the 'Others' (the aliens) are (reminded me of Game of Thrones everytime I read that word.). Her father has been killed and her brother Sam taken somewhere by the military and Cassie is trying to find him.

Then we meet Ben. He is sick from the 3rd Wave (pestilence) when his refugee camp is taken over by the US military (the 'good' guys). We find out what the remaining humans are doing to stop the Others and how they have infiltrated the human world long before the Waves. In the end of his passage we find out he is actually the childhood crush from Cassie, I liked that there was a connection between these POV's.

The third POV is Sam, Cassie's brother. I did not really like his point of view. Probably because he is a five year old which made his understanding of the world quite limited. He was taken to the same place they took Ben and they are placed in the same squad of the army together. I liked their interaction, Ben kind of became a brother to him. We also meet the other kids in Ben's squad. I particularly liked Ringer, she was pretty bad-ass.

The fourth POV is Evan. I absolutely did not like this character. In the beginning we find out he is an alien, who shoots the surviving humans. He has set his eyes on Cassie, but for some reason cannot shoot her. This made me interested, the enemy has a consience?
But then after he rescued Cassie after shooting her in the leg.. The book switches to Cassie again and slowly the strong character from the beginning of the book turns into a too-trusting blind girl in love with someone she barely knows.
Evan really creeped me out. He kept lurking outside her door, keeping secrets and constantly making comments about how connected they are etc.. Cassie's instinct tells her something's wrong with Evan, but she just waves it away because he is handsome. This really disappointed me. I hate it when writers turn strong female characters into weak ones when they meet a boy they like.. Luckily she comes round later when they go look for Sam. She takes the strings into her own hands again and confronts Evan. They start a relationship, but this is not really developed in the rest of the book.

There are some major plot twists and everything you think you know about the Others turns out to be false. (this you have to read for yourself:D)

In the end all POV's meet when Cassie, Evan and Ben try to rescue Sam from the Others.
The end itself was pretty open, but it looks like there is going to be a second book. Can't wait to read it!

What I liked most in this book whas that when you started to get bored a little, the writer would throw in some action or new information. This kept you interested throughout the whole book.

I would definitely recommend this book. The whole concept of the alien invasion was pretty cool and the different POV's gave the reader different views of the world. The romance was bad, mostly because Evan really creeped me out. But as a dystopian book it was good.

http://www.evelinesbooks.blogspot.nl

Where to even begin with this book? I guess I'll begin with the writing style since that was probably my favorite aspect.

I went into The 5th Wave thinking it was going to be all about Cassie (I even forgot about Evan Walker somewhere between reading the synopsis and starting the book) so I was very surprised and a little confused at the first POV change. I didn't really like it at first because I didn't see it coming and I just wanted to find out what would happen to Cassie next, but I eventually fell into the groove of POV switching and was just as interested in Cassie as the other main character (don't want to spoil you) and even enjoying the random little here and there's of other characters' POVs.

I really liked the way the first section was set up. We start out hearing about Cassie's Now and then she starts working in some Then bits before kind of fully switching over to Then storytelling with a few flashes of Now mixed in. It was a good way to get a feel of her character, learning about her life before and after the attack, not to mention the little mysteries that get solved along the way as well. What happened to her mom, dad, and brother? Why does she have a teddy bear? What is this promise she's talking about. I like that instead of dumping it all on the reader at once, by having Cassie just kind of blurt it out, Yancey makes it a real, tangible part of her story.

Am I the only one who feels the aliens are always better before you see them? Don't get me wrong, if there's an alien involved I'm dying to see it, but more often than not, I'm disappointed and not especially scared anymore. Things are much scarier without a face. That's why I love that the aliens' presence is everywhere in The 5th Wave, but the only knowledge you have of their looks is that they appear human just like everyone else.

Yancey is a master of making me second guess myself. I would keep telling myself I believed this or that person was bad/good no matter what, but then I'd start going “but he could be good because...” “but he's obviously bad because...” I was kind of driving myself mad with the hundreds of theories floating around in my head, but that's the sign of good storytelling, right? Another sign of good storytelling? I was constantly tensing up just waiting for the bad thing that was most certainly around that corner.

I'm not a hater of series'. I'm not a hater of cliffhangers. That being said, an ending will come along every once in a while that has me going “no, that's not it, this is unfair. Somebody give me the last five pages that have been so obviously removed from my copy.” The 5th Wave was one of those endings. The ending where I turn the last page fully expecting to see more and nothing (or in this case, the acknowledgements) staring back at me. Not cool. However, it did ease the sting a bit to find out it will be a series (trilogy?)

The Nutshell: I fully enjoyed The 5th Wave. It had me on the edge of my seat and kept throwing surprises at me when I thought there couldn't be any left. It's certainly the best (not the I've read many) alien book I've ever read.

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