The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey
Thursday, July 04, 2013
Title : The 5th WaveAuthor : Rick Yancey
Genre : Dystopian
Published Date : May 7th 2013
Publisher : Putnam Juvenille
Pages : 457
Pages : 457
Source : Bought
Rating : ✿✿✿✿✿
From 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.
Get a Copy : [AMAZON] | [BARNES&NOBLE] | [INDIEBOUND] | [THE BOOK DEPOSITORY]
Review
[So this is my first attempt on using GIFs on my reviews! I know, I gave up to the temptations, again. But those GIFs are sometimes too funny to be ignored! So anyway, read on, people :D]
Anyone who had been in Goodreads long enough surely must have known by now : the hype about a book can sometimes be pretty tempting. And they are the mortal enemy of our ever-growing TBR piles.
But heed my advice, people. Just for this one, do befriend the hype and the enemy, because this book is just pure awesomeness. I glad I did and gave this one a try. You definitely should too.
"We’d beaten the odds. We’d stared into the face of Death, and Death blinked first."
—Cassie
The 5th Wave told us about Cassie Sullivan, who heard,
believed, and trusted no one. Believing she might be the last of humanity on
this earth attacked by alien, she embark on a blind journey of surviving day by
day, her will glued together by a promise she made to her fate-remain-unknown
little brother, that she'll certainly found him.
1st Wave : Lights out. All the power supporting the
humanity, gone.
2nd Wave : Surf's up. All the city by the coast, gone.
3rd Wave : Pestilence. The Fourth horseman of apocalypse,
the illness that made you literally cried blood. People—most people—who didn't
have the immunity, gone.
4th Wave : Silencer. The silent killer. Stay, and you'll
die. The remaining, gone
But when Cassie life was once again threatened, and
somewhere out there her brother was actually alive and being trained as a
killer soldier on a teen camp, the question arise : Who are the real aliens,
and what will The 5th Wave bring?
First reaction : WHOA. The beginning was pretty grasping and interesting. Love the way it made me feel curious about the book already.
First reaction : WHOA. The beginning was pretty grasping and interesting. Love the way it made me feel curious about the book already.
The world building was actually pretty simple : The destroyed earth somewhere in the future, and the advanced technology of the alien. Somehow, I love that this book didn't have those way-too-modern world those dystopian book tended to have. The setting was normal, realistic, and overall easy to imagine. Those phrase truly works this time on The 5th Wave's case : Less is More. By making the setting as simple as possible, this book managed to get a strong world out of it.
And also, couldn't love the writing style of Rick Yancey more. It's really
beautiful, funny, easy to read, and he has this unbelievable talent of writing
a a girl and boy's narration in a way that will appeal to both gender. And I'm
kinda envious. I personally didn't like to read a guy's PoV, but with this book
and Rick Yancey's writing, which didn't sounds all too girlish nor too boyish,
I can practically enjoy any PoV he had written—be it a girl or a boy, or even a
friggin five-year-old kid. Although let me be honest, the first time it switched it PoV, it makes me kinda
"Ehm-kay, who the hell is talking here?"
This book's story line is also quite unpredictable, opening up right in a middle of a catastrophe and slowly retelling what had happened back-to-back.
Also, triple love for how Rick Yancey managed to create a double plot, with two sets of characters and two settings separated miles away, yet the story still went forward and intertwined with each other.
And oh, don't the author just know how to win my heart with those kickass character?
Cassie, as our main character, was surprisingly pretty likable.
I love how she was pretty much brain and action, and not just Whatever-The-Author-Feels-Like-Writing-Today kind of character. Her personality was well-balanced between her niceness and flaws, and her personality was very vivid and could be easily felt throughout the book.
Her narration was very strong too, full of funny sarcastic comment which—despite the apocalyptic—surrounding, still managed to make me smile.
She was also smart and dependable, rational, calculating, and actually—finally—valued her own life as something precious (Hallelujah). Which is truly refreshing, really, seeing the combinations of those traits above on her.
Because, my only reason ever : There're way too many of the main female characters I've read were either way too emotional or simply act without thinking, heroically helping others which made her an unfortunate damsel in distress, but not too unfortunate because her swoony heroes came to her rescue.
The annoying Cassiopeia's mentioning aside, Cassie actually grew to become one of my favorite character. If you've read one of my post, you'll know that my favorite female characters are Rose from VA and Sophie from Hex Hall. And Cassie was conveniently a mixture of them both, or maybe even more badass.
Evan, our other main character, although he sure was charming and kinda swoon-ific, he came out a bit flat for me. or more accurately, a little bit too perfect.
So his face is good, his cuticles is perfect (Eh), his hair is good, and his hands—a friggin guy's hands—is smooth (How could this one is possible was honestly beyond me). Okay, sure. And then his personality was all nice and fluffy and loving, and everywhere we turn, there's just this huge pile of Evan's niceness with his flaw nowhere in sight.
Final conclusion : not believable.
Ben Parish, the other main character, was slightly better than Evan. His narration felt truly alive and full of his emotion and personality, which I honestly loved. The only minus here was that his characteristic was too vague. He didn't have any shining traits, nor glaring flaw as well. And even if his voice was distinct and unique, his flat characteristic didn't.
Then, the romance between Cassie and Evan (Somehow I thought back to those TV show Greek when I hear The name Cassie and Evan together).
For me, their relationship was kind of a little bit too rushed at the beginning.
Cassie and Evan could have a superb foundation for their relationship actually, but then, there it was. Their first kiss. Conveniently happened while I still couldn't feel any connection between them. And not just a sweet peck or whatever. A serious make-out session, in a bedroom, on top of bed, and with no light. And I'm just like :
But, although it were a bit rushed, I actually came to love the chemistry between them that established later, especially the realistic part of it where Evan trusted Cassie to look after herself and not unbelievably popped up every time she was in trouble and saved the day, and vice versa.
But, although this book sure is an amazing read, it still wasn't free from flaw, and upon reading it, there was actually a moment where I just frowned and thought "Ha, this is so not making any senses". Like this one, check it out :
"I know someone is here with me. I don't see him or hear him, touch or smell him, but I know he's here. I don't know he's a he, but I do know, ..."
—Cassie
Eh, then how do you know, Cassie? Some sort of magic?
I, also, actually still has no idea why should we read the Silencers' perspective, which honestly, reveals pretty much everything? Because I can totally guess who's who the moment I read it and when you-know-who made an appearance. It just blew away the one thing that was quite potential to be an epic , emotional revelation. And nope, it didn't do any of us any good.
But, although the Silencers' revelation didn't really worked, this book did managed to get me surprised at the 5th Wave revelation. Honestly never saw that one coming.
I also love how the ending was actually full of real action, firing gun, blood, and all that, not just some intense this-and-that conversation hinted with a little fight, which honestly would bored me.
So I guess, there's the bad and the good. Good thing there's no the godawful horrible.
Overall, this book was an epic read for me. Those hype at Goodreads was not a mere fangirling that would die soon, but rather a completely solid appreciation toward an amazing book. If you're a fans of a gritty and heavier post-apocalyptic dystopian, with a strong and refreshing narration, kickass characters, and pretty believable world-building, this one is definitely for you. So, so recommended.
Overall, this book was an epic read for me. Those hype at Goodreads was not a mere fangirling that would die soon, but rather a completely solid appreciation toward an amazing book. If you're a fans of a gritty and heavier post-apocalyptic dystopian, with a strong and refreshing narration, kickass characters, and pretty believable world-building, this one is definitely for you. So, so recommended.
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6 comments
Awesome review! I absolutely loved the beginning of this book although it fell of for me a bit as it progressed. I agree it was a solid read. One of the things I liked most about Cassie is that it was easy to believe that she could survive in such a violent and brutal world. She made decisions that made sense.
ReplyDeleteThis book sent me gah gah. Just loved it! No room for nit picking, it swallowed my brain and spat out this happy floaty person who said "loved this book... loved this book." lol. Cool review!
ReplyDeleteThe first POV change had me all confused too. lol I'm glad to see I wasn't the only one! Glad you liked it though!
ReplyDeleteI think this is one of the longest book review you have ever written! From that alone I can conclude that you really did love it. haha! I'm so excited to read it. As soon as I'm done with Shatter Me, I'm gonna devote my time reading this one :)
ReplyDeleteGreat review. I've heard the hype and you've got me convinced that the book actually lives up to it.
ReplyDeleteI definitely hopped onto the hype bandwagon for this one and was pretty excited to read it and my reaction was overall the same as yours!
ReplyDeleteExcept you worded it so much better ;)
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