The 5th Wave Review
The first wave left fear. The second wave left those lucky enough to survive. The third wave left those unlucky enough to survive. The fourth wave left the lesson of not trusting anyone. As the fifth wave approaches, Cassie is running from the Others- the invaders that appear to be human, but will kill you the second they find you. Cassie lives by the rule of stay alone, but then she meets Evan Walker. She realizes that teaming up with the suspicious Evan may allow her to save her brother. Cassie must make choices that could lead her to a quick death by the Others or could allow her to have her little brother back in her arms.
Keep in mind that everyone has their own opinion. This review is only my opinion, and you may have your own, different one. I would take into consideration what I say, but do not make a decision about the book solely based off of this review. Let's begin:
First I will give a little warning. If you don't like multiple perspectives, this may no be for you. It switches between a few different perspectives. I don't normally mind when authors do this, and in this case, I think it actually really helps the book. My only issue with this is that it does not tell you which perspective you are switching to, so you have to figure it out. This is very easy to do and I cannot imagine anyone not being able to do it pretty quickly, but there were a couple of times I went a page not knowing which perspective it was from, so I wish that didn't happen. However, the multiple perspectives strengthened the book overall by allowing you to see multiple different storylines going on and multiple perspectives of those storylines. I also enjoyed all of the different plotlines.
I think the concept of the Others (the aliens) is very cool and a fairly unique take on an alien invasion. I love how they look like normal humans; this really adds suspense and a sense of fear while reading because you never know if a character is really an Other. I also love how the Others think and complete the invasion. The waves, although horrible, are quite brilliant. Yancey did a great job coming up with creative ways for the Others to steadily wipe out the human population.
I think the subtle worldbuilding was done well. I had a good understanding of the past waves and people's reactions to them. The flashbacks of sorts were a clever way to show what happened and build up this new apocalyptic world into a place that is truly tense and frightening.
I thought the characters were all pretty interesting. I really liked little Sammy because he is such a brave kid and just plain adorable. Evan was a great character to keep me intrigued. He was very mysterious and added a lot to the book. The only thing I didn't like about him was the instant love for Cassie. It was not realistic and made me not really care for their relationship too much (I have something I am blaming it on, but I won't say to avoid spoilers). Cassie was a decent central character. I loved how much she cared about Sammy and how hard she was willing to fight to get him back. Zombie was also interesting too. I was very curious about his background and his development throughout the story. Ringer would be considered more of a side character, but she gets an honorable mention for being badass.
Overall, I enjoyed this read for sure, but I didn't fall in love with it. Some of the points that were supposed to make the reader really emotional or scared for the characters didn't have much of an effect on me, and I'm not sure why. However, this didn't happen all of the time. I will be continuing the series though, and I would still recommend giving this a try if you are wanting a unique take on an alien invasion. This takes an idea that is mundane by now and gives it an interesting twist that makes it stand out.
Rating: 4/5 stars
Author: Rick Yancey
# of Pages: 457
Genre: YA, Science Fiction, Apocalyptic (Aliens)
Series: The 5th Wave (Book 1)
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