Review: The 5th Wave

The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey

My rating:

3.5 of 5 stars

In some way, I thank myself for reading this, otherwise, I wouldn't have read my favorite series (not joking), The Monstrumologist.

The 5th Wave is a really good book that you wouldn't regret reading it in any way, but it is not the best book by Rick Yancey, in my opinion. Yes, the writing is amazing, the character development is done really good, the plot, while not original, is developed in the way it makes it sound amusing; but I still don't think it's the best thing ever. My favorite work by Mr. Yancey isThe Monstrumologist. Nothing will ever replace that series from the special place in my heart (and if you knew me, you would know that I don't usually say those kind of things).

Cassie's a survivor of 4 waves of alien attacks. She's just been separated from her family, and now she's on a task of rescuing her little brother. Everything is fine until she's wounded by someone, and when she wakes, she's with a mysterious guy who may or may not be one of the aliens passing for a human.

On the other hand, we have Zombie (it's a nickname, people), who's being trained with other teenagers and kids for the army to fight the aliens. He doesn't trust people easily, and at some point he starts to doubt if indeed the people with who he shares his time are people he can trust, or if they are just liars.

As I said, the writing is really good. Sometimes, although the writing was simple, it was difficult for me to follow what was happening because it suddenly changed POVs without a warning. After a while , I got accustomed, but in first place I was confused. This is not a complaint, just something I thought worth to mention.

I kinda liked Cassie. She's not the Mary Sue kind of girl. She's strong, sarcastic and has learned to survive in the hard way. Her family was ripped from her in a most terrible way and she doesn't trust people easily, not even the hot guy that rescued her. Well, at least when they first met. *rolls eyes*

I didn't like Evan Walker. Don't judge me prematurely for saying that, but I simply didn't like him. He's too predictable for my taste (I knew he was an alien right from the beginning. Mr. Yancey doesn't make a big effort in trying to hide this.).

As for Zombie... I did like him. Protective, strong and somewhat funny. Zombie catched my attention since he mentioned where he was and what he was doing. The storyline in which he was the protagonist was the most interesting, in my opinion. The other characters were likable too, with Ringer being my favorite. She reminded me of Rita, from Edge of Tomorrow (if you haven't watched that movie, look for it, I'm not going to describe her). What a kickass female.

The plot twists were not unexpected, but they were done in a good way, so I didn't care. Also, the ending is a damned cliff-hanger, and that left me wanting to read more.

Nonetheless, this was not a perfect book. There were some parts that I really liked (the beginning, for example), but there were many other things that bothered the hell out of me. One of them was the romance. I felt it was forced and too insta-lovey. Evan was a too cliched love interest, and up to the point when Cassie and he met, she was more likable. After that, it got too cheesy for my taste. It surprises me that Rick Yancey would write something like that.

Also, I don't think I fully bought the fact that Cassie's father let Sammy go just like that. I mean, (and I think I read something similar to this in another review) they were still an almost complete family, so why did he do that? The rule after the 4th wave was never to trust anyone, wasn't it? So why did he have to trust that people for taking care of his 5-year-old son?

But even when all those things annoyed me, I still think this is a good book. It's better than most YA out there. It's not the best thing I've read, but it was enjoyable all the same. I know I've said this like a billion times now, but Rick Yancey at his best is inThe Monstrumologist. However, don't commit the mistake of not reading anything by Mr. Yancey because he truly is a great writer. If you don't think you'd like this, you can read The Monstrumologist, which is perfect much better in every sense.

So, I recommend this to everyone. If you don't read it for enjoyment, at least do it for the message the book leaves, which I rather liked. You will undoubtedly enjoy it.

P.S.: I get bored with aliens, but I was intrigued by these ones. Great job, Mr. Yancey!