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The 5th Wave // Rick Yancey

Posted on Wednesday, July 10, 2013



Let's talk about The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey. This book was very hyped up, and I was really excited to read it. I had heard nothing but good reviews on it, and even though I usually prefer to read light, funny books during the summer, I decided to pick it up.
This book basically follows Cassie, a 17 year old girl who gets separated from her brother, her only remaining family member who has survived the 4 waves: 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. Aliens are invading earth, and 97% of all people are dead.
After about 100 pages, the book switched POV and we meet a guy called Zombie. The synopsis on the back of the book, doesn't tell you that there would be alternate POV's, and I thought the book was only supposed to follow Cassie. It was a bit hard to adapt to it at first, but I was able to look past it. One of the things that annoyed me about this book, was that you don't get to know who each chapter follows. When Yancey switched POV, you had to read until you saw their name, and then go back to the start of the chapter and read it again to fully understand everything.
The plot of the book was very interesting. It was difficult to put down, and the action scenes were easy to follow. I didn't fully understand everything about the  aliens, and I found myself skimming through some of the pages, because I simply didn't understand much of it. 
Cassie was made out to be a kick-ass, strong female lead, but she ended up doing nothing but making out with a mysterious guy named Evan for half of the book, and she didn't kick any ass until the last few pages. I liked the characters, but I didn't like what happened to them in the plot.
When I was about halfway through the book I started to notice why some people compared The 5th wave to Ender's Game. I noticed this because some of the things Zombie experienced seemed like they were copied from Ender's Game. I think the fact that I finished Ender's Game last month ruined this book for me a bit, but I also think it was pretty obvious that Rick Yancey had taken *cough* a bit of inspiration from Orson Scott Card. (and with a bit, I mean a lot)
At one point, Cassies parts became very similar to The Host. This just pissed me off even more, and definitely pulled down my rating.
All in all, I don't understand why this book was so hyped up. The plot was interesting; yes, but it also seemed very inspired(copied) from other books. I ended up giving the book 3/5 stars. It was interesting and kept me turning the pages, and it was definitely a bit creepy since I think it was set in present time. The writing style was pretty good, and I liked the characters. Other than that, I didn't like this book at all.

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