Tuesday, September 9, 2014

Review: "The 5th Wave" by Rick Yancey



This novel is unlike anything I have ever read.  It is not your typical dystopian novel and it keeps you on your toes until the last page.  It is a story of what the world would be like if aliens invaded, but not in a way that you would first think.  Instead, their ship is just this ominous being in the sky and then a series of events-waves, crash into the Earth and they destroy humanity one wave at a time.  You don’t know who to trust, whether you will live to see the next day but you keep going because if you are the end of the human race you will go down with a fight.

This book is amazing from the action packed plot, to the great characters, and the twist on war, love, friendship and what it means to be human.  Yancey keeps you turning the page because he keeps you guessing every step of the way and you have to know what is coming next.
There is great character development and Yancey paints such a vivid picture that you feel Cassie’s loneliness, Sammy’s fear, and Zombie’s anger. You fight for each of them, hoping they are the good guys because you, as the reader, don’t quite know who to trust.  The switching of narrative and perspective was confusing the first time it switched but after you got into the flow of the new characters rhythm and language it was easy.  I normally don’t like narrative switching because typically I am more invested in one story over the other but Yancey did such an amazing job of showing that it was completely necessary to see part of it from Cassie’s eyes in order to understand Sammy, and you need Sammy’s perspective to completely grasp Zombie and Zombie brings more to the table that you did not see coming.  Yancey also gives each character such a distinctive voice that you know when it is Cassie talking or Zombie that the shift seems normal and makes for a richer story.

What else can I say but that I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves Sci-Fi, adventure, aliens, war stories and friendship. I cannot wait to pick up the 2nd book in this series. 

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