Thursday, September 18, 2014

The 5th Wave

Title: The 5th Wave
Author: Rick Yancey
Series: The 5th Wave, Book 1
Number of Pages: 457
Date Read: 9/18/14
Genre: Dystopian, Post- Apocalyptic, Apocalyptic, Aliens, Science Fiction



Synopsis (Found on Goodreads.com)

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 brotheror 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



My Review:

I loved this book. I'm not a huge fan of aliens but this book was awesome. 

Basically the world as humans know it has ended the day they see the mothership in the sky. The aliens send 4 waves to earth that kill 7 billion people on the planet. The survivors are waiting for the 5th wave. Cassie is one of those survivors

First let me say that the book was told in multiple POV's. Just want to throw that out there in case some one doesn't like a multiple POV book. I loved the pov's because the reader gets to see all the different situations in the eyes of different characters. The main character is Cassie whose POV is about keeping a promise she made to someone she loves and her journey to keep the promise. Ben's pov is about what goes on in the military base and his journey from becoming a depressed kid to a soldier to someone who wants the truth about what he is fighting for. There is one chapter in the pov of a silencer who is an alien assassin and one chapter in the pov of Sammy, a child who is sent to the military base. 


I loved Cassie. She is a kick ass 16 year old girl. She is tough, brave and sarcastic. She has training in karate from her childhood and learned quickly how to use a gun in the aftermath of what she calls the "arrival" (when the others (aliens) come to earth). Cassir also quickly learns how to survive on her own and to trust no one. In the world she now lives in, people can't tell if someone is human or an alien in a human body. So Cassie's motto is to stay alone always. Cassie kills when she has to but tries to avoid it as much as she can. She is very afraid of becoming a mindless killer and losing her humanity. Cassie is also very determined. She has a promise that she made to someone she loves to keep and nothing or no one is going to stop her from keeping that promise. While she does have set backs she never wavers from her ultimate goal. Even when she meets Evan, she is determined to continue on her journey no matter if Evan goes with her or without her. She tries very hard to trust Evan but she is always unsure if she should trust anyone. Its a very hard battle for her.

I absolutely love Evan. I completely fell for him. He is a sweet, kind and caring person. He finds Cassie, hurt, on the street and he takes her in and cares for her. Evan is a very protective person who wants to keep Cassie safe. Even when she tells him her wild plan to keep her promise, Evan decided that he had to protect her in anyway he could. He is also a complete bad ass with a gun. He also has his secrets which he keeps from Cassie.

Ben is another character who becomes a soldier in an army to kill the Others. He starts out as being a weak, depressed kid who found his way to the military base in Ohio. There he is trained and becomes strong, tough and great with a weapon. Ben is also fighting some inner demons and things about his past that haunt him. The events in his past made him feel ashamed, worthless and to have hatred for himself. Once he started training t be a soldier, he decided that he wasn't going to let anything happen to him like what happened to him in the past occur. He wasn't going to feel like he did about himself ever again. Ben also makes a promise to someone he cares about and he is determined to keep it no matter if it cost him his life. 


I loved the romance between Evan and Cassie. I didn't feel like it took away from the book but enhanced it. Evan cared very much for Cassie and was willing to die for her. Cassie also feels the same way even though she doesn't really put it into words the way Evan does. They are great together, two bad asses with gun skills. They work well together and they just click. 


I really hope there is no love triangle in the book which I can see the beginnings of. I hope it gets squashed. I hate love triangles. It would be a triangle between Ben, Cassie and Evan. Let me explain a bit. Ben and Cassie went to school together. Cassie had this huge huge crush on Ben who didn't even know she existed. Before she met Evan, Cassie would "talk" about Ben to the reader. After the "arrival" Cassie presumed that Ben was dead. I guess she still liked him but she knew that the chances of him being alive were slim to none. Enter Evan and she falls for him. Ben is alive and hence love triangle might ensue. As it stands now, it doesn't seem as if Ben is interested in Cassie that way but I'm thinking that he might fall for her in the coming books but I hope that doesn't happen. Also Cassie has something with Evan and she never had that with Ben. I am so not looking forward to a love triangle and hope that Ben finds some other girl (human) to love. If a love does occur, I am firmly on Evan's side. 


The descriptions of the places were detailed enough that I could picture them in my mind. The action was fast paced and kept me on the edge of my seat. I definitely recommend this book for anyone to read. I loved it!

Rating:
A+  

1 comment:

  1. I tagged you for the Ten Book Challenge! Check out my post for more: http://enchantedbyya.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/ten-book-challenge.html

    ReplyDelete