The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey
Review by James Lamb (July 13, 2014)
It seems that most of the YA genre goes for supernatural or dystopia - not a lot of aliens. And it's no wonder. Aliens are difficult. But Yancey pulls it off masterfully. In The 5th Wave, we find ourselves on a planet that's been through four very difficult "waves" at the hand of aliens that have systematically killed most of the human population, an electromagnetic pulse has disabled all electrical devices, then waves and earthquakes, then a pestilence and finally cold-blooded killers who might be humans but who are bent on killing any humans they encounter - usually from a distance with a sniper rifle.
The story begins, following a young girl named Cassie struggling with a new world where nearly everything is an either/or choice, almost all answers are wrong and you have to think quickly or you're dead. In time, we learn more about the four previous waves and why survivors are really on edge, waiting for that fifth shoe to drop.
It's hard to say much about this book without giving spoilers, but the one thing I wish I had understood before I started was that the book is divided into acts. The book follows several different characters, so each act is switching over to another person's part of the story. I was surprised when I got to the end of the first act and suddenly the story wasn't about Cassie anymore. Ultimately, that's fine, but it was just a surprise right when I was bonding with the heroine. (Overall, the book has 13 acts, 91 chapters and was 471 pages in the hardbound copy I was reading. Am I the only one for whom a very well known line from "South Park" popped into their head at the very end of chapter 57?)
So I guess this will be a brief, but yeah, thought it was very well done. Looking forward to books 2 and 3 of the trilogy. (Note: This book is currently being made into a movie.)
It seems that most of the YA genre goes for supernatural or dystopia - not a lot of aliens. And it's no wonder. Aliens are difficult. But Yancey pulls it off masterfully. In The 5th Wave, we find ourselves on a planet that's been through four very difficult "waves" at the hand of aliens that have systematically killed most of the human population, an electromagnetic pulse has disabled all electrical devices, then waves and earthquakes, then a pestilence and finally cold-blooded killers who might be humans but who are bent on killing any humans they encounter - usually from a distance with a sniper rifle.
The story begins, following a young girl named Cassie struggling with a new world where nearly everything is an either/or choice, almost all answers are wrong and you have to think quickly or you're dead. In time, we learn more about the four previous waves and why survivors are really on edge, waiting for that fifth shoe to drop.
It's hard to say much about this book without giving spoilers, but the one thing I wish I had understood before I started was that the book is divided into acts. The book follows several different characters, so each act is switching over to another person's part of the story. I was surprised when I got to the end of the first act and suddenly the story wasn't about Cassie anymore. Ultimately, that's fine, but it was just a surprise right when I was bonding with the heroine. (Overall, the book has 13 acts, 91 chapters and was 471 pages in the hardbound copy I was reading. Am I the only one for whom a very well known line from "South Park" popped into their head at the very end of chapter 57?)
So I guess this will be a brief, but yeah, thought it was very well done. Looking forward to books 2 and 3 of the trilogy. (Note: This book is currently being made into a movie.)
The 5th Wave (Amazon.com)
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