Book review: The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey
THE 5TH WAVE
BY RICK YANCEY
PUBLISHED: 2013
AVERAGE RATING: 4.17
457 PAGES
M: ★★★★☆
I: ★★★★☆
“But if I'm it, the last of my kind, the last page of human history, like hell I'm going to let the story end this way. I may be the last one, but I am the one still standing. I am the one turning to face the faceless hunter in the woods on an abandoned highway. I am the one not running but facing. Because if I am the last one, then I am humanity. And if this is humanity's last war, then I am the battlefield.”
Yancey was totally new to me when I picked up this book. I saw the trailer to the movie that's coming now in January, and when I realized that there was a book behind it, I just knew I needed to read it. With the three same genres that I just love, love, love, I had to read it. There was no chance I wasn't, and I decided to buy them in December when they were just lying there looking at me.
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 brother--or 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.
I just have to point out that I absolutely love the point of views in this book. We've got multiple; first-view of Cassie, of Ben Parish, we've got an all-knowing point on Evan Walker, on Sammy, there's a lot of different point of views and that's probably why the book is so damn interesting and good. I felt agony every time I came to the next "part" of the book because I didn't want to leave the character for another ten or twenty pages. Some times I had to count the pages until the next part, so that I knew how long it was until I reached it. That's also something I really liked about this book, how Yancey decided to divide into chapters and parts. It's fast paced, and it makes it all so interesting.
The reason I liked this book, apart from the whole plot and the idea of an alien apocalypse, is the way we kind of feel part of the characters. Yancey takes us not only into the characters points of views, but also perfectly into their minds. How they think, and it's so perfect. I mean, it's not perfect in the way a lot of writers would write down someone's mind. I want to explain this, but it's so hard, so keep with me. I feel like a lot of writers will write down the obvious things, like how the food tastes and what they see, all those things. What Yancey does is that he actually writes down it all. We get those monologues that goes on inside someone's head, we get the bad and the good and the evil and the disgusting. We get everything, which is why this book works so perfectly.
The characters for me, they're just amazing. There isn't a time where I can point out the fact that I actually like them all. At least the main characters. I feel like I can relate so badly to them, and it's amazing how I kind of become them when I'm reading.
Cassie is relatable to me because, firstly, I have a little brother and I see her every decision about him. How she wants to find him, how nothing can stop her. But I also see myself in the fact that I would try to rationalize everything I did for the sake of my own survival. I mean, I have those constant monologues in my head every day, about every decision I make, and I just understand why she thinks the way she does and why she acts on those thoughts as well. I like her, I actually love her, and I find myself thinking that if the apocalypse actually comes one day, I want to be like her.
“When I cry - when I let myself cry - that's who I cry for. I don't cry for myself. I cry for the Cassie that's gone.And I wonder what that Cassie would think of me.The Cassie who kills.”
Sammy are in my eyes my little brother when he was five years old. Every time Sammy was on the pages I just saw my little brother, not kidding. I could see his face looking up at me, asking me if everything was going to be okay and I just loved him so much and I want to cry just thinking about the possibility of anything bad happening to my brother. Sammy is perfect in my eyes, just as my little brother are.
“Because we’re too hard to kill. We’re invista…investra…invinta…” “Invincible?” “That’s it!” With a reassuring pat on my arm. “Invincible.”
Ben Parish, the kind of unknown character. I felt like a fool when I read from his point of view the first time, I was like; who the hell is this guy? And then something clicked and I was like; noo way. I knew he was going to have something to do with Sammy, and I felt this weird feeling that either that was a good thing or a bad thing. I liked Ben, or Zombie, he's just cool and also what I would like to see in myself if I went through something like this one day. I mean, the guy takes in a small five-year-old and takes care of him even though he have to take the fall for it all.
“The kid who didn't go back when he should have and now goes back when he shouldn't. The kid called Zombie, who made a promise, and if he breaks that promise, the war is over - not the big war, but the war that matters, the one in the battlefield of his heart.Because promises matter. They matter now more than ever.”
Evan Walker, I mean, come on, the man of your dreams? I don't know, I liked him, but at the same time I thought; how is it possible that out of all the people Cassie would meet, she would meet this "perfect" guy? If I were in an alien-apocalypse I would hope to meet Evan Walker. Seriously. Period.
“I had it all wrong," he says. "Before I found you, I thought the only way to hold on was to find something to live for. It isn't. To hold on, you have to find something you're willing to die for.”
So, was this a good book? Hell yes. Would I recommend it? Hell yes. Am I excited to see the movie? Hell yes. Will I continue to read the next book? Hell yes. I mean, there's nothing to say except for the fact that I loved it, and I'm looking forward to continue on the series. I feel like it doesn't quite reach up to the other books I've read that I've given a 5, so this gets a solid 4.5.
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