Tori's Review: The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey

The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey
Series: The 5th Wave #1
Genre: Young Adult, Science Fiction, Dystopia
Rating: ★★★
Pages: 457
Published by Putnam Juvenile on May 7, 2013
Date Finished: August 5, 2013
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The Passage meets Ender’s Game in an epic new series from award-winning author Rick Yancey.

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

Forewarning: I'm cursing in this review. I have a lot of feelings and emotions for this book.

I feel like a bad book reviewer for raving about this book but disliking it so much at the same time. Does that make me a bad reviewer? I hope not, because that's exactly what I plan on doing in this review.

I literally just finished this book 5 minutes ago, and the feels (yes, I am reverting to Tumblr talk) are still in me, and I just can't [handle the feels (aka: feelings), if you don't know Tumblr talk]. But I mean...this book. This book. I hate it but love it at the same time. I have to admit that I did enjoy reading it, but I also found so many things that I hated about it.

The first thing that I hated about it was the POV (point of view) changes. But once I go back and think about it now, the book wouldn't be what it is in my mind without the POV changes. So...I'm conflicted about them. I think that Yancey should've written in third person if he wanted to have different characters make different revelations. That's just my opinion though.

The other thing that I hated about this book was Zombie's point of view. Sure, there were sometimes when I got engrossed in his little boot camp-esque world, but the other times I was just like: shut the fuck up, Zombie, nobody gives a shit. The other thing I hated about him was his voice. Just...he acted like the king of the world and that he could charm the pants off any girl. Okay, maybe before the fucking alien invasion he could do that, but now that human/aliens are trying to blow your head off every five minutes, you're no longer cute.

Oh and then there's Ringer. Don't get me wrong, she's a bad ass motherfucker, but seriously now. Yancey only added her because he wanted a love interest for Zombie since Cassie was already getting cozy with Evan.

Evan Walker. Evan fucking Silencer Walker. (I feel like that's not a spoiler since Yancey basically tells you on page 150, even though Cassie doesn't find out until like page 350.) I just...I don't know what to think about him except HE'S INCREDIBLY SEXY, AND I WANT ONE FOR MYSELF. I mean, if Ringer's a bad ass motherfucker, then I don't know what Evan is. He's just...he's sexy. Yeah. That about sums it up. He's sexy. There wasn't anything that I really hated about him except for the fact that even though he most likely knew that Cassie had already figured out that he was a Silencer, he still insisted on telling her that he was human.

Like, come one, Evan Silencer Walker. The jig is up. She knows that you're a heartless bastard that kills humans. She knows that you're the 4th wave.

Okay now that I got my feelings for Evan out of the way, I can talk about the other thing that I disliked about this book. Some people have said that they know what the plot of this book was instantly, but I didn't. I mean, after about 300 pages in, I finally figured out that the entire book was basically Cassie keeping her promise to her brother and going back to get him, but it took 300 pages. That's not good. I think the POV change screwed with my perception of the book's plot.

I also disliked the first 100 pages. Like, okay, Cassie, I get it. Your life sucks, and you've got the whole FML attitude. Doesn't mean you have to take it out on Evan a hundred pages later. Also doesn't mean you can have someone shoot you and then be like oh yeah I'm going to talk about the third wave now. Never mind about the sniper that tried to blow my brain to bits. But besides that, the first 100 pages is basically just Cassie debriefing the reading on the first four waves. Except it wasn't really debriefing. It was more of a full blown explanation along with her incoherent and coherent thoughts as she starved in the woods.

To sum it up, I knocked off 2 stars because of the POV changes. I just feel like when I have an issue with the book, it all comes down to the POV changes.

Problem: I didn't like how Zombie thought. Solution: no POV change.
Problem: I didn't like knowing that Evan was a Silencer before Cassie. Solution: no POV change.
Problem: I despised Zombie's infatuation with Ringer. Solution: no POV change.
I think you catch my drift.
Like I said, third person would've made this novel a whole lot better.

Although I found Cassie and Evan's love a little shady...I loved it. I think the only reason I ended up giving this novel three stars was because of the idea (you know, the aliens coming to Earth and placing sleepers inside fetuses, the aliens watching humans for over six thousand years, and just the aliens' planning, because it was genius) and the romance. The third star was because of Evan. Evan is worth a whole star. Congratulations, Evan.

Now let's go onto things I loved about this novel. I already fangirled about Evan, so it's pretty obvious that he'd be my go-to enemy if Earth ever gets attacked by aliens. I also pointed out that I loved the idea of the book. In my eyes, it was genius. Kudos to you, Rick Yancey, for making me love slowly unraveling the little details of your idea. I loved every moment of it.

The last thing that I loved about this novel was the humor. Good God, Yancey is hilarious. Even though it's the characters that are being funny, Yancey still had to have the wits and humor to write it. So in short, I'd love to meet this dude.

But here are some quotes from the book that I bookmarked:

"No, it really didn't matter if the soldier had a mouth like a lobster or looked like Justin Bieber's twin brother."

I laughed so hard. Go Cassie. Unmask that Justin Bieber lookalike soldier.

Cruelty isn't a personality trait. Cruelty is a habit.

This isn't funny, per se, it's simply genius. (I've found that I've used the word genius a lot in this review so far. I've also found that this review is getting quite long. Oops. I just have so much to say about this book.)

"Private Zombie, did your mother have any children that lived?"
"Sir! Yes, sir!"
"I bet when you were born she took one look at you and tried to shove you back in!"

Let's just take a moment. Reread that. Reread it again. Laugh some more. Give Yancey an imaginary pat on the back for creating such a hilarious line.

Okay, in conclusion, please don't be fooled by all my rants on this book. I did finish it in less than it week, which means I didn't absolutely hate it. I didn't absolutely love it either, clearly since I didn't finish it in a day (also because it was over 400 pages). I can honestly say that I don't understand what all the hype was about because this novel was average. It had a solid plot, but things were a little rocky at times.

I'm definitely going to be finishing the trilogy. There's probably not going to be some huge oh shit no way moment at the end, but I like Evan and Cassie, so why not?

If you like to be surprised in books though, I don't think you should read this. It's quite predictable, if I do say so myself. Zombie's true identity isn't hard to figure out, Evan reveals his secret right from the bat, and I guess the aliens' plan is a little mysterious, but it wasn't too shocking.

I still think this was a fun read though! So honestly I'd say check it out from your library before buying it. I'm glad I didn't buy it. It's not something that I will be reading again, to be truthful.

To end this review on a lighter, sexier note: EVAN WALKER. 'NUFF SAID.