So, as a big fan of apocalyptic and dystopian books I came across the description for ‘The 5th Wave’ and had to try it out. It’s also got over four stars on goodreads which is a bonus in my book. I’ve found that most of the time ratings averages on goodreads are pretty spot on. I don’t think I’ve found anything over four stars on there that I ended up hating.
Here’s the description:
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.
Looks pretty promising, right? I liked Ender’s Game, and I’m part way through The Passage right now, and while it’s not my favorite read so far, it’s got a lot going for it. And cool point: aliens. I’ve been reading quite a bit of vampires this year, so a change is nice.
Let’s go over why I didn’t give it five stars. The main character seems kind of flat to me. Now, I get that she’s in shock for most of the book, but I was still expecting a little more spark. Some warning when the author is about to change POVs would be nice. I got confused a couple times, and this wasn’t helped by most of the characters sounding similar to each other. There’s the next point: POV characters sounded very much the same except the five year old.
I didn’t like the structure of the beginning of the book. The author opened it at a good place, sticking us right in the middle of a critical choice in the main character’s life, but then delved into a lot of infodump and back story to get us caught up. I’m in two minds about this. First the disconnected nature fit in with the main character’s fractured mindset. But on the other side of things it was a lot of infodump and I wonder whether there was another way for the author to introduce that information.
Now, in Angelfall for example (a similar book), there wasn’t as much infodump in the beginning and action started right away. The 5th Wave was a slow start, but it did start moving in the end. It was a slower book, more about the tension than anything else. We did get some action near the end though.
Good points: nice twist. I did see it coming from very early on, but that’s not a bad thing. It did seem very obvious, but then again I’m pretty good at guessing what’s going to happen. I annoy the heck out of my sister when I’m watching movies with her. Not a fan of spoilers that one. I was hoping for a second more unexpected twist, but no luck.
Though the characters were a bit flat, some did have interesting quirks. There’s this guy who is terrible at lurking – she always finds him out. When you learn more about his background that doesn’t make sense, but it was cute at the time.
The idea itself was pretty cool and it was an easy read. I’d say, don’t expect to be totally wowed by the book, just enjoy it as a simple read and you should like it just fine. And as always, in case you want to read more reviews about it, here’s the link:
samaustinwriter 