REVIEW: The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey


After the 1st wave, only darkness remains.

After the 2nd, only the lucky escape.

And after the 3rd, only the unlucky survive.



Genre: YA Sci-Fi

Rating: 2 / 5 seriously dissappointed stars.

Series Details: 1st book in The 5th Wave.

Favorite Quote: “Sarcasm doesn't appear to work on him. If that's true, I'm in trouble: It's my normal mode of communication.”

Review: (spoilers ahead...)

So dissappointed! The book blurb promises a story of a gun-wielding, karate trained girl on the hunt to save her brother from alien invaders with the help of a mysterious Evan...BUT...this story's really about a guy named Ben Parish and the supposed heroine is relegated to practically nothing! It starts out great but then quickly devolved. Let me break down my frustration:

+ Cassie is in the forest, a lot of big talk, I'm excited as she starts to recall what led her to this point; some hiding, some action, some survivalist moments. + Now she's mooning over a guy from high school named Ben Parish...hmmm, she talks about him a lot...I think this is going somewhere. + Bad things are happening, her brother gets taken away, now she must save him. Bring on the action! + But, oh, WAIT! Now we're with a new character, a guy, he's in the middle of a camp, and we stay with him for a really long time...of course it's the Ben that Cassie was talking about...and he meets her brother and they form a bond and lots of training happens and we learn about Wonderland and aliens and he gets to be a bad ass. + Meanwhile our supposed heroine gets shot and she's rescued by Evan the Mysterious, but instead of being suspicious, she thinks about his cute butt, hands, yada yada, and she snuggles and kisses him. + So back to what is now clearly the focal point, Ben Parish. More training, a mission, things go sideways, Ben has a plan, truths are discovered. Ben must save the day! He has to go back and save the little brother (who he still doesn't know is Cassie's brother, and let's face it, he's not going to even remember or know who Cassie is, is he?). All hail the official hero of this book. + Now Cassie has wised up a bit, she runs away. YAY, be proactive girl... oh... nevermind. That doesn't last long. + Anyway, things culminate, Cassie is finally starting to look like the books hero again, she meets up with her brother and Ben, who is shot and drugged and supposedly struggling. But then Evan shows up to save her! And then she can't climb the stairwell properly, apparently, so Ben does it, even though he's severely wounded, and helps her and Sammy up. Even at the end, when they're running, Ben the Wounded still gets to be the one to carry Sammy and then Cassie trips and Ben has to return to save her AGAIN!!! + And then to top it all off, Cassie meets another girl and immediately starts internally bitching about how pretty she is....really???!!! (This is where I almost bumped it down to 1 star.)

In the middle of all of this is an interesting story about an alien invasion and turning humanity against each other to take over planet Earth without destroying it's natural resources. So 2 stars. But that's all you're getting out of me. So in summation, the boys of this novel are clearly the main characters, and Cassie is only around to be a damsel in distress who waxes poetic about cute guys. Ugh!

#thefifthwave #the5thwave #rickyancey #review #ya #youngadult #sciencefiction #scifi

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