457 pages
Publisher: Putnam Juvenile
Genre: YA/Survival/Aliens/Sci-Fi
Source: I won a free ARC from goodreads' First Reads and Penguin.
Purchase: Barnes and Noble | The Book Depository
Goodreads Synopsis: 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.
My Review
I kept putting off writing this review. I'm still not even sure exactly how I feel about this book. Giving it a star rating seems to be almost impossible. I guess I'll just start by telling you the the great, the good, the bad, and the ugly and go from there, and then maybe I will be able to give this one a solid star rating.
The Great: Cassie is a really kick ass heroine with her human flaws and all. Seriously, this chick rocks. I love her crazy/snarky narration. It actually reminded me a lot of the movie Zombieland. She was the best part of The 5th Wave. (Yes, she has one scene where I really wanted to strangle her and be like "you are making no sense," but besides that she is great.) The other great thing is the high creep factor in this book.
The Good: The different view points. We get to see and feel what several different characters are going through and this added a lot of depth to the novel. The only downside, when the point of view was first switched I was really confused and had to reread a few pages to get a grasp on what was going on. It would have been nicer for a little heads up. Oh and another good thing, there are some pretty cool action/survival scenes and totally unrelated... a good evil person, although way too obvious.
The Bad: This book is pretty predictable. I didn't feel like there was a whole lot of new ideas being brought to the table. It was kind of overly easy to tell what would happen next and who you could and couldn't trust, which was ironic since Cassie keeps saying over and over again that you can't trust anyone. Anyway, after all the hype I was just expecting more twists. I just didn't get the feel of this being a unique alien novel and I don't even read that many alien books. Also, it could be confusing at times, in a bad way, and too unbelievable even though "I know I'm reading a book and this isn't real." .
The Ugly: The ending was no good. The worst part about this is that I can't even tell you why it sucked so bad. Let's just say that if the ending is really going where I think it is then I won't be reading the next book. I mean come on...it is totally unnecessary and doesn't really make a lot of sense. Plus, it didn't leave me wanting more and didn't have a good set up for the next book. I'm keeping my fingers crossed though.
The Cover: I really liked it before I read the book and I loved it after. I think it works perfectly for this creepy book.
In the end I still say to give this book a shot. If you don't like it then you don't have to finish it, but so many other people have loved this book and just because I am not in that camp doesn't mean you won't be. I will say that this book kept me hooked and interested enough to keep me reading to the very end. That counts for something. So if you are a fan of aliens or survival books in general you will probably enjoy this.
** Thanks goodreads and Penguin for a free ARC of The 5th Wave. Receiving this did not affect my honest review.
My Rating 3/5
Hmm. I have definitely seen some overwhelmingly positive reviews for this one, but it's actually good to see some with criticisms too. I'm glad you mentioned some of these points because now I can go in with slightly lower expectations. I'm glad the heroine is great, though. That always helps a book out :)
ReplyDeleteThe heroine is great! I still enjoyed the book I just wasn't amazing for me. I hope you enjoy it!
DeleteI had a book like that a few days ago. Sometimes it's best to wait to rate a book until after you get the review written! LOL. I loved this review though Kay. It was honest and I feel like you really pointed out what we as readers needed to know. I've been looking forward to this book, but just haven't had the time to read it. We'll have to compare notes once I do!
ReplyDeleteJessica@Lovin' Los Libros
I agree... sometimes waiting a little bit after reading a book to review/rate it is the best strategy. Thanks for reading! I try to keep myself honest. :)
DeleteI can't wait to see what you think! I hope you enjoy it.
This one is still on my radar becuase of the Tomorrow When the War Began comparisons and I loved that series. It does seem like there is enough good going on here that I might like it -- but it will be interesting to see which camp I end up in :)
ReplyDeleteI can't wait to see how you like it so we can compare notes. :)
DeleteI can't wait to finally read this one!
ReplyDeleteI hope you like it. It does have some great creepy characters.
DeleteI will admit, initially the thickness of this book made it seem daunting but all of the good reviews had me overlooking that factor. It's really easy to get swept up in all the hype (especially when outlets like NPR chalk it up as one of the 5 books you should read over summer) so it's nice to hear the other side of things as well. It helps us keep our high expectations in check.
ReplyDeleteI've been on a big sci-fi kick this last month so I'm still keen on reading it. If I'm not liking the book then I doubt I'll make the commitment to the series. Either way, I'm really eager to discuss it with you! :)
Yes, it is a pretty big book, which is the main reason I won't be reading the second one unless I'm assured it turns out fine, especially if it is that long too.
DeleteI can't wait to see what you think. I really do hope you like it, which you probably will if you are in a sci-fi mood! It just didn't work out for me as well as I had hoped.
Oh shucks this book is about Aliens? I really should start paying better attention to goodreads summaries around publication time. I forgot so often what books are about after I add them (since it can be a year or so in advance sometimes), or I add them because so many people think its a good book but I have no idea what it's actually about. Maybe this is bad. Anyway, I'm not a big alien reader and you don't sound so enthused about his book hah. But I know a lot of people have loved it. I got it at BEA. I will probably try it when I get a break from my other reads and confirm whether I hate alien books or not :D Thanks for sharing!!
ReplyDelete