Review - The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey
Title – The 5th Wave
Author – Rick Yancey
Publisher – Penguin Group
Published date – May 7, 2013
Format – Paperback
Source – Self purchased
Genres – Sci-fi, Dystopian, YA
Pages - 457
"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."
RATE - 4.5 stars
The book is really intriguing.
It is not so complicated like other dystopian books. I bought this book without knowing anything about the book. When I first read it, I never thought it would be alien-story-book because it is DEFINITELY not my style. ALSO, it has multiple POVs , I never thought the book has... 4 POVs without the character POVs written on the beginning of the POVs. Which I need to guess whose POV it is by myself. I really don’t have idea about it so when it turned out to be the second POV I was like… whut? At least I realized it soon. Well, I did regret a bit because reading a book about alien would be the last of my choice! But anyway I kind of enjoying it ~
^^ KOREAN VERSION OF ALIEN XD KYAAAA
PLOT
Okay, since this is my first alien-novel, it is kinda good (?) Because AT LEAST the aliens are not like the ‘alien’ on TV. I mean, the aliens lived in human’s body, yeah , some kind of like that. It started that they are in the 4th wave and are getting ready for the 5th wave. Long story short, it is about a girl named Cassie who was separated with her only family left, her little brother. So she take the attempt to rescue her brother and… yeah the story just linger around it. And the aliens are kind of confusing, because their attentions are hard to decipher. They made 4 waves so far and, if they want to own the earth, why they didn’t kill all humans at once? Oh that remain questionable .
THE CHARACTERS
Cassie - She is really vulnerable after losing her family but she cope with it in order to save her brother. Her only weapon is M16 which I am glad she have it because YOU CAN’T SURVIVE if you don’t have any weapon. She is a caring, bold, strong and unreliable girl. Her only goal is to get her brother back in her arm. Well, nothing really interesting about her character except that she had a long-term crush towards someone who is like 99% doesn’t even realize her existence. Well she has one common thing with me, which is writing diary. She bring her diary all of the time and write all things in it which is not likely me. I won’t write all things there (I am a lazy bum lol) especially when we are in ‘a war’.
Evan Walker – He really has many secrets and so good in covering them. His personalities are perfect except his IDENTITY. Cassie is really glad to get Evan’s help at the time. He is kind, warm-hearted, strong, and sympathy-hearted. I really love the character but I DID REGRET checking the movie actors because…. The actor (which I don’t know his name) IS 100% NOT SUITABLE TO BE EVAN WALKER. Evan is supposed to be kind, good and harming (overall- have good-looking and kind face). But the actor looks fierce, strong, a fighter, etc. I don’t know how to read the next book when I HAVE to imagine the character L #please #don’t #bash #me , #no #hate, #just #saying.
Ben Parish – He is the reason why I read the book so fast despite having many homework and stuffs. Cassie has a crush on him and he never know about it. He is in popular category pupils in the high school. He is so kind and attractive (I don’t have to question why he is so popular lol XD) And what I love more is he is positive-thinking, helpful, good leader and care for the others <3 Also, *SPOILERSSSSS!!!!
What a great coincidence he meets Cassie’s brother, Sam Sullivan and takes care of him well (he is not aware that Sam is Cassie’s brother nor that he know Cassie). Although things doesn’t went well for him though, at least Sam is be able to comfort himself thanks to Ben.
Ringer- She is ruining my OTP actually, but I accept her by the end of the novel because she is strong, quick-witted, brave and invulnerable. She is great and have fighting vibe in her. What I don’t like is the actress, nope, not the actress, but the actress makeup in the movie. THE EYELINER like director-nim, what in the world you are doing? I was about to accept the OTP but seeing her makeup like totally bad girl it drag me down:\
Sam Sullivan – Cassie’s little brother, he is brave and quite matures for his age. He is so pity because he needs to go through the circumstances in his age, apart from his family, vulnerable and clueless. Luckily Ben is there for him :D He is cute by the way, he didn’t show his fear in front of his family because he didn’t want to worry them.
Last thought
It is a great book but not the best. It doesn’t have roller-coaster riding (glad it doesn’t have it xD). Rick Yancey , you are a great writer (Y)
The book is perfect before I found the actress and actresses. ( Cassie, Ben, Sam are suitable though). I hope the sequel won’t let me down :D
Also, I really love the waves idea. So I am sharing them with you down below! (Source from Wikipedia)
First Wave: Lights Out: During the first wave, the Others release an EMP wave that takes out all electronics/lights/technology and kills half a million people by shorting out all moving vehicles, including planes in mid-flight.
Second wave: Surf's Up: The Others, realizing that roughly 40 percent of Earth's population lives within 60 miles (97 km) of coastline, drop enormous rods "twice as tall as the Empire State Building and three times as heavy" (45) onto the Earth's fault lines, causing massive tsunamis that wipe out three billion people.
Third wave: Pestilence: The Others launch a scheme to infect as many remaining survivors as possible with a deadly virus. Using the Earth's birds as carriers (via falling excrement), the plague claims 97 percent of remaining survivors. The virus, which resembles an advanced form of Ebola, causes victims to slowly bleed to death until eventually "you've become a viral bomb. And when you explode, you blast everyone around you with the virus" (46).
Fourth wave: Silencers: After the 3rd wave, the remaining human population tries desperately to survive off whatever resources remain by looting, all the while clinging to the hope that "the people in charge", wherever they may be, are working toward a solution. Eventually, this belief seems legitimate when an impressive battalion of soldiers (with functioning vehicles) arrives at the makeshift camp where Cassie, Sam, and her father are staying. The soldiers and commander, however, only appear interested in the children and promptly load them onto waiting buses before ordering all the adults into the camp barracks. Once the humans are surrounded, Commander Vosch orders a massacre and kills everyone at the camp. Cassie, however, narrowly escapes and witnesses her father's death by Vosch's hand. At this moment, the 4th wave becomes clear: not all "humans" are actually humans.
Fifth wave: The Fifth wave is referenced in "The Last Star".
