Monday, July 8, 2013

Review: The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey

Publish date: 2013
Source: Conference
Format: ARC
Length: 457 pages
"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.
" (Goodreads)

The 5th Wave had TONS of buzz. I personally don't like when a book has a lot of buzz, since I am usually let down by my unrealistic expectations of it. I ended up liking it, but I didn't absolutely love it.

The 5th Wave is a book that made me want to keep reading. I read the majority of it on a flight, and it held my attention for those few hours very well. The chapters are short, which I love in a book, and the narrators changed every so often. In my opinion, short chapters are one of the best ways to hold a reader's attention, and Rick Yancey kept the tension high in this book partly due to that.

I liked the differing narrators, but was disappointed in one of them, finding him to be a bit unrealistic and unbelievable. If you've read The 5th Wave, you probably know who I'm talking about. My student book club chose this for our first summer read, and they felt similarly about the narrator. Some liked the book as a whole, some didn't. All in all, I think it was a good choice for a group read and brought up some great discussion points.

I think I will read the sequel when it comes out (next year?), but I won't be clamoring for it. Please tell me your thoughts in the comments! Has anyone listened to the audiobook?

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