Book Review: The 5th Wave (The Fifth Wave, #1) by Rick Yancey

Title: The 5th Wave (The Fifth Wave, #1)

Author: Rick Yancey

Publisher: Putnam Juvenile

Pages: 480

Format: Paperback

Published: May, 2013

Price: Rp 163,000 (Periplus)

Rating: 3½ / 5 stars

Date started: May 24, 2014 - Date finished: September 16, 2014

Synopsis:

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.

Review:

So, this is my first book by Rick Yancey never read anything by him before but this is a pretty good start. This book in terms of genre I would say it is in the area of YA, sci-fi, post-apocalyptic world (sort of?). The story is mainly about aliens trying to take over earth by invading it through five stages, the book didn't tell us much about the first four waves only glimpses and most of the story is about what happens after the 4th Wave and figuring out what the 5th Wave is.

"1st Wave: lights out. 2nd Wave: surf's up. 3rd Wave: pestilence. 4th Wave: Silencer. What's next, Evan? What is the 5th Wave?"

This book uses multiple perspectives, there's the story of Cassie Sullivan, Sammy, and Ben "Zombie" Parish. At first these multiple perspectives thingy confuses me because I kind of started reading this book in May then stopped reading it for a while, then started reading it again in September but I must say after a few pages I'm already back and immersed in this book's world also I can catch up to the multiple characters perspective and knew which part belongs to whom. There are some parts of the story that I liked reading like Ben Parish's training in Camp Haven and the romance between Cassie and Evan (which I find a tad weird and freaky, but I like it anyway).

"They've flipped the natural order on us, boy. Better to die than live. Better to give up than fight. Better to hide than face. They know the way to break us is to kill us first here."

As far as the overall of the book, I would have to say that all the hype the book is getting makes me expect an extravagant adventure in a book that would make me give a five star rating but in truth I'm kind of disappointed because for me this book is not too slow paced but it's not fast paced either. Again, I must say I expected more from this book. Although the book was not as I expected I still liked it but I didn't love it. I'm just praying that the sequel of this book is better! *fingers crossed* 

"There's a quote from Stalin," he says. "'A single death is a tragedy; a million is statistic.' Can you imagine seven billion of anything? I have trouble doing it. It pushes the limits of our ability to comprehend. And that's exactly why they did it. Like running up the score in football. You played football, right? It isn't about destroying our capability to fight so much as crushing our will to fight."

Anyways, this book is about to become a movie! Expected release date is January, 2016 (Ugh, the agony of waiting two years...) some of the casts are already announced though! Here they are:

Some of these casts I agree with like Chloe Grace Moretz as Cassie Sullivan, Maika Monroe as Ringer and Liev Schreiber as Colonel Vosch. I knew they'd be perfect for those characters (but, Ringer should have black hair!). Moving on, Nick Robinson as Ben Parish I don't think this is quite fitting as Ben is supposed to be kind of brawny and muscular (as I recall) I'll admit Nick got the looks for Ben but not the physique. Alex Roe as Evan Walker (my only note is that I pictured Evan handsome-er than Alex).

© books-over-all ©