I’m going to
start off this review with an honest confession: I watched the 5th
Wave movie before I read the book. I know, I know, don’t give me that look, it
was a little further down on my TBR list than I’d hoped, and by the time it was
in my hands, I already knew the whole story. Whoops. But, for the purpose of
the review, I’m going to write it as though I never watched the film.
Since the
huge hype for ‘The Hunger Games,’ there is currently nothing more popular in YA
literature than a dystopian, end-of-the-world, kids against adults book. And
that’s exactly what Rick Yancey’s ‘The 5th Wave’ is. Being a fan of
stories about how the world is in chaos, I was looking forward to reading the 5th
Wave and discovering yet another way that the world could end, and this time,
it was because of an alien invasion. Now, before reading this book, I had this
stock-standard alien picture of an alien in my head. You know the type: green,
bug-eyed men we all know so well, hanging out in UFO’s, using laser beams to
defeat humanity and take over the world. This book is nothing like I imagined
it would be, and for that I’m glad.
16 year old
Cassie Sullivan believes she may be the last human left on earth. She has
survived the first 4 waves of destruction sent by the aliens, or, as she calls
them, the Others. She now lives alone in the woods, fighting for survival and
fighting to keep her promise to return to her little brother, who was taken
away to a military base. However, on her journey to the military base, she is
shot in the leg by an Other, and becomes sick. She is saved by a young farm
boy, Evan, and is brought to his home for recovery. However, Evan may not be
all he seems to be.
As much as I
enjoyed the twisty, turny plot twists of this book, they were a little obvious
at times, and perhaps not as shocking as they could have been. One thing I
would change about this book was the mostly ambivalent romantic subplot between
Evan and Cassie. The two characters had next to no chemistry, and all it did
was slow the story down. From what I could see, all Evan cared about was Cassie’s looks and safety and all Cassie cared about was
Evan’s big hands and good cuticles that she wouldn't let the reader forget about. For example: “… and his cuticles, as I’ve pointed out, are impeccable.” Or how about: “… those hands with the perfect cuticles.”? Or this one: “…you have incredible cuticles…” Also: “…cuticle care can tell you a lot about a person.” If I had to read one more line about Evan’s cuticles, I was going to tear his fingers off! Don’t get me wrong here, the plot of this book was great, but I
could’ve done with less staring into Evan’s ‘chocolaty brown’ eyes, and a
little more of kicking alien butt.
Having said
that, the last 150 pages of the book really turned around my overall opinion of
this story, as we finally had some constant, intense action scenes that were
well written and were just what the story needed. The whole situation was
dropped in a pressure cooker and turned up to max, with explosions, injuries,
and lots of gun usage. Finally, the characters were truly fighting back, and
the book had both redeemed itself and earnt its place amongst the other
bestselling dystopian novels. For those of you who are interested, the book is much
better than the film, and I’d recommend that if you are going to see the film,
read the book first. I leave you with my rating of 3 cuticles out of 5.
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