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The 5th Wave (The 5th Wave, #1)

Rick Yancey

Start date: January 4, 2016

Finish date: January 10, 2016

Discussion: The 5th Wave

Why we're reading this: The movie is coming out!
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The 5th Wave

SUN 1/10 | Ch. 78-END
By Shannon · 5 posts · 44 views

last updated Jan 09, 2016 07:33PM

SAT 1/9 | Ch. 64-77
By Shannon · 4 posts · 18 views

last updated Jan 09, 2016 05:42AM

What Members Thought

Jan 03, 2016 Joce (squibblesreads) rated it liked it

3.5 stars
I kinda wish I'd waited until far in the future to read The 5th Wave, not immediately after I'd exhausted my fantasy/sci-fi/alternate world juju by reading The Final Empire (Mistborn #1) by Brandon Sanderson. I think I might have been more invested in the plot and the characters. I might not have, but I am gonna give it the benefit of the doubt and so I tacked on an extra half star. A more ruthless and mood-based rating would have been a flat 3 stars.

The good:
- Rick Yancey really surpri 3.5 stars
I kinda wish I'd waited until far in the future to read The 5th Wave, not immediately after I'd exhausted my fantasy/sci-fi/alternate world juju by reading The Final Empire (Mistborn #1) by Brandon Sanderson. I think I might have been more invested in the plot and the characters. I might not have, but I am gonna give it the benefit of the doubt and so I tacked on an extra half star. A more ruthless and mood-based rating would have been a flat 3 stars.

The good:
- Rick Yancey really surprised me with the quality of his writing. My favorite characteristic of his writing was his varied sentence structure and ability to evoke not only the sights of the setting but also the other senses. I highly dislike books that just go through the motions. It doesn't allow me to become entranced by and absorbed in the world that the characters are living in, and The 5th Wave totally did not do that. It was engrossing and fascinating.

- I also enjoyed that he didn't seem to want to make his readers happy and something about the writing seemed very intimate in comparison to other more popular dystopians, for example, Divergent and The Hunger Games, which got higher initial ratings from me, but seemed to try very hard at being that next blockbuster. He didn't skimp on the gore or the truth of a war torn world.

The meh:
- I did NOT like how Sammy's character was so underdeveloped. He had maybe two lines throughout the whole book and I really thought that Rick Yancey did not paint him or Teacup, the other younger girl, in a very multidimensional light and seemed more like pawns and side dishes, whereas I think he had the potential to make something really magical.

- The romantic scenes seemed very disjointed and far removed from the rest of the book. I don't think that they were completely useless or interjected in the book just to have some kind of romance, but in those moments, there was ONLY romance and it kinda felt like I was at a party and didn't know anyone and was just standing by the food table awkwardly. There must have been some other way to incorporate them more seamlessly and appropriately because I felt like the actual romance was nice.

- The pacing was all over the place in the middle 40% of the book. The first 30% provided a good buildup and I was really captivated by the writing, the plot, and the setting. The middle was very very confusing and stagnant, switching quickly from POV to POV with no real significant advancements in the plot. I did enjoy reading about what was going on with Zombie and the crew in Zombie's POV, but listening to all of Cassie's thoughts with no real movement plot-wise was draining and even droll at times. I felt as though this time would have been better spent developing the personalities of Zombie's crew, which was brimming with potential. There was no reason to have the book be so dormant in the middle, because the buildup and explanation of the world and history of the attacks were extremely well done in the first 30%, so the action would have come at a comfortable and appropriate place in the middle but instead there was a bunch of wishy-washy movement of characters and POVs, and a lot of "thinking" and stewing.

Overall, it fell slightly above average, which is definitely not the consensus of the good majority of the rest of the raters here. It was very good in both the first and last 30%, but fell flat in some other unfortunate characteristics and places. ...more

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Sep 05, 2015 Arsh Hayer rated it it was ok

2.5 stars

Cassie was living her normal life like everyone else. Going to school, the movies and hanging out with friends. Until, the Others came. They ruined her life. The tool away her brother, mother and father. They tricked her. But along the way she fell in love with one of them. Now it's up to her to save her brother. But along the way she gets a visit from her past.

********************SPOILERS***********************

I found the book was kind of confusing to follow at certain points but at t ...more

9 likes · Like · see review

Jan 07, 2016 Aamir Rasool rated it liked it

This was more of a 3.5/5 stars..

Now, when you first read the synopsis, you expect to get survival, aliens attacking, starvation, life-threatening situations. When you read this all you get is :

Different P.O.V 's from characters without giving a name to the Povs, boring romance, unattachment to any if the characters and senseless actions.

The sole reason I picked up this book was because the movie was releasing & I wanted to see what the hype was all about.

Sadly, I was very dissapointed.

When t ...more

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Jan 14, 2016 Tara Shanley rated it really liked it

The 5th Wave was a book that I think kept you on your toes, I enjoyed reading it. I did not really like the way it switched from different point of views. But over all I would recommend it.

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Dec 14, 2015 Kamila Dąbrowska rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2015

This book creeped me out. Really creeped me out... Right now I'm so scared of aliens coming to Earth and taking control. But the book was amazing! ...more

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