From the Bookshelf of YA and Beyond…

Although there were great themes throughout the story and the first 130 pages were very suspenseful and riveting, the new apocalyptic alien book, The 5th Wave, was a huge disappointment. Maybe it’s because I’ve read so many dystopian/survival type of books like this, but this story was at many times boring, slow paced, cliché, over dramatic, and repetitive. I was so excited to s

Although there were great themes throughout the story and the first 130 pages were very suspenseful and riveting, the new apocalyptic alien book, The 5th Wave, was a huge disappointment. Maybe it’s because I’ve read so many dystopian/survival type of books like this, but this story was at many times boring, slow paced, cliché, over dramatic, and repetitive. I was so excited to start reading this book based off all the praise and attention it was receiving, like being compared to other amazing sci-fi stories such as The Passage and Ender’s Game. Also the author, Rick Yancey, won the Michael L. Printz Honor for one of his past works, so of course I was expecting this to be another award winning book. But unfortunately for The 5th Wave, this was one of those novels whose hype and praise surpassed its narrative.

Throughout the book, Rick Yancey’s main purpose was trying to convey the enduring nature and everlasting hope of humanity, no matter how grim the circumstances become. Many times in the story each of the characters talks about trying to hold onto their humanity, how the number one rule now in order to survive is to trust no one, and so on. When the main protagonist, Cassie, is hiding under a car trying to avoid being shot by an alien sniper she says, “Because if I am the last one, then I am humanity. And if this is humanity’s last war, then I am the battlefield” (Yancey, 101). This is always an inspiring theme to have in any apocalyptic book, but it was thrown into the reader’s face so many times it started to lose its meaning and sound melodramatic.

I would like to say this book was written well, but there were so many flaws. One thing that is left out of The 5th Wave’s book summary was the multiple changing POVs. The sudden character changes were confusing because we aren’t automatically told who the character is and at many times it’s hard to distinguish the personalities, especially between Cassie and Ben. Also because of the interchanging point of view, the story became so predictable and there were no twists or surprises for the reader to enjoy. (view spoiler)[An example would be at the beginning of the story a group of soldiers comes to the refugee camp Cassie, her father, and little brother, Sammy, are staying in and take all the young children, including Sammy, back to a military base. Just afterwards the soldiers then murder the remaining adult survivors of the camp, including Cassie’s dad. It is revealed that these soldiers are actually the aliens in disguise. Then in Ben’s point of view, we see he’s been “rescued” and taken to that same military base and meets the man in charge, Commander Vosch, who comforts Ben but is actually one of the aliens and was there at the campsite were the refugees were killed. (hide spoiler)] This would have been a huge surprise if we had read from Ben’s point of view first and then Cassie’s. Also this made the plotline so much more predictable and I connected the dots of where the story was going before I was even half way through the book. This made the story boring and slowed down the pace tremendously.

Although the characters weren’t completely one dimensional, most of them were cliché and lacking some type of depth. The biggest offender would have to be Cassie’s main love interest, Evan Walker, a kind, shy, handsome, and mysterious farm boy who conveniently rescues a sick Cassie from the woods and nurses her back to health. (view spoiler)[He also just happens to be an alien, which is revealed later on, but his identity was blatantly obvious from the start. (hide spoiler)] This also made me wonder what happened to Cassie’s character as the story progressed. In the beginning she is tough, hardcore, strong-willed, and a likeable character who is cautious about everyone and everything in order to survive and find her brother. Her motto in the story is, “The first rule: Trust no one. Which leads to the second rule: The only way to stay alive as long as possible is to stay alone as long as possible” (Yancey, 267). But then of course after she meets Evan she throws all of that to the wind and falls head over heels for him after he woos her with cliché declarations of love. Their relationship was forced and developed too quickly for it to be realistic, not to mention unbearably typical of YA romance. A great example of this would be when Evan says to Cassie, “’I didn’t save you,” he whispers, lips tickling my eyelashes. “You saved me”’ (Yancey, 179). Cue the biggest eye roll in history.

Overall, I think one the greatest weaknesses of The 5th Wave was how obvious it was that Rick Yancey was trying to make this story as angsty, deep, and inspiring to the reader as possible. This was a classic example of an author trying way too hard for their story to be great. There were too many attempts of inspirational and meaningful one-liners, which annoyed me the entire book. Besides this though, I did enjoy the moments between Cassie and Sammy, which helped Yancey’s theme of humanity, which was the book’s greatest strength. An example of a great moment between Sammy and Cassie is this:

”Everything’s broken?” he asked Cassie. “Everything?”
“No, not everything, Sams,” she answered. “Not this.”
She took his hand and put it against his chest, and his pounding heart pushed fiercely against his open palm.
“Unbroken,” she said. (Yancey, 193)