From the Bookshelf of Addicted to YA…

In my jumping, I come across books that I like, love even, all of the time. But I've pretty much given up recommending books to the majority of my real life friends. They generally roll their eyes and say things like, "I don't have the time, Autumn."

Maybe that's true, maybe it's not. Either way, I stopped actively making suggestions about five years ago partly out of exasperation, partly out of embarrassment because I started to wonder: When they say that, are they implying that I'm lazy and all I do is sit around and read?

So there are books that I like.

Books that I love.

And the rare, and I mean very rare book that I share.

The sharing books are the kind that are so good, so beautiful and absorbing that I can actually feel the words in the pit of my stomach while I'm reading them. The genre doesn't matter. The intended age of the audience doesn't matter. What matters is this sensation that radiates all through your body. Hot and cold. Excited and subdued all at once. It's hard to put into words... The best way that I can describe it is as a connection. It's the way that I felt when I read Harry Potter for the first time, or The Book Thief. Others are: The Night Circus and The Shadow of the Wind, Slammed, The Once and Future King, The Sea of Tranquility, The Graveyard Book and the Fever books by KMM. (I hope that gives you an idea of the caliber of book I'm talking about.) As of today, I can add Rick Yancey's The 5th Wave to the list of books to shout about from a mountaintop... or hill... or second-story window, or computer screen. It was that good.

I thought about giving a brief synopsis of the story but there are tons of those that already exist and I'm honestly afraid that if I say too much someone is going to tell me, "but I don't really like sci-fi," or the inevitable, "I'm sort of over apocalyptic YA books." I hear ya and I'm right there with you but my answer remains: IT DOESN'T MATTER. READ THE DAMN BOOK! The 5th Wave transcends its genre. It's more than YA. It's more than sci-fi. It's certainly more than, "wow, that was a cool story about an alien invasion." This is a story about humanity. And not just the idea of humanity as a whole, but about what it means to be one person. It's about love and promises and trust and sacrifice. It's about everything that's bad in the world and everything that's good. It's about possibilities.

The 5th Wave is not an easy read. It's a sick-to-your-stomach, want-to-throw-the-book kind of read. But you will love every freaking minute of it. I promise.