Book Talks: The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey

**To view spoilers, drag your mouse over the empty space between"<SPOILER>...<SPOILER>"

I literally just finished this book, so my thoughts will be kind of scattered.

For those of you who haven't read it, The 5th Wave is about alien invasion. It is the first alien book that I've read, and I really enjoyed it because it wasn't a beat-the-odds-and-kill-all-the-aliens book. It was more of an oh-crap-we're-so-screwed-aliens-why kind of book.

Where this book does well:

• Confusing the crap out of you, in the best way possible. The book convinces you that whatever you're thinking is wrong, and you share the paranoia with the characters.
• Accurately describing how stupid humans would be in the case of apocalypse. Teenagers were having sex under the bleachers, people were raiding stores to get only the essentials: beer.
• It has multiple POVs. Every time there is a black page, it is the start of a new POV. It never really tells you who is narrating the story, so the first time that narration is introduced, it can be confusing. However, the author was able to help you distinguish the POV with the writing alone. The writing was just very different. It almost felt like the author became the person who was telling the story.
• Female protagonists. Cassie just rocks. She can do karate and blow out people's brains.
• Ringer. <SPOILER> She's just so smart and when she figured out the truth behind the trackers, I just gained so much respect for her. She's also really independent and she sticks up for herself. When she told the guys not to make sexist and demeaning jokes about her I just felt all of the feminism inside of me explode like a volcano of awesomeness.     What. And do you guys think that she'll end up with Ben, because I honestly don't see a huge connection between Cassie and Ben. <SPOILER>
• The book goes full circle. Everything connects. <SPOILERS> Cassie's crush on Ben Parish, the babies, Sams being sent to Camp Haven, Cassie quitting karate, etc <SPOILERS>
• The writing. I was fairly impressed with it, because it had a great mix of power and wit. The writing had the power to get me excited and scared, and I loved it.
• The whole concept. It takes a less traditional stance on the alien invasion. Because of this, I don't think that you can really call it sci-fi, but it was impressive. It almost feels like the arena in Catching Fire. Instead of a new horror every hour, there's a new horror every wave.
• IT WAS REALISTIC. Aside from it having to do with alien invasions, which could happen, because we can't be the only ones in the universe, it was realistic. You never, EVER in YA hear a girl say "Hey, I kind of can't slice the heads of off monsters today--I'm on my period." And Cassie didn't say that, because she's a badass. But this, and I appreciate it so much, she mentioned that she was always worried about running out of tampons. THANK YOU FOR INCLUDING THAT, RICK YANCEY!
• The cover of the book. Just because.
• The plot was exciting, but not what I was expecting. This book focuses more on survival than triumph, but <SPOILER> we have Ringer, Cassie, Ben, Sams, and all of the others in a car headed somewhere, so we can only expect that stuff is going to do down in the next book. <SPOILER>
• I liked all of the Wizard of Oz references for some reason. Going Dorothy, Follow the road, follow the road . . .

Where this book didn't do so great:

• Evan. Um . . . I know that a lot of people like Evan, but I didn't. He seems pretty nice, but I hate the whole "I'll do anything to save you!" thing. And he's basically Edward. He kind of stalks Cassie and he's "dangerous." I just didn't like his character and how his hands were so soft and how warm his kiss felt and how he was well muscled.
• Something that may be cleared up in the next book. <SPOILER> If the aliens are only, like, existence or something, then how the hell did they build a mothership? <SPOILER>

Overall, I loved the book. I highly recommend that you read it. It's an exciting book and may pave the way for a new alien trend, who knows? But you definitely want to get in on this book before the sequel comes out. Don't be late to the party.