And if this is Humanity’s last war, then I am the battlefield”
Rick Yancey
Hell everyone!
Lets get started with the words that I dread to say. Unfortunately, to the utter horror of the bibliophile in my soul, I watched the movie before I read the book. I know, I know, its practically blasphemous. But, much like the Cirque Du Freak series, it was a great introduction to a series that I’m already in love with! I watched the movie fairly soon after it came out and I thought it was really good! it took a little while, but this past week while I was on one of my thrift store excursions I found The 5th Wave in paperback. I’ve started reading it and now I’m about half way through, but I’m saving the other half for a trip I’m taking this coming August- or at least I’ll try to, my eyes might defy me. Anyway, I thought I’d try something new and share my first impressions of the book thus far. But before we get into that here’s a brief summary of the book in case you haven’t read it.
Plot:
Life was normal before the Others came. People went to work, kids wen to school, and the biggest thing Cassie was worried about was whether the stunningly cute Ben Parish even knew she was alive or not. But then the first wave came, and nothing was ever the same again. Now, after four waves of the invasion Cassie is left alone, separated from her brother and both parents lost to different waves. Terrified for her life and desperate to find her baby brother Sammy, Cassie embarks on a life threatening journey in a world where every breath is a miracle.
Alright, something about this book that instantly struck me as unique was the fact that it’s sectioned off to show shifts in point of view. For example, the first section is marked by black page and is in the main character’s point of view. Every time you reach another black page, it’s an indication that you’ve entered into a different character’s perspective of the conflict going on in the book. So far I’ve been through about four characters’ points of view. It was a little confusing at first because I had absolutely no idea what was going on, but I caught on pretty quickly and now I think it’s a really interesting way to show different sides of the massive war that’s going on between humanity and aliens within the book. I’m really loving Yancey’s writing style as well, its actually pretty impressive that he switches point of view between so many different characters too. Each of these characters are vastly different from each other and keeping their thoughts and motivation in mind while he’s writing must have been a grueling task, but it’s definitely paying off. Plus, could you imagine if we had to find out everything that’s going on at the same time as the main character does? That would take forever and a half! With the shifting points of view we as a audience get to collect all of these different puzzle pieces to work with so that we can figure out what’s really going on. Another awesome part is that we get explore more of this dystopia-post-appocalyptic- world of Yancey’s creation.
Now I’m usually not one for alien books. I don’t know why and I’m sure that there are tons of thousands of amazing alien books out there, but it’s generally really hard for me to get into them. The first one I ever read was Obsidian and it ended up being one of my all time favorite books. It was that mental reminder that pushed me into giving this book a shot, and I’m glad that I did! The characters are interesting and it’s an interesting development of situations that lead up to the question, what does it mean to be human? Is it the flesh you have? The species you call yourself? Morals? Is it possible for a someone of a different species to be more “human” than the people that populate our planet? It’s an interesting question, one that I first started contemplating when I read Frankenstein for the firs time. While reading this book, I was quite surprised to come to the same question- though presented in a different way. I’m having a hard time putting the book down and unfortunately I don’t think it’ll last me until my vacation.
Now, onto the characters! Cassie is the main character and she’s definitely an interesting sort of person. She’s highly sarcastic and with months of the paranoia that the next human you see could be after your head is enough to push Cassie to the edge of sanity. It’s rather apparent in the first few chapters that Cassie has been left with little hope and lots of fear and , though she is afraid of possible encounters, she is also starved for human interaction. Her strength of will is nothing to laugh about though, there have been many situations where she honestly seemed to survive through sheer stubbornness. As well as with a bit of help from a Mr. Evan Walker.
Evan Walker. First of all, swoon. He’s pretty dreamy, but he’s also a bit creepy. Evan saves Cassie when she’s bleeding out on a highway, having been shot by a sniper. He seems to know a lot about her and he’s dead set on making sure Cassie doesn’t put herself into any more danger. His level of care for Cassie is admirable but almost borders on obsessive. I’m very interested to see where his character goes though and I’m looking forward to seeing how his relationship with Cassie develops throughout the progression of the book. I’m really hoping he doesn’t reach stalker level of obsession but hey, who knows? Even so, Evan’s motives remain questionable throughout the entirety of the novel so far due to the fact that he is something other than human. So maybe he’s obsessive for a reason pertaining to that? Anyway, lets move onto Cassie’s motivation throughout the book thus far, her little brother Sammy.
Oh Sammy, first of all his name reminds me of Sam from the TV Show Supernatural. Beyond that, this Sammy is an adorable little five year old caught up in storm unlike any he could ever imagine. He became separated from his sister when the government was taking the children from the refugee camps in order to transport them to the military base, Wright-Patterson. Shortly after his bus pulls away, the military reveals themselves to be the Others, the aliens that have been invading Earth. Cassie runs away, spending weeks by herself until she finds the motivation to move forward- a promise she made to Sam.
So far, I’m really happy that I’ve started reading The 5th Wave, it’s very interesting and I enjoy delving deeper into the character’s and their individual stories the further along I get in the book. I understand that there are two other books in the series and I’m excited to start those once I finish this one. So what do you guys think about the first impressions thing? Like it? Hate it? Let me know!
Happy Reading,
Maddion C. Jones
How to rid the world of humans? Rid the Humans of their Humanity.
Rick Yancey
In My Opinion 