Review of The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey

The 5th Wave
by Rick Yancey

Publication date: May 7th, 2013
G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers, 457 pages

Source: Purchased

"After the 1st wave, only darkness remains. After the 2nd, only the lucky escape. And after the 3rd, only the unlucky survive. After the 4th wave, only one rule applies: trust no one.  

Now, it’s the dawn of the 5th wave, and on a lonely stretch of highway, Cassie runs from Them. The beings who only look human, who roam the countryside killing anyone they see. Who have scattered Earth’s last survivors. To stay alone is to stay alive, Cassie believes, until she meets Evan Walker.  

Beguiling and mysterious, Evan Walker may be Cassie’s only hope for rescuing her brother—or even saving herself. But Cassie must choose: between trust and despair, between defiance and surrender, between life and death. To give up or to get up."  

- Goodreads.com

The short of it:

I hope that if aliens ever do attack the Earth, they don't bother to read our literature first, because if they get their hands on this book we are so, so screwed.

The long of it:

It's no secret that the man-made dystopian future is all the rage in YA Lit these days. (Read: The Hunger Games, Divergent, The Giver, The Maze Runner, and The 100 all making it to the big screen last year.) Rick Yancey enters this intimidatingly successful "dystopian future" arena with a secret weapon: aliens. What a great way to remind us that there is something more terrible than making children battle to the death in entertainment arenas. After all, gladiators aren't new to the history of humanity. Humans have been doing terrible things to humans pretty much since the beginning of known history. The 5th Wave has plenty of that too, but with the terrifying addition of total loss of control under the boot of a superior being, an Other. The idea that the entire human race could be powerless - now that is a powerful, inevitable apocalypse.

Despite the fact that the main characters are struggling to survive on basically every page, this book isn't just action. There are some amazing deep thoughts in here, and the writing is often lyrical, with lines so beautiful I had to pause to really savor them. Seriously, fantastic writing. Let me give you an example (don't worry, it's not a spoiler):

"Sometimes in my tent, late at night, I think I can hear the stars scraping against the sky." -pg. 29 (Hardback)

Anyone who has ever studied poetry can appreciate how carefully, beautifully crafted this sentence is. Anyone who hasn't studied poetry can appreciate that it's a kickass line.

I do have one teeny tiny complaint, something that nagged me throughout the whole book: the book switches from present tense to past tense a lot, and if there's a system to it, it wasn't instinctive enough for my taste. I found it confusing at times and had to re-read to figure out what was going on. I understand and appreciate that present-tense really complements The 5th Wave's action-packed story; I just wish it had stuck to it more.

Equal parts funny, lyrical, and gritty, I definitely recommend The 5th Wave to basically everyone who enjoys YA Lit, specifically sci-fi and fantasy, even more specifically apocalyptic or dystopian stories.

My rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars