Book Review: The 5th Wave

By the time you're reading this, I've moved into my dorm room and I'm settling in. I'll let you know how that's going shortly.. For now, here's a review on the book I just finished reading!

I proudly admit that I'm a huge fan of the Hunger Games, Divergent, Delirium dystopian society-based young adult fiction category. Don't get me wrong, while I will always enjoy diving into a Jane Austen classic or flipping the pages of special edition TIME magazines, there is something about the intense, give-it-all-you've-got-or-you're-going-to-die suspense that has been packing the YA bookshelves over the last few years.

I'm all aboard the Hunger Games-mobile.

I literally flipped out over The Maze Runner. 

Delirium was in and out of my hands in 2 days.

And now, I've been sucked into Rick Yancey's The 5th Wave. 

The 5th Wave is available for purchase from Amazon and Barnes & Noble online, but I found it in my local Target for 30% off. 

Here's a copy of the book's inner flap/overview:

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. 

I've read many, many fiction novels since I first became known as a "bookworm" around the age of four. There is nothing I appreciate more than a well-written, gripping introduction. For me, it's perhaps the most crucial part. 

Rick Yancey nailed it. Seriously.

The opening line had me: "Aliens are stupid."

In case you're wondering if The 5th Wave is one of those cliché, alien invasion novels that has been written time and time again by hundreds (if not thousands) of authors, I'm here to tell you that it's not.  Yancey creates a super force out of the novel's alien species - the Others - and the narrator, a teenage girl named Cassie, does everything she can to convince you that it's not stereotypical. Coupled with the unique approach the Others take to wipe out the human race, Cassie's arguments are actually convincing. As the novel unfolds, readers will learn more about the aliens and their agenda, how humans react to their existence, and the lengths that Cassie is willing to go in order to save herself. Exciting! 

One of my favorite things about Yancey's writing style throughout the novel is his keen ability to connect to Cassie's teenaged mind. Cassie's conversations with The 5th Wave's reader are realistic. She's sarcastic, headstrong, and surprisingly rational. But she's also completely alone, and Yancey does an excellent job at conveying Cassie's feelings -- without becoming whiny or sappy along the way. 

The 5th Wave also features the perfect (in my opinion) blend of current events and flashbacks. Yancey writes in my favorite, learn-as-you-read way. By spending no longer than 1 page on a prologue, he forces readers into the world Cassie lives in right away, and they learn about the damage from the first, second, third, and fourth "waves" of the Others' invasion as Cassie looks back. Because the history of the Others' invasion is such an important part of the novel in its entirety, I'm glad Yancey took the time to incorporate little details from the past along the way. In my opinion, it creates a deeper, more realistic view of what the U.S. could really look like under such circumstances. 

To avoid giving too much away, I will lead you over to Rick Yancey's site, which features some short, -- but very revealing -- trailers that visually demonstrate each "wave" of the invasion. Click here! 

As soon as I started reading The 5th Wave, I knew that this would make an absolutely wonderful movie. Guess what? It's already in the works! Set for release to theaters sometime in 2016, the on-screen adaption will star Chloë Grace Moretz, Nick Robinson, and Alex Roe! 

Keep not settling,