The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey

Title: The 5th Wave

Author: Rick Yancey (American, 1962- )
Originally published: 2013

Page count: 457

Dates read: 8/21/23-9/2/23

2023 book goal progress: 16 out of 23

July/August Mindful Readers' Family Bookclub 

Read my other book reviews from 2023 HERE.




Description on back of book:

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. To stay alone is to stay alive, Cassie believes, until she meets a mysterious stranger who may be Cassie's only hope for rescuing her brother.

First sentence:
"Aliens are stupid."

Favorite quotes:
"That sounds crazy. Am I crazy? Have I lost my mind? You can only call someone crazy if there's someone else who's normal. Like good and evil. If everything was good, then nothing would be good. Whoa. That sounds, well... crazy. Crazy: the new normal."

"We were the lucky ones. We'd survived the EMP attack, the obliteration of the coasts, and the plague that wasted everyone we knew and loved. We'd beaten the odds. We'd stared into the face of Death, and Death blinked first. You'd think that would make us feel brave and invincible. It didn't."

"I've decided to trust him, but like somebody once said, you can't force yourself to trust. So you put all your doubts in a little box and bury it deep and then try to forget where you buried it. My problem is that buried box is like a scab I can't stop picking at."

CAWPILE Rating: Overall - 8/10 - ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5
Characters      - 9
Atmosphere   - 7
Writing Style - 9
Plot                - 8
Intrigue          - 9
Logic             - 6
Enjoyment     - 8
What is a CAWPILE Rating?

Review:

This was a great book that kept you guessing until the end. It was a blast to come up with different theories and possibilities as I was reading this. I highly suggest it!

Book to movie review:

I went into watching the movie disappointed because I knew so much of the book was going to have to be glossed over. I think if you haven't read the book, it was a good movie. As someone who has read the book, you didn't get to know (and love) the multitude of characters in the book. Some elements of the book were just skipped entirely. It was the characters that really made the book and they didn't get the opportunity to shine through in the movie.

Now I'm off to read another book... but since a review should be more about the author of the book than about the writer of the blog, I will let Rick Yancey have the last words:

"He looked at me and smiled reassuringly and said, "Everything's going to be okay," because that's what I wanted him to say and it's what he wanted to say and that's what you do when the curtain is falling - you give the line that the audience wants to hear."