Review Detail

What I loved:
There’s no doubt in my mind that most people are going to be captivated with The 5th Wave. It’s engaging, features a witty protagonist, mystery, the right amount of anticipation and a romantic story line.

Yancey sets up the world perfectly and there’s little fault to be found there. The narration is introduced by Cassie, who tells the reader of her life before the aliens came and the 4 waves that subsequently wiped out most of the human population. Her story, like the many others shown later, is not a happy one. She’s suffered the death of both of her parents and the separation from her 6 year old brother, Sam. I quite enjoyed her as a main character and found her humorous despite her grim situation. Her fierce determination to save her brother from the unknown (to her, at least) horrors built just the right amount of anticipation to keep me turning page after page.

One thing I didn’t expect was the multiple narrations: The Silencer, Zombie and Sam (though, he only narrates once, I believe). I’m surprised that I actually liked this style after a few reviews did mention it not working so well for them. I can definitely see it throwing readers off, but I thought it was pretty clever in the beginning. The way it switches back and forth, implanted a certain amount of doubt to the point where I there were times where I wasn’t sure who was actually human or alien.

What left me wanting more:
Unfortunately, I needed more from the romance than what it yielded. I would have loved to see Cassie and the love interest spend a little more time together before declaring their love for one another. Instead, I found their relationship to be very rushed and awkward, resembling an Edward Cullen Complex.

Once he enters the story, the novel's progression slows down a bit. It was such a strange turn of events. One minute there’s death, carnage and a struggle for survival and the next minute Cassie’s on this farm with a guy who resembles Clark Kent from Smallville and he’s baking her bread. This is also that part where the narrative changes really started to become jarring because we also were keeping track of Zombie (a nickname for the character in the novel). Every time we were in his point of view, I felt like I was in the midst of playing Call of Duty.

There was also the 5th wave itself that turned out be be much more anticlimactic that I had hoped given the build-up throughout the entire novel. Still, these issues are indicative of a more personal preference and other readers probably won't be as bothered as I was.

My final verdict: The 5th Wave is definitely a page-turner and has plenty to offer a reader who enjoys science fiction. Even though the romance fell flat and the plot’s logical inconsistencies kept me from dishing out all my stars, it was still an enjoyable read and I look forward to reading the sequel.