The Fifth Wave written by Rick Yancey is a fiction piece revolving around concepts of post-apocalyptic life and teen romance. It explores themes including being forced to mature and the importance of being loved. The main character Cassie Sullivan is one of the few thousand remaining humans on planet Earth after an alien invasion has led to the eradication of billions of humans, including much of Cassie’s own family. These aliens, named “The Others” have been taking humans down, wave by wave. While Cassie managed to survive the first three waves which ranged from disease to pure annihilation, she is in the midst of the fourth wave in which the aliens impersonate humans. Her strategy in this wave is simply to not trust anyone. This is until she meets a perplexing young man by the name of Evan Walker who gives her a home, food, and care. He also promises to help Cassie find her brother who was kidnapped and taken to a supposed military camp. Cassie must decide whether she should trust Evan Walker or sprint the other way as fast as she can. I found The Fifth Wave to be a great book with dystopian themes similar to those of The Hunger Games, Scythe, and Divergent. While I would recommend The Fifth Wave to those who enjoyed any of the aforementioned books, I must say that this book is simply a step down from them. The reason this book is not in the same tier as those books is because the structure of all of these books are quite similar, and The Fifth Wave just isn’t as page-turning and fast-paced as the other books. While reading The Fifth Wave, I felt like the plot twists were a little too predictable and there simply weren’t enough of them. While still being a great read, the book seemed almost stale at times and it felt like the author was trying too hard to come up with an idea, simply switching the perspective to a different character when they couldn’t come up with anything to add. In summary, this book can be very interesting and its unique approach on the concept of aliens makes it an entertaining read. It may not have been one of my favorite books, but it was definitely not a waste of time and I would recommend it to readers looking for a solid book to read.
Sathvik K.
Comments