The 5th Wave may be the summertime ’s most buzzed about YA book — but it really does merit a lot of praise . Rick Yancey ’s alien invasion novel plays around with more than a few image of the genre , elevating them with dashes of lyric prose and a plot that just does n’t halt . Spoilers forwards …
Cassie , short for Cassiopeia , is one of the last humans will on Earth . As she searches for her younger brother , she relates the retiring six months of destruction that has left only a few hundred thousand humans scattered and powerless against the unseen invaders .
As Cassie and her M16 struggle through what ’s left of Ohio , we get chapters from other point of view . Mostly , the Full Metal Jacket - esque training chronological succession from the eyes of Zombie , one of Cassie ’s pre - invasion classmates . These children and teens are humankind ’s last defense against humans “ infested ” by the extraterrestrial being . A developing that afford up questions of what humanity is and is n’t .
It ’s here that the book really excels . As the characters fight with competing emotions of desperation and hope , as they reconceive who they are versus what they were , the book uncovers psychological truths and excited moments that palpate material . Even when reference do thing that are monumentally dense , their motivation make it clear they could do nothing else .
And Yancey ’s writing is replete with optic and emotional replication that seem more apropos of high - shelf literary stuff than a fierce , up-and-coming novel with burst . While the prose adjoin up to the poetic , it never turns purple . Bombast , like sadism , seems reserved for the worst of the bad . Plus Yancey has a handle on more than just emotion . The story plunges forwards , just stopping . You never quite bank that the characters are safe and he builds tautness in fit that , since the account book is in first mortal , really have no business being tense . In some fashion , the news report is merely a rescue delegation , but it never feels small or unimportant . Which tie in to some of the large themes about manhood that Yancey is study .
The book knows it ’s in conversation with bombastic drink down - ethnical mind of alien invasions and the alike , but it ’s not prosecute in an too jokey way . The humor here is dour and character drive , when humour presume to raise its head at all . This is for the best — since a isolated South Park character shit an otherwise locomote moment fall horribly flat . But there is a nice joke for anyone who ’s ever learn a screenwriting category when Cassie cut off her hair . Cassie is going to get more than a few comparing to Katniss Everdeen . But just because two girls are killers , does n’t mean they ’re identical . Cassie is sardonic , rage - filled and grieving , while Katniss is incessantly count on , triangulate and keeping up appearance . Cassie is less the beaten down missy , discover her strength than she is an umbrageous vengeance quester who had things , but catch as they were ripped away from her .
The book is n’t pure — there are a span of strange eluding in point of view towards the closing . It ’s also the first in a serial publication and there ’s the threat of a love life Triangulum , both of which feel like reflexive points off when it come to YA Quran . But at least it is a dearest triangle where everyone has guns , so hopefully it wo n’t become too maudlin . And there is more to explore in Yancey ’s Revelation . It seems we ’ll get more of the foreigner in upcoming books , not to cite humanity ’s last rack . With any hazard , we ’ll also get the distributor point of view of some of the other female characters in the book besides Cassie . They ’re interesting , but have yet to get their own POV chapters .
The 5th moving ridge is the kind of thrilling Quran you desire for a summertime read , but with an extra dose of emotional ponderousness .
book reviewBooksya fabrication
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