The 5th Wave (The 5th Wave #1) by Rick Yancey
Audible Audio, Unabridged, 13 pages
Published May 7th 2013 by Penguin Audio
Source: The Library
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. – Goodreads
Review: This was so much fun to listen to. I feel like the book ended faster listening to it then by reading and I think this book got me so excited to start listening that it got to me to start listening to more books. It also made it really easy to do other errands at the same time. I think that might be partially why I enjoyed the book so much. š (Love multitasking.)
Anyways on to the actually book review. Overall, the book was fast paced, action packed, and very nice character developement. There were amazing plot twists and the twists were ones that were completely unexpected.
The plot: I loved the way that the book began with Cassie shooting the Crucifix soldier and how it works throughout the book in how it’s brought out in the choices she makes. I found it interesting the way it jumped back and forth between Ben and Cassie and how you were able to see the comparison of the two characters and how their lives changed. The comparison was pretty neat to see what happens if you were one of the kids that was put on the bus vs one that wasn’t. The main question for me in that aspect however is, why did they take Ben and not Cassie? They are the same age but yet Cassie wasn’t allowed on the bus. The rescue of Evan was also kinda of really awesome and but the kind of trust he shows was suspicious and Cassie being suspicious the entire book of him was spot on and I love how Yancey alluded to Evan’s “condition” throughout.
The charaters: Cassie was awesome. I loved the way the book started with her having to show the hard choices she has to make in this new world. I also love how she explains the way that the Others took over the planet and how they wiped everyone out. I also love how she sees herself as so normal and unremarkable and a regular teenager but yet she grows into a badass. I loved that she takes almost every opportunity to learn something from Evan. And how at the end when it comes down to saving her brother you got to see everything she learned come together and she even surprises herself I think by how much she has learned.
Ben/Zombie… Ben just starts off cool from how we see him in Cassie’s eyes and declines from there. The interesting part for his parts in the book is that we can see what its like to be one of those that get on the bus. That gets “rescued” and how he gets trained to kick butt. The only difference is that he appears to have lost his hand eye coordination, because he can’t shoot a gun. And he appears to have become a little broken due to loss of his entire family. This is the comparison to Cassie, she also lost her family (included her brother because he got taken away) but she strives to get better and find him while Ben gives up sort of and just tries to take care of “Nugget.”
Evan, oh dreamy dreamy Evan. He is amazing. He made her a HAMBURGER… and made the bread himself… What can’t he do? That’s all I want to know. What can’t Evan Walker do? I think that’s something that Cassie was also wondering. He knows how to cook, hunt and fight. I think that that is something important to look for in this type of environment/world and I think that’s what makes feel so safe with him. But he is very suspicious. Where does he go when he isn’t with Cassie? He is just a mysterious character and then when we find out along with Cassie what he does and discover his story… OMG!!! I will not spoil it for those of you that haven’t read and are considering reading this but let me just say WOAH. It’s a good one.
The book was just amazing. I don’t think I stopped listening to it at all once I played it and stayed up at night to listen. It was that good. It kept me on the edge of my seat and it just rocked.
Rating: 5 out of 5
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