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.

When it comes to reading a book, if something strikes you as redundant or illogical, it can ruin the entire book for me. Don’t get me wrong, but I didn’t hate this book, but I didn’t love this book either. In fact, I was so completely confused and disappointed, I don’t even believe I will ever see the movie unless it just happens to come on the television.

Beware Spoilers be

So here’s what I found wrong with the book:

In the book, Cassie is talking about the different waves the Others are killing off humanity. This first wave is an EMP that supposedly knocks out everything electrical, even if it’s not turned on. I say supposedly, because later on, you discover there is a group of military people who have managed to get buses running and even an entire base. This is completely impossible. If an EMP knocks out everything, if freaking knocks out every single thing. It doesn’t magically skip one random base. Obviously this is a sign that something is wrong with this base and yet, Cassie never puts two and two together.

The second wave is a bunch of tsunamis destroying the coastline. Now, Cassie lives in Ohio (I think, every city name is a Ohio one) and everything electronic has been wiped out for days. So how does she know every coastline in the entire world has been wiped out? She couldn’t and wouldn’t. It would be impossible for her to know what happened in Australia or Africa or even Mexico. Why? Because there is NO communication devices left. So she must be omniscient.

The third wave is a disease. Now this one seemed like it was a far cry, until you figure out something important about the fifth wave. Once you discover the source of the disease, this is the only one that makes any sense.

The fourth wave is silencers. Now this one pisses me off, because it’s a stupid ass name. Not only that it’s the same freaking thing as the fifth wave. The only difference is the children who are considered the fifth wave, don’t realize the truth and those involved in the fourth wave, know everything that is going on. But their objective is still the same freaking thing: kill the remaining humans.

Also, might I add I was not a fan of reading about what was happening to Sammy and Zombie at Camp Haven. There was too much of it and honestly, their stupid nicknames for all the children made it even more ridiculous. If you are truly trying to convince children they are normal and fighting against aliens who have implanted themselves in human hosts, you don’t make their name Doughnut or Nugget. It was so obvious what was going on, that I couldn’t help but skim through this section. Also, somehow Sammy manages to keep all of his memories, even though he’s five years old. Meanwhile, Zombie who was far older and yet, only could keep his the memory of his name? This made no sense, because psychologically, Sammy should have been easier into manipulating and yet, it’s the teenager who falls prey to everything.

Was the book completely terrible? No. There were some great ideas and I actually enjoyed the story of Cassie and Evan. But when half of the book is skim-worthy, it’s really hard to enjoy the story. I’d say that maybe I should try the audiobook, but honestly, I can’t be bothered. I get Science Fiction doesn’t always have to be logical, but I couldn’t take this and I will not be continuing this trilogy.

Rating

Amazon

Pick up your copy on Amazon: The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey