Sunday 21 September 2014

Review || The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey


The 5th Wave (The 5th Wave #1) by Rick Yancey ★★★★★
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.

If you haven't read this book yet, you pretty much need to ignore that synopsis because it does not do this book any justice.

Because even though Cassie is a major player (and most of the book is told from her perspective) this is not just her story. This book is told in multiple POVs with an exceptional ensemble cast. Yancey knows when to pull away from one storyline and when to give you the close ups. He knows how to dangle the information just out of your grasp and make you work for it.

Every time I thought I knew where this book was going I was wrong.

I don't think I have ever cursed at an author so profusely as I did whilst reading this book. Yancey drops bits of information for you and gives you time to digest them. Enough time for your brain to sprout up any number of red herrings. He makes you think you know what's going on only to pull back the curtain yet again.

Seriously. There is this amazing double bluff plot point going on at the core of this book that just blew my freaking mind. It was so good.

This isn't a perfect book. The romance that springs up in the middle doesn't feel totally authentic. At least, not from Cassie's POV. From Evan's, I can totally believe the insta-love thing. I don't know. It's probably because we actually got his POV about the whole thing. I know some people have had issues with it. And I can understand why it might not ring true for them.

There also is a criminal lack of ladies in this book. Despite Cassie being one of our major main characters, another female character of import isn't introduced until much much later. The secondary females seem to exist only to be fridged for male character angst. And I don't think this book passes the Bechdel test. (It might, between Ringer and Teacup, but I can't remember and I don't think so.)

Still, I am quibbling about details in an otherwise exceptional book. It was really really good. Like throw across the room I can't handle it good. Hence the rating. Definitely recommended!