The 5th Wave

„I am a shark, Cassie”, he says slowly, drawing the words out, as if he might be speaking to me for the last time. Looking into my eyes with tears in his, as if he's seeing me for the last time. „A shark who dreamed he was a man.”

I have a lot of mixed feelings about this book. The beginning was so strong. There was mystery, suspense. I was enjoying the plot and the characters. But halfway through the book, the pacing changed, the suspense evaporated and Cassie started getting on my nerves. I can't bring myself to give a lower rating even though, with a few exceptions, the rest of the book was quite mediocre. Probably because I'm still under the influence of the those first chapters.

Pros:

I was intrigued by plot. I'm a big fan of post-apocalyptic scenarios and I though this one was quite gripping. I enjoyed the flashbacks of the world before and during the invasion. Still, I would have loved to read more about each wave. These weren't featured enough. I loved Cassie, the Cassie from the first half of the book. That girl was strong-willed, witty and easy to empathize with. She was what we call as kick-ass heroine. I connected with her.

I thought the writing was great, but this fact became quite irrelevant when I started to get frustrated with the story.I did enjoy the part about Zombie's relationship with Nugget.

I enjoyed Evan's character, with a few reservations that I will be mentioning in the cons. He's gentle, caring, sweet, mysterious and awkward. He goes against his nature because he wants to embrace his humanity. And because he wants to save the girl.ConsCassie's brains and personality get scrambled after she “falls in love” so she gets a bit boring and frustrating by the end.

The romance could have been so much better. My chip with it is that it was rushed. Yancey could have let it develop more slowly, maybe even leave it alone until the next book. That first kiss took place way too early. I was also put off by the stalking vibe, that was unnecessary and creepy. Evan had a great potential as a character, but he's not fleshed out enough. There's something magnetic about the him, but not the part of him that's obsessed with Cassie. His struggles to choose sides should be the main focus, but it's all sacrificed for the sake of keeping the “romantic suspense” around him and Cassie. Oh, and the truth about who Evan really is, I totally saw that coming.

I hated that Cassie's dad died. He was very interesting and would have loved to see more of them together.I also like the idea of different POVs, but I was not crazy
about how the POVs were executed in this book. I'm not crazy about Ben as a character, so I just wanted to read more from Cassie's account. I also thought that Sammy's section was unnecessary.

Yes, I didn't like Ben. I didn't hate him, but I could not care less about him. I also don't understand why someone would swoon over him for years. Why is he so swoon worthy? I wanted to read about things that would explain why he's that amazing boy. I felt sorry for what happened with his sister but I still couldn't like him.I have a feeling the author is going to turn this into the most predictable love triangle. Which is totally frustrating and unnecessary. Not sure if the he intends to pull a 180 and make Evan, the “bad guy”, opposed to him, the “good guy”. Don't know if it's a “Hunger Games” kind of triangle or an “Everneath” one. But even if the latter were the case, when the “bad guy” is more appealing than the “good guy”, we have a weak male lead on our hands.

I usually root for the „good guys”, for the sidekick best friend who has been friend-zoned and I get really annoyed when the girl ends up with the boring, shallow, handsome, rich guy or the annoying, douchey “bad boy”. I'm also not a fan of creepy, obsessive, violent types like what's-his-name in “Hush, Hush”, Daniel Grigori in “Fallen” or Travis in “Beautiful Disaster”. But if Rick Yancey is going to take the very predictable road of making Evan turn evil and have Cassie choose between Ben and Evan, I would still pick Evan over Ben.

What unbelievable odds that Sammy ended up in Zombie's care.Vosch is too much like President Snow.

Additionally, after “Divergent” and “Legend”, I'm getting pretty tired of all the super strong, can't-be-hurt-by-bullets prodigy teens that spike the interest of military organizations and get trained and turned into killing machines.If the aliens are that smart why don't they just wipe everyone all at once?

Also, why did the author have to make the connections between the characters so predictable? Why? Why? Why couldn't we find out who the Silencer is until the very end? Why did we have to know that Cassie had a major crush on Ben in high-school? Why couldn't we find out until they both met again while trying to rescue her brother, why?The alien invasion plot seemed so interesting from the synopsis, but, again, halfway through the book it takes a back seat for angst. It was exciting not knowing what they wanted and what their plan was. But then, the author just blurts out everything. He gives ample explanations about a lot of things that we didn't need to know yet. I wasn't satisfied with the aliens' motives either, it took out all the the horror and anticipation present in the first half of the book.

*I don't know much about the art of war, but something just didn't seem right after the 3rd wave. The aliens had no problem wiping out 97% of the human race, yet they had trouble killing the last few standing? Also, they tried to finalize this wipe out by using very convoluted methods that barely make sense.
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It might look that there are more cons than pros, but it was a good read, overall. It was engaging and I am excited about the next book. And it did have a few extremely awesome chapters.