ARC REVIEW: The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey

The Passage meets Ender’s Game in an epic new series from award-winning author 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.

First, I would like to thank RazorbillCa/PenguinCa for sending this ARC to me. I know I am SUPER lucky and am REALLY sorry at how long it took for me to finish. >/////////< Second, all the quotes are from the ARC and not the finished copy so they are subject to change. Now on to my review.

REVIEW
Note that this review is in bullet form, and each bullet doesn't connect to the previous nor later one...haha my mind is too jumbled for connectivity right now. :P

• What is the most amazing thing about Rick Yancey? It is ability to connect to the readers. You know those memes or posts on the internet that describes something that just makes you "YESSS! I DO THAT!!!" or "YESSS! I TOTALLY GET YOU!!!", well that's what Rick Yancey does in his book. There are sentences that just makes you go "YES!" and you completely agrees with him. He just seems to help readers get their words out. I mean a lot of the times I wouldn't ever realize that's how I feel until he mentions something and I am sitting on the couch shouting "OMG YES! THAT'S SO ME! HOW DID YOU KNOW?!". Rick has the ability to let readers see what links them all, reminding us that we share a lot of the same feelings and thoughts. It just amazes me how he can literally take words out of my mouth.

• Short Chapters...me gusta. I like breaks between a lot of things and I reaaallllyyy enjoys short chapters. I can put a book down and go do some other stuff and come back. I don't really have an obligation of 20 page chapter. BUT that meant it became easier for me to stop reading. GOSH! IT TOOK WAAYYYY TOO LONG FOR ME TO READ THIS BOOK!!! I am soooo ashamed. I'll just stab myself in the corner now.

• What's different about this book compared to other apocalyptic YA novels? This book actually had build-ups, background information instead of super fast pace, "let's dive right in" kind of plot. A good half of this book was background, which Rick wrote it in a way that I didn't mind. Some books, like The Archived, also took a while to developed, but for me The Archived was not building but rather dragging on the plot. I felt like for The 5th Wave, it was a necessity to write the first part, the development. That's why I found this book pretty amazing. It is hard to write a book with a build up and still keep readers' attention. There was this part before the 20% mark of the book that literally torn my heart open. I just bawled. It was such a shock to me, I DIDN'T expected it AT ALL. It felt like I was shoot and just couldn't breath. And at other parts I felt like I was in a swat team, super intense and just EPIC! I was like "damn, I am so cool". Power of Rick Yancey, brilliant!

• Book and anime connected. Okay, before you judge me, I like to say that my mind just works this way. You ask, what are you talking about? Well, I am talking about how I like to relate stuff in books to anime I watch. :) There was a part in the book that it totally reminded me of Orochimaru from Naruto. I just watched the episode (filler probably) that four of Orochimaru's curse-marked fighters came back and they had this flashback about how they all fought through the years with hatred for Orochimaru but stilled followed him. That brought me to think about Reznik. It was just a brief moment of connection, short and fast, and not reaallly that accurate as you read on, but still, I like to mention it. Oh yeah, I love Reznik. He was like your typical drill sergeant, the mean one. Gosh he was sooooo funny!!! He said this after Zombie talked back to him:

"So Private Zombie is giving the orders now...Private Zombie is Squad Fifty-three's very own catcher in the fucking rye. Private zombie, I think i have a crush on you. You make me weak in the knees. You make me hate my own mother for giving birth to a male child, so now it's impossible for me to have your babies." (220)
I lost it. You seriously can't imagine how hard I laughed. *wipe tears* Tears of laughter and sadness in one book, awesome.

Also one of the character was described as "smiling, confident, his chiseled features reminding me of some ancient statue, noble, wise, strong. (pg 260)" HELLLOO!! SINBAD FROM MAGI: THE MAGICAL LABRIYTH!!! I was kind of fangirling....*coughs* right. And lastly part of the chapter described a burning city and all I thought of was the Attack on Titan anime title picture. I guess my mind just really want to watch that anime.

• The Maze Runner and The Dark Planet (3rd book of The Atherton series....PS: great series). You know the whole group concept, where a group of children gather together and kind of forming a bond etc. This part of the book was my favourite! It had action, development and excitement. It is the kind of thing that I look for in books and rarely find. It takes a lot to write lots of characters and still develop them as well as the plot. I really think that Rick did a great job at it.

• Characters. First up, Teacup and Ringer, go girl power! They were super cool! Ringer was completely the cold, emotionless girl. She was not hot headed; she was logical, rational, mysterious and powerful. But she was not an evil bitch. She reminded me Morgiana from Magi but also Calhoun from Wreck-It-Ralph.
• 
• Teacup reminded me of Toph at some times. She was your tiny little girl who would trash talk and be a total "boy". Gosh I love her...but I wouldn't want her as my daughter *chuckles*. But Teacup was still a kid, I mean at 7 yrs old, she did at one point demonstrated the "child" side of her, it was great to see.
• 
• And as for Zombie and Nugget, again, two fabulous characters. Both had their own personalities, both demonstrated strength that was realistic and made you feel for them. Zombie felt like Shikamaru, smart, tactical, but still a kid. He was the leader, but he still had doubts. It was touching to see.
• 
• One of my favourite things about these two was that they were so sweet together. Zombie cared for Nugget like a little brother. A quote I remember was "some things you don't have to promise. You just do" (pg 254). That was at a moment in the book that you just wanted to cry a bit, and the emotions were tugging at your heartstrings. This whole part was in the male point of view and I would like to mention how much more epic it was compared to the girl point of view.

• One bad thing. Cassie's point of view didn't bother me at all in the beginning. It was when the "romance" began that I just left. I am so sorry, I bolted. Romance happened around half way through the book. At the start I was like "oh okay, I can...kind of deal with this?..." then I read the male POV and was just like "nope, nope, nope, I can't take this. It is like given the first cookie of your life, there's no reason for you to go back to dry, salted crackers (paraphrasing my grade 10 history teacher, Mr. B). And I'll show you some crappy quotes from the puke-worthy romance:

"He leans forward suddenly and kisses me. Just like that." (Pg 271)

"Then I turn and run smack into his rock-hard chest". (277) YOU ARE BETTER THAN THAT RICK!!! *shakes Rick by the shoulder* WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU.

"'Cassie, why are you crying?' 'I'm not. It's my allergies." (332) SO DONE WITH CASSIE.

"'Because you think I can't take care of myself?' 'Because I don't want you to die.'" WOW WHEN DID RICK BECOME A CHEESE BALL?!?!?! WHEEEENNNN??? *flips a table*


"'If your job is to kill us, why didn't you kill me?'...........'Because I'm in love with you.'" (362). No explanation needed for this. I just can't. DOUBLE FACE PALM.

"So don't even open your mouth. If you say anything, I'll slap you." (375) ლ(ಠ益ಠლ

"I'm seeing his yummy chocolate eyes..." (440) （；¬＿¬)

• So for me the romance in the novel just ruined the book for me. A BIG FAT NO! 
  
  
  
  Tons of cheesy lines that I've seen in thousands of YA books. It doesn't make me go "awwwww, sooo cute, like instant OTP!" It annoys the crap out of me. I wish that whole Evan and Cassie in the house part never happened or at least kept it at a few chapters in the very start. Evan was super cute in the beginning and the end, just not in the middle. I liked Evan instantly. He just made me tug at the corner of my lips. heehee I tweeted about how he reminds me of Midorima with the whole cuticle thing but he is not a tsundere. He wasn't the playboy type either but almost like Jem from the Inferno Devices series (am I getting the right series?). The thing about the door, it was soooooo cute! You probably don't understand me, but after you do read this book, please come back and talk to me about it? Right, back to the "middle part". There were tons of dead quotes like listed above...just no. Yes I didn't enjoy the middle of the book where it was Cassie's POV but the last 10% of the book I liked. That's because (mini spoiler? or not?), she joined up with the male POV. And at that point I didn't actually mind the romance, I thought it was sad and sweet. 
  
  
  And as for Cassie, she wasn't as annoying as normal female lead. I see how people can like her. She is strong, determined, and just overall a great person. I liked her the best at the end of the book and admired her. But between the two girls, Cassie or Ringer, Ringer is the girl for me. She was just that much better. Sorry, it was just the cheesy romance. Sorry.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  There are just way too many things I want to quote, if I want to quote them all, it will at least half of the book. And sad thing was that I didn't start quoting until I was half way through the book. I feel like I need to re-read the first part to just catch all the goodies. This passage was just great:

"His mother will only come to him in the in-between space, the gray time between waking and sleeping. She stays away from his dreams, as if she knows not to go there, because dreams are not real but feel more than real when you're dreaming them. She loves him too much to do that." (pg 193)

• Anyway, sorry if this review was a bit jumbled :S but last thing to say? The 5th Wave was less predictable than other apocalyptic novels, but still it follows a similar plot. It was a great adventure, though not perfect, I would highly recommend it, Now I leave you with more quotes

! "And if this is humanity's last war, then I am the battlefield." (101)

"I am the sun gone supernova." (Pg 263) and last paragraph of that page but if I quote it...gosh that will be too much. :P

"...sometimes toss an unconscious person into the fire by mistake, you felt them like a punch to your heart. Some things you can never leave behind. They don't belong to the past. They belong to you." (285). 

".....a gorgeous blossoming fireball that reflects off the falling show, a mini universe of tiny sins shimmering..." (293)

"Take the SOB out." (295) <------ I got sooooo pumped!!! Totally routing for them!!

"I'm losing her." (295) I literally got shivers down my legs. 

"My name is Kenny.........his eyes roll toward the ceiling. Then he's gone." (296)

"I am a shark, Cassie...A shark who dreamed he was a man." (357)

Edited on May 16, 2013.
After days of consideration. I think I have to down this book down to a 3. I just had a hard time thinking up why I gave it a 4. I tried to relived my experiences while reading the book and just couldn't remember enough good memories that would give this book a 4. Sorry.

READ MY TWIN'S REVIEW HERE.