The 5th Wave by Robert Yancy is a summer blockbuster type YA novel. It is the book to put in the hands of teens this summer, especially fans of dystopian and alien attack stories. The dystopian genre which is the new in genre at the moment is full of clones of the novel that started the craze. (The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins) With so many wannabes out there what sets this book apart? For me it was the alien attack scenario.
The 5th Wave
By Robert Yancy
Putnam Juvenile
May 2013
Most YA dystopian books like The Eleventh Plague by Jeff Hirsch or Divergent by Veronica Roth take place with a society that has blown itself up. This time the collapse was caused by an alien invasion. After four waves of the attack The 5th Wave starts with the final phase of the attack. The humans don’t know who to trust and desperately need to find safety in numbers.
When Cassie (our heroine) watches her brother Sammy bussed off to safety, she knows she must stay alone to stay alive but do anything she can to find her brother. Desperate and alone she begins her quest.
There were many things about this book that I really liked. I liked the action, fast pace, and the fact that the romance did not overpower the action. I was not crazy about the multiple narrative style. It took time to adjust to this style of multiple narrators and figure out who was telling the story.
Overall, I would say that this is still a good book to put in the hands of Avid readers as the multiple narrators and at times slow pace will discourage reluctant readers. This is definitely a book for fans of Divergent and The Darkest Minds.
