Andi's ABCs

Flat out, I was disappointed when I finished this one. I don’t know what I expected, but after all the love and the hype I just wanted something more and I just didn’t find it. Was it different than what I normally read? Absolutely. Did it keep me interested enough? Yup. But something wasn’t there for me and that left me feeling meh. There was a lot going on and a lot of characters and the whole thing was written in 3rd person even with the switch of characters and that made it kind of hard to know who’s voice you were in. I think I really just expected more.

The book is about, well more like, starts with, Cassie. She is 17 year old girl that has had her family ripped apart by the alien invasion that occurred. Now alone she is trying to get to her brother that was taken to safety before the possible 5th wave happens. But on her journey she meets Evan. Now the question remains whether she should trust him or do as she has been doing for months and relying only on herself.

Okay so that isn’t the best description of the book, but it was really the best I could do. Like I said earlier there was A LOT going on in this book and Cassie seems to be the link to all of it in some way. Which actually was the only thing that I was able to grasp for the most part. Although I liked the writing, I had a problem with the style. Because there were so many characters and the whole book was written in 3rd person, I had trouble keep everything in order. When the audience was switched from Cassie to Zombie, it was heard to know whose scene/head I was supposed to be in because the voice didn’t change. That was my biggest grip next to the fact that there seemed to be 4 main characters and about 4 different stories happening. But on the plus I liked the characters a lot.

Cassie was strong but still vulnerable. She lost her whole family and didn’t know who to trust or what to do. Her character made sense and wasn’t the annoying, whiny girl she could have been. Evan was mysterious and sweet and left you guessing what his real story was. I wanted to trust him, but like Cassie I wasn’t sure I was supposed to. And then there was Zombie, a different man than when the book started. I figured out what his deal was in the beginning but I enjoyed how it was revealed and why he took on the identity that he did. I enjoyed parts of his story the most after all the Evan and Cassie stuff that I loved. And finally there was Cassie’s brother. He was kind of at the center of everything. Cassie may have brought all the stories together but Sam is how all the characters got together. That worked for me. I just think the lead up to get to that point was what muddled the story up. Or to be honest the hype that surrounded it.

In conclusion, I liked The 5th Wave. I really did. There were definitely parts I wasn’t crazy about and stuff that I was left scratching my head over as I tried to figure out what was actually going on, but I did like it. Did I love it like I was hoping, like a million others did? Not really. I’m not sure why, but it wasn’t what I thought I was going to get and that’s okay. I will still continue the series and I will still tell people to check out The 5th Wave if they want something with aliens that isn’t all that farfetched. But definitely not my favorite read of the year.