This past week for book club we read "The 5th Wave". If you watch TV, you've probably seen the ads for the movie coming out, and I have to admit they look pretty bad. Do you ever have actors or actresses you see and they just annoy you? For some reason Chloë Grace Moretz is that person so that adds to my list of why not to see the movie. HOWEVER if you haven't read it yet I urge you to ignore the movie trailers and quite possibly the movie and read the book. Here's my review!
Unlike some end of the world survival books, we meet our main narrator Cassie after most of the population is gone. "The Others" as she calls them took out most of humanity in the following four waves:
"1st wave = EMP wave. (No more twitter!)
2nd wave = Tsunamis (Surf’s up, dudes?)
3rd wave = Plague spread by birds (Told you birds were evil)
4th wave = Silencers – alien infested people who kill everyone
5th wave = Dun dun Duuuunnn"
(
Recaptains does a great job summarizing the Waves lol)
Cassie is on the move to try and get to her brother Sammy. Sammy and all the children were taken from the last refugee camp she was at with her Dad. After the children are taken by the military, the rest of the camp is killed, and Cassie narrowly escapes. While trying to get to her brother, she is shot by a Silencer (see 4th Wave). Instead of killing her, for some reason the Silencer shoots her in the leg and leaves. Cassie finds refuge in a SUV but is slowly dying. The next thing she knows she wakes up in an old pristine farmhouse with some hottie named Evan who saved her. Evan has been living alone since his family died in the third wave, but luckily for Cassie he's great at hunting, cooking, and everything else. Basically too good to be true...
While Cassie is rehabbing it, we get to meet Ben aka Zomie. Ben turns out to be Cassie's high school crush she was constantly talking about before the plague, which to me was a little bit like...OF COURSE it's her crush who also survived when millions didn't...anyways... Ben has been taken to the same military base we find out Sammy has been taken to nicknamed Camp Haven. Ben has survived the plague, been brainwashed by the camp, and worked his way up to be the captain of his squad. The squad is a rag-tag bunch of kids who have all been training to help fight the alien invaders. Sammy is (of course) assigned to Ben's squadron, and Ben takes him under his wing. Ben and his squad are assigned a mission to go out and kill alien infested humans, and on the trip Ringer, a girl from his squad finally helps Ben connect the dots that Camp Haven is a lie, and that the military is actually the aliens training humans to kill other humans - the 5th Wave! Dun Dun Dun! They come up with a plan, and Ben heads back to Camp while the others escape.
Back at the farmhouse after some rehab, hamburgers, and make-out sessions Cassie sets off with Evan to save her brother. Along the way they're attacked, and Evan has to spill the beans that it was him who shot Cassie in the leg. While patching him up he reveals that he is one of the Others (well duh). Cassie freaks out and runs away, but Evan follows her and confesses that he could never kill because he loves her. He also tells Cassie the truth about Camp Haven and that he can help her get in. She decides she has to go alone, and catches one of the buses that was rounding up the children before to get to the Camp, leaving Evan behind.
Will she find Sammy? Will she see Evan Again? Will she defeat the Alien with her crush Ben?
I don't want to get into the ending or spoil anything so here again I'll just say: read the book! I'm not huge on end of the world books, because the stress of survival stresses me out and I hate gore but overall I really liked this book. On the surface the book seems like a Hunger Games type want to be, but it is different enough that I wasn't thinking of Katniss at all.
One annoying thing: I hate starting a series if all the books aren't published. I am super impatient and I need to know what happens next. So the night I read "The 5th Wave" I immediately started "The Infinite Sea." The last book "The Last Star" was supposed to come out in August of '15, but it got pushed back to May I think so now I'm kind of stuck waiting. Blah. If you're like me, wait until May, then demolish this series.
via googlesearch
Till next time,
Maggie
