Saturday, July 6, 2013

Review: The 5th Wave


Title: The 5th Wave
Author: Rick Yancey
Series: The Fifth Wave #1
Published: 2013 by Penguin
Version: Hardcover
Obtained: Library

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 Sentences:
Aliens are stupid. I’m not talking about real aliens.”



Oh. My. Gosh. I totally understand the hype now!!
I requested this because I’d heard such good things, but when I read the synopsis it sounded like just another futuristic story with a mysterious boy and a quest. But oh my goodness is it original!

First off, I have not read many, if any, alien stories. I’ve seen the movies (that were so appropriately mentioned in the book) that portray alien attacks as “Rock on humans! These aliens are stupid to attack our might and power!” This is a more “realistic” (because how realistic can it really be?) story of how it would all go down. It has heart and humanity and emotion, because most of it is narrated by people who remember what they JUST lost a few months ago, that normal life that is now gone. They remember all the friends who are probably dead and they can’t trust anyone new. They’re in this alone and for the long haul fighting against something that seems unbeatable.

Cassie’s story starts with her living in a forest alone and unable to trust anyone. She recounts how all of this came to be by explaining the alien attack, sharing stories of her family and friends, and expressing her thoughts on the whole situation. Anyways, after you learn the whole story, the present action starts. She meets a guy named Evan Walker who might be a bit untrustworthy and she sticks to her plan of finding her younger brother. Interspersing Cassie’s narrative are other narratives by other characters which can be a bit confusing at first but overall really add to the story.

Cassie is amazing and realistic and brave and scared and strong. She doesn’t let this whole crazy world that now exists bring her down. She knows what she’s lost but she also knows what she has left to gain if she keeps pressing on. Sure, there are quite a few times where she feels really depressed. It does seem like nothing good will ever happen again. Seems like there is nothing to do to fight against these superior creatures. But that doesn’t mean giving up, it means making each moment count and thinking about those humans who are still left.

I’m not going to discuss the other characters because they are meant to be surprises and plot twists. But every one of the characters is complex with many facets to their personality and motivations. It’s a truly fascinating book that sometimes feels like a character study in the face of chaos. SO GOOD!!

I guess I’m just used to these futuristic books that say, “This is the way life is (blank) years in the future.” But Yancey wrote this like it will happen tomorrow. There are no dates except one in the very beginning that doesn’t do much except tell you that the setting of the book is around now. And that’s not something I’m used to seeing in apocalyptical books. It’s contemporary! But with aliens! It’s basically awesome! Also, it’s pretty long, which I always love.

So, if Rick Yancey could come out with the sequel as quickly as possible (but with enough time to make it perfect) that’d be great. :)

BOTTOM LINE: GO READ THIS. NOW.


Content Warning: Some profanity, including about four “f” words, kissing.

Rating:
5 Pigs

Blog Sig.

Friday, July 5, 2013

Review: The Knife of Never Letting Go


Title: The Knife of Never Letting Go
Author: Patrick Ness
Series: Chaos Walking #1
Published: 2008 by Candlewick Press
Version: Paperback
Obtained: Purchased

Prentisstown isn't like other towns. Everyone can hear everyone else's thoughts in an overwhelming, never-ending stream of Noise. Just a month away from the birthday that will make him a man, Todd and his dog, Manchee -- whose thoughts Todd can hear too, whether he wants to or not -- stumble upon an area of complete silence. They find that in a town where privacy is impossible, something terrible has been hidden -- a secret so awful that Todd and Manchee must run for their lives.
But how do you escape when your pursuers can hear your every thought?

 

 


First Sentence:

The first thing you find out when yer dog learns to talk is that dogs don’t got nothing much to say. About anything.”


I think I need to read this again right away to understand everything that was thrown at me. I just…loved so much about this book. It’s excellent, and I need to work on getting the sequels really soon!

So here we are in a New World. It takes some reading to learn all there is to know about this place, and I think that’s partially what makes this such a great read. It’s not like some dystopians where the first few chapters are dedicated to explaining all there is to know. Ness takes his time in explaining his world and that makes it feel very thought out and intricate (which it is). Anyways, New World isn’t like anything you’ve read of before. It’s a pretty crazy place that got pretty messed up real fast. Todd is just a twelve-year-old about to be a man at thirteen and he’s almost as naïve as the reader.

But it doesn’t take long for reality to catch up to Todd as he gets shoved out into the world he knows nothing about. He slowly learns secrets about his world that change everything he has been raised to believe. Something very bad is happening in New World and it centers around him, the last boy in Prentisstown. Todd is the perfect narrator for this story and mainly the reason The Knife of Never Letting Go is so incredibly fantastic. He makes it what it is and it is stunning. He is reluctant to change his perceptions even when he knows he must. He has a hard time trusting other people. He has human, normal flaws that create the best narrators. I cannot wait to see where his journey will take him and how he will change.

This whole concept of Noise kind of freaks me out. I couldn’t stand to hear everyone’s thoughts or have people hear mine. It’s just such an original concept and it works in scaring the reader. I’m very interested in learning more about this Noise in the other two books.

I always love books more when they’re not afraid to change up the fonts. It’s just something stupid that I like, but I think it makes the reading experience more fun! I enjoy a change up. The parts that were other people’s Noise was always in a different font depending on the person. And the full pages of it were also great.

Anyways, so I will definitely continue reading this series because Todd is an incredibly relatable narrator and the other evil characters are so evil I just…I hate them. Also, it ended with a cliffhanger!! Time to go out and buy the two sequels!


Content Warning: Occasional curse words including one use of the “f” word.

Rating:
5 Pigs

Blog Sig.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...