For CBR5, I read — and enjoyed — Rick Yancey’s The 5th Wave, the first book in a proposed trilogy about an alien invasion that threatens all of humanity. This book is the second in the series.
And I did not like it.
At all.
This was 300 pages of nothing. Filler that could have been condensed down to a few chapters. Ugh.
We still have the very unlikable Cassie as the heroine in this tale. And suddenly, she’s everyone’s last hope. Other than the fact that she loves her brother and risked her life to save him, I have yet to see her do anything interesting, brave, selfless, or exciting.*
*Ahem. This brings to mind the horrible Cassia from Ally Condie’s “Matched” books. Remember how she was supposedly the best thing ever, yet we all hated her? Good times, indeed.
Other sections of the story are told from various points of view. And I enjoyed these slightly more than the chapters told by Cassie. But that doesn’t mean that I actually enjoyed them. We got to learn about toddlers who’ve been turned into bombs, a boy obsessed with the last snack cake on earth, rats, and teddy bears.
The entire last third of the book is told from Ringer’s perspective.
Who?
Ringer was a minor character in the first book, boosted up to second heroine status here. While I found her to be a more sympathetic character then Cassie — and we actually get instances where Ringer does things and says things that prove that she is a brave, strong, intelligent soldier — her story was a mess. I get what the author was trying to do with her character, but the details were all over the place. Too much made up alien technology, too many made up words, and a very confusing finale.
And I haven’t even mentioned Cassie’s half-alien boyfriend, Evan, yet. Poor Evan, fighting against the alien DNA that’s been nesting inside of him for years. He’ll do whatever it takes to save Cassie and the rest of humanity. Or will he?
Actually, that’s a serious question. I have no idea what was going on with Evan and his nemesis-with-benefits, Grace. Are they alien? Are they not? I. Don’t. Know.
I closed this book completely unsure about what had just happened, and sadly, I didn’t care.
You can read reviews of other books that I actually did like on my blog.
Ugh, Cassia is THE WORST. Remember how she tried to save the world from war and disease with the power of artwork? GOOD TIMES.
I see that I have dodged a bullet by not reading the Matched books. Several of the teenage girls I teach seem to really like them, though, so maybe this dreadful protagonist appeals to someone?
They are incredibly stupid books, Malin. Don’t read them. (The first one was okay, the second two were abysmal.)