5th Wave

TITLE: The 5th Wave
AUTHOR: Rick Yancey
RELEASE DATE: May 2013
PUBLISHER: G.P. Putnam's Sons, an imprint of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
PAGES: 457 pages
SERIES: Book 1 in the 5th Wave series (Book 2: Infinite Sea, Book 3: The Last Star)
GENRE: Science Fiction
OVERALL RATING: 4/5
APPROPRIATE AGE: grades: 8-12 (some sexual references)

SUMMARY: Cassie is a survivor. She survived the 1st wave when all the world's electricity was wiped out by an electromagnetic pulse. She survived the 2nd wave when tsunamis wiped out all the coastal cities. She even survived the 3rd wave, called the Red Death, a plague that killed 97% of the remaining population, including her mother. The 4th wave sends Silencers, humans implanted with aliens. The worst wave of all, because you don't know who you can trust. But Cassie knows how to survive, don't trust anyone. 

FAVORITE QUOTE: "If you don't kill all of us all at once, those who remain will not be the weak. It's the strong who remain, the bent, but unbroken like the iron rods that used to give this concrete its strength."

WHAT I LIKED: I liked how this story keeps you on your toes. You're constantly asking yourself, "Is he an alien? Is she an alien? Can you trust him? No! Don't trust him!" I really have to admit that there were no slow parts to the story, it might be close to 500 pages, but I couldn't put it down. 

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE: The story changes perspective frequently between Cassie, Evan, and Zombie. I feel like as soon as you get used to Cassie's voice and her storyline, her lone survival, it switches to Zombie in this tough, military lifestyle. At first it was annoying, but as you start to see the three storylines intertwine, and you begin to learn things that the character doesn't know. Then for all three characters to end up together, I really look forward to reading the second book and finding out how the clash of all the different characters and their personality help them all survive together. 

READALIKES: The Host by Stephenie Meyer

MOVIE RELEASE: January 22, 2016

BOOK TRAILER: 

The Hunt

TITLE: The Hunt
AUTHOR: Andrew Fukuda
RELEASE DATE: May 2012
PUBLISHER: St. Martin's Griffin
PAGES: 304 pages 
SERIES: Book 1 in The Hunt Trilogy (#2:The Prey, #3:The Trap)
GENRE: Supernatural, Horror, Adventure
OVERALL RATING: 2/5
APPROPRIATE AGE: grades 8-12

SUMMARY: Gene is one of the only humans left on earth, but he can't let any body else know. He is different and must keep his identity a secret. This means scrubbing his skin, shaving his body hair, not showing emotion, going out in daylight, and wearing fake fangs. But when Gene wears a lottery to hunt some of the last remaining humans on earth, what will he do? Kill them to save himself, or risk his own life to save them?

WHAT I LIKED: I liked the idea of this story, a human hiding in a world of blood sucking people (the book never uses the word vampire). I also liked Gene's description of everything, several times he would describe to the reader things that are normal to us, but not to someone who has lived among these creatures their entire life. For example, "Its nose crinkles-'crinkle' is this thing hepers do when they pull their facial skin together-in mild disgust" (p). 

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE: I felt the book needed more of a backstory. Where did these people come from? What happened to all the humans? It seems like when a person comes upon a heper, then it is devoured completely. It's not like humans are turned into these people. I just wondered this throughout the entire book, waiting for some kind of flashback or timeline of when all this happened. The people's facts about the hepers were all completely wrong and made-up, like they were stories that had been passed around. 
UPDATE 1/12/2016: In the second book of the series, The Prey, more details are given about the duskers and how they became (genetic modification... of course).

READALIKES: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

BOOK TRAILER: 

After the End

TITLE: After the End
AUTHOR: Amy Plum
RELEASE DATE: May 2014
PUBLISHER: Harper Collins Publisher
PAGES: 341 pages 
SERIES: Book #1 in the After The End series (book #2: Until the Beginning)
GENRE: Science Fiction
OVERALL RATING: 3/5
APPROPRIATE AGE: grades 8-12

SUMMARY: Juneau lives with her clan in the Alaskan wilderness, some of the last survivors of World War III. Returning from a hunting trip, she finds her entire clan gone, all of the sled dogs shot. Completely alone, she must search beyond the protected borders to find her family. Leaving the boundaries, she discovers the rest of world is unchanged, there never was a World War III, and her entire life has been a lie. 

WHAT I LIKED: I really liked the character, Juneau. She is brave, smart, and fearless. She sets out on her own in a world she doesn't know to find the only family she has left. Once past the boundaries of her home, she accepts all of the new things she comes across (technology, automobiles, pretty much anything created in the last thirty years). 

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE: I really did not like the character of Miles. So he gets in trouble at school: drugs, alcohol, cheating, etc. He happens to overhear a phone conversation by his dad and just decides, "Hmm... I have a three day weekend without supervision, why don't I drive 19 hours from LA to Seattle to find a girl that has only been described as long dark hair and a starburst in her eye." Who does that?! Then, of course, after he gets to Seattle, he just happens to run right into her? What are the chances? 

READALIKES: Across the Universe by Beth Revis, The Compound by S.A. Bodeen

BOOK TRAILER: This is a video by the author, Amy Plum, introducing her book. ::SPOILER ALERT::