Click here to subscribe today or Login.
Justin Cronin, author of “The Passage,” one of my favorite dystopian novels once wrote, “In a post-Potter, post-Katniss era, the line between young adult and mainstream fiction often blurs.”
I find this true. Many young adult books are just as entertaining and well written as adult literature, sometimes even more exciting and universally appealing.
And of course, like adult literature, some young adult books are excellent and some are awful. Rick Yancey’s “The 5th Wave” trilogy mostly falls into the first category. Most dystopian novels take place in the aftermath of an apocalyptic event. The first book in the trilogy, “The 5th Wave,” takes place smack in the middle of an alien invasion.
Out of nowhere, an alien mothership appears in the sky and nothing happens initially. No contact, no attack. Then just as suddenly, four waves of death and destruction sweep over planet Earth, determined to wipe out the human race.
The first wave knocked out the world’s power, rendering all technology useless. The second wiped out all coastal cities and their inhabitants through tsunamis. The third was a deadly plague spread by birds. The fourth wave were “Silencers,” humans who were implanted with an alien consciousness in utero. Silencers are programmed to kill humans. For the survivors, they learn to trust no one since it’s impossible to tell who is human and who are Silencers.
The first book opens with the start of the fifth wave, which aims to kill off all remaining humans. The heroine is Cassie, a 16-year-old survivor, who has been living by herself in the woods for months. Her parents are dead. She has a much younger brother named Sam, who was taken to a refugee camp by soldiers. She wasn’t allowed to join him but promised to find him. She is too scared of the Silencers to leave her camp though.
When she finally does decide to go after Sam, she is shot by an unseen Silencer and passes out under a car in a snowstorm. She is found by an older farm boy named Evan Walker, who restores her to health and teaches her to shoot a gun. She certainly has suspicions of Evan, whose story doesn’t seem to add up. However, they develop strong feelings for one another.
At the refugee camp, Sam, known as Nugget, is at the same refugee camp as another young man, nicknamed Zombie. They are being trained by the army to fight the Silencers. However, as he heads out on his first mission, he realizes there are things about his deployment that are not as they seem.
“The 5th Wave” is a gripping novel. The characters are well written and don’t fall into the typical cliches of young adult dystopia. The love story angle works well, although it could have used a bit more buildup. The ending is filled with exciting action and sets up the sequel, “The Infinite Sea.” perfectly. The third book, “The Last Star,” was released in May. I’ve just started it and so far, it is just as readable and engrossing as the previous two books.
Yancey’s trilogy would appeal to both young adults and adult fans of sci-fi and dystopian/apocalyptic literature.
