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booksandbigideas's reviews
647 reviews
Midnight Sun 2008 Draft by Stephenie Meyer
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The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey
3.0
Not bad, but not especially good either, although exciting in places. Just average. There really isn't a lot to say with alien invasions and this book hit all the major tropes with a needlessly convoluted scheme. I still don't know what the aliens are doing and why they are doing it. If they haven't had a form for years and were "downloaded" into humans, then how and why is there a mother ship? What if some of those hybrid alien-humans were by the sea, would they have been wiped out by the 2nd wave? How were these kids not suspicious when these adults had all this tech when this book takes place in 2013-14? What do the aliens want, anyway?
And yet, it was still fairly predictable. Evan's story adds a bit of humanity to the "Others", but really the love story (certainly the worst part of the book, as it's so contrived and almost insulting) is no different than the typical YA paranormal romance "you make me human" stuff, which does mean it's quite problematic in areas. Completely unnecessary; the story could have worked fine without it. They can still have a bond without her constantly describing his chocolatey eyes. The romance caused the middle to drag and crippled Cassie's character.
Once I got used to it, the structure worked for me, although I didn't understand why some POVs were in third person, and it was a bit frustrating to have them all be in present tense when some events that were being narrated actually took place before Cassie's beginning of the book. And I did find Zombie/Ben's story more interesting, although Reznik and Ringer are cardboard cutouts of archetypes.
I liked how it all came together in the end and I liked the mutual drive to find Sammy. But this book just lacks something to make it special.
A less pithy review can be found on my blog, here.
And yet, it was still fairly predictable. Evan's story adds a bit of humanity to the "Others", but really the love story (certainly the worst part of the book, as it's so contrived and almost insulting) is no different than the typical YA paranormal romance "you make me human" stuff, which does mean it's quite problematic in areas. Completely unnecessary; the story could have worked fine without it. They can still have a bond without her constantly describing his chocolatey eyes. The romance caused the middle to drag and crippled Cassie's character.
Once I got used to it, the structure worked for me, although I didn't understand why some POVs were in third person, and it was a bit frustrating to have them all be in present tense when some events that were being narrated actually took place before Cassie's beginning of the book. And I did find Zombie/Ben's story more interesting, although Reznik and Ringer are cardboard cutouts of archetypes.
I liked how it all came together in the end and I liked the mutual drive to find Sammy. But this book just lacks something to make it special.
A less pithy review can be found on my blog, here.
Deliver Us From Normal by Kate Klise
2.0
Weirdly some reviewers didn't like it because it bashed religion too much. I didn't like it because it incorporated too much religion for me. Then again I was like 8. I don't remember anything else from the book...