2025 Reading Challenge discussion

This thread is to discuss Rick Yancey‘s book, The 5th Wave.


***Please remember to mark spoilers.***

Participants: Eirelyn, Brianna, Laura

Suggested break down of reading so that you can check in and let us know how you're doing. The following breakdown is purely a suggestion and is therefore not set in stone.

Rather than putting dates for each section I've done it so that it takes into account that not everybody will necessarily have the book at the same time.

Week 1: 119
Week 2: 119
Week 3: 119
Week 4: 119

Thanks for setting things up, Mary Pat! :D

I'm 27 pages in. This poor girl has already been through so much and the story has barely begun! It's also really scary to think that something could derail humanity in such a way (view spoiler)[(aliens or otherwise) (hide spoiler)].

I am through chapter 24. I'm enjoying the content, but the narration bounces around so much that it kind of takes me out of the intensity of the moment. I wish it had been told a little more linearly.

How's everyone else doing with it? :)

I fell into a bit of reading slump, but am still aiming to get to it by the end of the month.

I started this today!

Just reached Part V. (view spoiler)[ When there was the first POV switch I was SO confused. I honestly couldn't tell right away that it was a different character. I'm also very unsure about Evan. When we were first introduced to him, I didn't really get the impression that he was a teenager and now there's almost a love interest? I did enjoy the POV of the Silencer though. I am also curious to see how Ben Parish will play a role in what's to come. I'm also confused why Vosch seems like the good guy to Ben, but he's the one who messed up things at the camp where Cassie was. (hide spoiler)]

I definitely agree about the POV changes causing things to loose intensity.

I just finished chapter 51. :D

I feel like the storyline has picked up sooo much now, which I'm really happy about. (view spoiler)[When it was just Cassie on her own for so long, I was kind of getting a little bored with it, I hate to say!

But then when Evan was introduced, that made her storyline more interesting (because it wasn't just her walking around (or lying beneath a car), narrating events in a flashback-y sort of style).

I was also really happy when Ben's POV was brought in, as well as Sammy's. I feel like things got going much better at that point. Now I'm just kind of waiting for Cassie to heal and for her and Evan to get moving. (hide spoiler)]

Brianna, I can see what you mean about (view spoiler)[Evan. I have seen the movie, so I knew he was younger, but I can understand how he would seem older! Also, I'm not sure how I feel about the whole love interest thing in general at this point. I mean, Cassie just sustained a life-threatening injury while out on the road, on her own, after both of her parents have died, and she's desperate to find her little brother. Yet, she's here mooning over this stranger's "perfectly round" behind? That whole element just seems a little out of place given the situation she's in... Granted, I guess it's normal to find someone attractive at any point -- the focus of it just seems more intense here because it's all spelled out for us, if that makes sense. (hide spoiler)]

Things really picked up, once Cassie (view spoiler)[& Evan got on the road (hide spoiler)]!

I think she was appropriately freaked out, given that she found out that (view spoiler)[Evan had been the one who SHOT her. I mean, sure, he had also saved her & nursed her back to health, but at that point, who was to say that he wouldn't change his mind again & go back to the "bad guys'" team?! He was really difficult to trust at that point, and I thought the author did a great job of keeping Cassie really nervous & ambivalent about him -- he couldn't be fully trusted, but he was also the only one who could help her get to where she needed to go. (hide spoiler)]

I was glad that (view spoiler)[Ben & co. finally figured out the truth, but it was sad that it came *after* one of their squad had already gotten killed in the field.

Also, I'm glad all the characters got together in the end. Although,
I wonder if/when we'll see Evan again, since he went back &
blew up the entire compound. He & Cassie didn't really have a *proper* goodbye, so I assume we'll see him again at some point, one way or another. (hide spoiler)]