Lady Danielle

Actual rating is 3.5 stars



"The weak have been swept away.
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.
Floods, fires, earthquakes, diseases, starvation, betrayal, isolation, murder.
What doesn't kill us sharpens us. Hardens us. Schools us.
You are remaking us.
We are the clay, and you are Michelangelo.
And we will be your masterpiece."

This is how you should write a novel on alien invasion. I was losing hope on the post-apocalyptic genre after reading In the After by Demitria Lunetta. Though this had insta-love, it doesn't throttle the story like it does in most novels. I'll let it slide simply because I've grown to love The Silencer so much. It's so unfortunate the middle of The 5th Wave was a tedious read. People who are impatient would have put this down like I would have done; however, I forced myself to continue and the last 210 pages makes up for everything. Oh my fucking goodness, this novel is extremely bad ass.

I can see why people say The 5th Wave copied The Host by Stephenie Meyer: the alien concept was, indeed, like Meyer's idea. Nevertheless, the entire book, does not rip off The Host's story line. Not at all. Trust me when I say this because I've read The Host twice (I love that book to bits and pieces). The reason I'm not giving this book a higher rating is the hype and what I've stated about the middle being boring. The first 150 and last 190 pages is worth of a 5-star rating; the middle a 1.5... so yeah. 

When I think about it, The 5th Wave is a terrifying read. Extremely terrifying. The characters are so intricately crafted with their own personalities I love and the worldbuilding so beautifully frightening it makes me want to give this 5 stars. This left me thinking, "what would I would do if there was an alien invasion"? I'll most likely scream, cry, flail, then cry some more if you want me to be honest. I can deal with the stereotypical aliens most films perceive them to be, but this invasion along with The Host's? Forget about it.

I can't find any words to write this review except "give this book a shot" or "you should totally pick this one up".

***Also, this does not count as my first read of 2014 since I started this in December 2013***