Initially this disparity between the male and female character development feels uncomfortable, especially when Cassie is written as the kind of girl who says, “Don’t kiss me,” twice-threatening bodily harm to Evan if he kisses her again-but succumbs to the kiss anyway. As a character, Evan is intentionally inscrutable, but more interesting because of this quality. The invasion has changed him from a normal teenager to a brainwashed army grunt to an enlightened rebel. Where Cassie’s sole motivation is the need to survive and find her brother, Ben goes through this incredible emotional transformation. It’s such a difficult determination to make, especially because the two other principle characters in the book, Ben and Evan, have much deeper inner lives. It’s a fine line though between relatable and generic, and I’m still on the fence if Cassie is the former or latter. Schools us.” She’s a character who serves the narrative first, before existing in her own right.
Roughly half of the book is written in her voice, and Yancey uses her as his authorial surrogate, explaining the waves of the alien invasion, describing backstory, and making tumblr-ready aphorisms like, “It’s the strong who remain, the bent but unbroken … What doesn’t kill us sharpens us. Her personality consists of sarcastic quips, and a bleak attitude despite her strong will to keep moving and living. To give you a metaphor in my native tongue: if this were a summer popcorn movie-which it one day may be-it would get two thumbs up, but once Oscar season rolled around, a Best Picture nomination for The 5th Wave would be a long shot.Ĭassie, Yancey’s first narrator, is fairly generic as far as teenage female survivalists go. Will The 5th Wave make Yancey a twice honored author? Yancey previously received the Printz Honor for The Monstrumologist. This novel similarly uses horror and is the first in a projected series. The action is coherent and genuinely thrilling and tense, and the multiple narrating voices with converging plot lines create an interesting structure. The 5th Wave goes beyond the familiar premise as a richer and more satisfying doomsday novel. Rick Yancey’s tough-girl protagonist is Cassie (short for Cassiopeia) who is determined to find her younger brother. Apocalyptic scenario, isolated teen in the woods, romance against-the-odds… we’ve been down this desolate road before.