The final stretch. The end is finally here. The journeys of the 5th Wave's protagonists have been long and hard, and now, they finally draw to a close.
"Life is a circle bound by fear. The fear of the predator. The fear of the prey. Without fear, life would not exist."
My relationship with Rick Yancey's 5th Wave Trilogy is a little shaky. When I read the first book (The 5th Wave) back in 2014 some time, I did not overly enjoy it. The novel took a while to set up the world and I just wasn't overly invested in the characters. If you would like to read the review, you can, but I'd advise against it. It isn't really a good review at all. I wrote it when I was twelve so that might explain that, though. The basic sum up of that review was that the book was rather slow and boring and didn't really start to speed up until the end. Scratch that, I'm not even going to link that review. It sucks. Just take my word for it.
"I want to hate you."
"I hope you fail."
Then the second book (The Infinite Sea) came out. The review of that isn't very well written either. In fact, in a year I'll probably look back at this review and begin to shake my head. Anyway, I quite enjoyed the Infinite Sea. It was exhilarating, and, more importantly, had a lot of Cassie and Evan. And I really only wanted to read these books to find out what happens to Cassie and Evan. I do care for Ben and Sam (I wouldn't really mind if anything happened to Ringer), but Cassie and Evan are always my number one(s).
Now for my feelings on this book. I'm conflicted. It's a good book, but something feels as if it is missing. There's plenty of action, but what I missed in this story was the relationships. I get it, there's a lot of stuff happening, especially with the end of the world and all, but doesn't that make relationships even more important? While there were people shooting other people in the head, gutting them and all that other stuff, the relationships were lacking. Sure, there is some relationship building, but it was a disappointing amount. There's a moment in the story where Cassie tells a character something and you don't even get to see that character's face or anything after she says it. And when it's that character's point of view, said character doesn't even give it a single thought. Sure, those thing aren't overly important when the end of the world is imminent, but as a reader who is attached to these characters, I would've liked to see some reaction to that.
While action is fun and all, it's really the relationships that pull a story together. It's relationships that aid in connecting the reader to the protagonist(s) and they really also just make a story more enjoyable to read.
I wish I got to see more of the relationships and emotions all the characters felt towards each other. There were some emotions, but not many. Most of the time is was just action-action-action, you won't hear this a lot from me, but I felt like there was too much action in this book and not enough emotional stuff.
Trilogies are hard to write, especially since it's really hard to make a satisfying finale to an epic series in just three books. Unfortunately, like many trilogies before it, this finale was lacking. It wasn't wholly satisfying for me. Maybe that was Yancey's idea, make me wonder about that characters and all, and while a little bit of that is good, too much feels unsatisfying. While some of you may disagree with me on this, I found this ending very unsatisfying. I wish there was more. I was certainly expecting a larger book for such an epic conclusion for an epic series, but it was disappointingly small and felt rather rushed.
I get it, the end of the world will probably feel rather rushed... but I just wish there was more. More Evan and Cassie. More Ben. Even more Ringer, if that's what it took.
Don't get me wrong, this book was rather good and I read it in basically one sitting. If you have read the 5th Wave and the Infinite Sea, I recommend reading this. It's not one of those DON'T PICK THIS UP books, but it just fell a little short in my eyes, as I've mentioned many times before.
All in all, I would give The Last Star 6/10 stars. It's not fantastic, and definitely not one of my favorite books, but it was fairly riveting and enjoyable.
Anyway, those are my thoughts on this book. There aren't too many that aren't spoilerly, so without further ado, let's get on to the spoilery section.
SPOILERS
Honestly, the ending of this book almost broke my heart. I definitely was not expecting Cassie to die, and certainly not in the way she did. It was weird, it felt like we didn't get to see a lot of Cassie in this book. If there was more Cassie before the blew herself (and the mothership) up, maybe I'd feel more satisfied with the way she went out, but I don't. I wish I saw more of Cassie with Evan as well. I guess that's a lot of how life is, actually. Rather unresolved. But while that happens in life, I do not particularly enjoy seeing it in books. I like my stories to be rather resolved.
It especially disappointed me how in the basically-epilogue-but-not-actually-called-epilogue the character's didn't think much to Cassie's sacrifice. It was mentioned, they named their baby Cassie, etc. and maybe I'm just being picky, but I really would have liked to have seen their reactions when they found out what Cassie did. I would especially liked to have seen Evan's reaction when they gave him back his memories only to find out this his beloved was dead. While we did see some of what Evan was feeling at the end, there wasn't much. This was really a large time when I felt the emotions were a bit lacking. I wish I saw more of his thoughts around Cassie and all that.
While my review may sound down and dismal, I did enjoy some of this book. Some of the moments had me actually laughing a little.
"No one will ever read it-- and if you do, Evan, I will murder you."
"Evan, in case you're reading this: I'm dumping you for a teddy bear."
"Flawlessly beautiful people annoy the hell out of me." (Me too, Cassie, me too.)
Anyway, that's all I really had to say. Thanks for reading!
Anj
"Life is a circle bound by fear. The fear of the predator. The fear of the prey. Without fear, life would not exist."
My relationship with Rick Yancey's 5th Wave Trilogy is a little shaky. When I read the first book (The 5th Wave) back in 2014 some time, I did not overly enjoy it. The novel took a while to set up the world and I just wasn't overly invested in the characters. If you would like to read the review, you can, but I'd advise against it. It isn't really a good review at all. I wrote it when I was twelve so that might explain that, though. The basic sum up of that review was that the book was rather slow and boring and didn't really start to speed up until the end. Scratch that, I'm not even going to link that review. It sucks. Just take my word for it.
"I want to hate you."
"I hope you fail."
Then the second book (The Infinite Sea) came out. The review of that isn't very well written either. In fact, in a year I'll probably look back at this review and begin to shake my head. Anyway, I quite enjoyed the Infinite Sea. It was exhilarating, and, more importantly, had a lot of Cassie and Evan. And I really only wanted to read these books to find out what happens to Cassie and Evan. I do care for Ben and Sam (I wouldn't really mind if anything happened to Ringer), but Cassie and Evan are always my number one(s).
Now for my feelings on this book. I'm conflicted. It's a good book, but something feels as if it is missing. There's plenty of action, but what I missed in this story was the relationships. I get it, there's a lot of stuff happening, especially with the end of the world and all, but doesn't that make relationships even more important? While there were people shooting other people in the head, gutting them and all that other stuff, the relationships were lacking. Sure, there is some relationship building, but it was a disappointing amount. There's a moment in the story where Cassie tells a character something and you don't even get to see that character's face or anything after she says it. And when it's that character's point of view, said character doesn't even give it a single thought. Sure, those thing aren't overly important when the end of the world is imminent, but as a reader who is attached to these characters, I would've liked to see some reaction to that.
While action is fun and all, it's really the relationships that pull a story together. It's relationships that aid in connecting the reader to the protagonist(s) and they really also just make a story more enjoyable to read.
I wish I got to see more of the relationships and emotions all the characters felt towards each other. There were some emotions, but not many. Most of the time is was just action-action-action, you won't hear this a lot from me, but I felt like there was too much action in this book and not enough emotional stuff.
Trilogies are hard to write, especially since it's really hard to make a satisfying finale to an epic series in just three books. Unfortunately, like many trilogies before it, this finale was lacking. It wasn't wholly satisfying for me. Maybe that was Yancey's idea, make me wonder about that characters and all, and while a little bit of that is good, too much feels unsatisfying. While some of you may disagree with me on this, I found this ending very unsatisfying. I wish there was more. I was certainly expecting a larger book for such an epic conclusion for an epic series, but it was disappointingly small and felt rather rushed.
I get it, the end of the world will probably feel rather rushed... but I just wish there was more. More Evan and Cassie. More Ben. Even more Ringer, if that's what it took.
Don't get me wrong, this book was rather good and I read it in basically one sitting. If you have read the 5th Wave and the Infinite Sea, I recommend reading this. It's not one of those DON'T PICK THIS UP books, but it just fell a little short in my eyes, as I've mentioned many times before.
All in all, I would give The Last Star 6/10 stars. It's not fantastic, and definitely not one of my favorite books, but it was fairly riveting and enjoyable.
Anyway, those are my thoughts on this book. There aren't too many that aren't spoilerly, so without further ado, let's get on to the spoilery section.
SPOILERS
Honestly, the ending of this book almost broke my heart. I definitely was not expecting Cassie to die, and certainly not in the way she did. It was weird, it felt like we didn't get to see a lot of Cassie in this book. If there was more Cassie before the blew herself (and the mothership) up, maybe I'd feel more satisfied with the way she went out, but I don't. I wish I saw more of Cassie with Evan as well. I guess that's a lot of how life is, actually. Rather unresolved. But while that happens in life, I do not particularly enjoy seeing it in books. I like my stories to be rather resolved.
It especially disappointed me how in the basically-epilogue-but-not-actually-called-epilogue the character's didn't think much to Cassie's sacrifice. It was mentioned, they named their baby Cassie, etc. and maybe I'm just being picky, but I really would have liked to have seen their reactions when they found out what Cassie did. I would especially liked to have seen Evan's reaction when they gave him back his memories only to find out this his beloved was dead. While we did see some of what Evan was feeling at the end, there wasn't much. This was really a large time when I felt the emotions were a bit lacking. I wish I saw more of his thoughts around Cassie and all that.
While my review may sound down and dismal, I did enjoy some of this book. Some of the moments had me actually laughing a little.
"No one will ever read it-- and if you do, Evan, I will murder you."
"Evan, in case you're reading this: I'm dumping you for a teddy bear."
"Flawlessly beautiful people annoy the hell out of me." (Me too, Cassie, me too.)
Anyway, that's all I really had to say. Thanks for reading!
Anj
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