Book Review: The Infinite Sea by Rick Yancey

Pros: quick moving, suspenseful, action packed

Cons: no down time to consider the questions the book posed, didn’t feel emotionally connected to the characters

For Parents: swearing, some sexual content (mostly kissing, nothing graphic), lots of violence

Picking up immediately where The 5th Wave ends, Ringer leaves the group’s temporary shelter to hopefully find a safer place where they can spend the winter.  Meanwhile, Cassie still has hope that Evan survived the explosion and will meet up with her again, though each passing day makes that less likely.  Fear, paranoia, rage, hope, and love all come into play as the characters struggle against their new world.  And the big question remains, why?  Why did the aliens create such an elaborate series of ‘waves’ to annihilate humanity instead of one catastrophic event?

This is a very fast moving book.  There’s little time to think about what’s happened before the next calamity hits.  On the one hand, it makes for a suspenseful, action packed novel.  On the other hand, it doesn’t give you any time to consider the questions the book poses.  And I found that my emotional attachment to the characters wasn’t as strong as with the first book (though I suspect if I’d reread the first book before picking this one up that would have been different).  When bad things happened to the kids I didn’t feel it as deeply as I should have. 

I like that we got to learn more about some of the kids’ pasts.  Through POV flashbacks we learn how Poundcake got his name and why he doesn’t talk, we also learn a bit more about the aliens.

It’s the second book in a trilogy so the ending leaves you wanting the final volume, The Last Star, where all the questions will - hopefully - be answered. 

Shout-Out: The Monstrumologist by Rick Yancey

These are the secrets I have kept. This is the trust I never betrayed. But he is dead now and has been for nearly ninety years, the one who gave me his trust, the one for whom I kept these secrets. The one who saved me . . . and the one who cursed me.

So starts the diary of Will Henry, orphan and assistant to a doctor with a most unusual specialty: monster hunting. In the short time he has lived with the doctor, Will has grown accustomed to his late night callers and dangerous business. But when one visitor comes with the body of a young girl and the monster that was eating her, Will's world changes forever. The doctor has discovered a baby Anthropophagus--a headless monster that feeds through a mouth in its chest--and it signals a growing number of Anthropophagi. Now, Will and the doctor must face the horror threatening to overtake and consume our world before it is too late.

Book Review: The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey

Pros: horrifying invasion story, believable protagonists, compelling story

Cons: 

For Parents: some swearing, kissing, the violence isn't graphic but there are child soldiers, executions, and murder

Cassie has survived the first 4 waves of the alien invasion: light's out, surf's up, pestilence and the silencer.  Seven billion people didn't, including her mother and father.  Her five year old brother was taken away in the 4th wave.  Now she waits for the 5th wave and the courage to keep the promise she made to her brother, that she'd come after him.

This is a brutal invasion story.  These aliens know how to wipe out humanity and do so in sweeping waves, each more destructive than the last.  Through Cassie's eyes we learn about the 4 previous waves, and through her eyes, and those of a few other characters, we slowly learn what the 5th and final wave is.

There's a fair amount of violence, particularly when the child soldiers come into the picture.  But it's violence that serves a purpose and isn't graphically portrayed.  This is a book that questions humanity.  What will humans do to survive?  What makes you human in the first place?  The book doesn't answer these questions, making it a great jumping point for discussion.

The characters are believable, falling apart under the pressures of the new world and picking themselves up again because doing otherwise means death.  This makes the book difficult to put down.  The writing is intense and while you may see the revelation that is the 5th wave coming, it doesn't stop it from being horrifying in its implications.

The ending is very tense, though I'm not sure I believe the kids could accomplish everything they do, and it ignores the larger picture.  But it does give a good closure for the book.

I highly recommend it.