The 5th Wave

A couple of weeks ago, I dropped by Barnes and Noble to cruise the shelves and find out what new books were on the market. I usually make note of them and then check out the e-book version, which is always less expensive. But for some reason, on this particular day, I picked up The 5^th Wave by Rick Yancey and read the back cover:

They know how we think

They know how to kill us.

They’ve taken everything worth living for.

Now they’ve come to take the things worth dying for.

I opened the book to a quote by Stephen Hawking: “If aliens ever visit us, I think the outcome would be as when Christopher Columbus first landed in America, which didn’t turn out very well for the Native Americans.”

Next page:

THE 1^ST WAVE: Lights Out

THE 2^ND WAVE: Surf’s Up

THE 3^RD WAVE: Pestilence

THE 4^TH WAVE: Silencer

Then I read the first page and knew I was going to love this book, that Rob would love it, that Megan would devour it. I was right. This book and its sequel- The Infinite Sea – went to the Florida Keys with us and after Megan got her hands on it, I never saw the hardcover again, so I downloaded the e-book and its sequel and Rob and I read it on our iPads.

Granted, I enjoy Dystopian novels, but The 5^th Wave is probably the best novel – Dystopian or otherwise – I’ve read in the last 20 years. The story is riveting and the structure and pacing of the story are impeccable. It’s the kind of story that sticks with you even when you aren’t reading it. You can’t help but think, What if? As one writer friend put it, The 5^th Wave is a sophisticated version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. It’s actually a lot more than that.

In essence, an alien race takes over the planet by implanting the consciousness of their individual citizens into the bodies of human fetuses. The alien consciousness lies dormant in humans until the early teens and then co-exists with the human until the 1^st wave occurs – lights out.

But it’s not just the electrical power grid that goes down. Nothing electrical or mechanical works- cars, iPads, cell phones, computers, planes, boats, nada. Back to the Dark Ages. This part of the story is told through the perspective of 16-year-old Cassie, who loses her entire family – except for her younger brother, Sam, who is eventually taken away in a bus by military types to Wright Patterson Air Force base. She’s a compelling, complex character.

Another perspective in the story is that of Evan Walker, who looks human but isn’t. He rescues Cassie at one point and falls in love with her, definitely not a component of the alien agenda. Walker may be one of the most intriguing characters in the novel.

Then there’s the perspective of Ben Parrish, a high school kid on whom Cassie had a crush when the world was normal. He is inducted into the 5^th wave army at Wright Patterson, where children as young as five are trained to kill the “intruders.”

To say more than this would give away some essential plot elements that are so deftly crafted you anxiously turn pages just to find out what happens. As Megan remarked when she finished the book, “This story is a mind trip. The author leads you in one direction and suddenly you realize the direction is something else entirely.”

Yancey has done his homework – or has experienced something himself. He knows about the importance of owls in abduction scenarios. He knows about utter terror of the unknown. He understands the human psyche, the human soul.

As a writer, I came away from this novel with a deep appreciation for how important it is for a novelist to write the story as you envision it. Yes, an agent and editor can help to fine-tune the idea, can urge you to dig deeper within yourself to find the elements that transform the book from ordinary to extraordinary.

But in the end, a story is between you, the writer, and the characters you create. If you try to force the characters to do something that isn’t in their nature to do, they resist, dig in their heels, and your story falls apart. At no point in The 5^th Wave does the story fall apart. You, the reader, have questions and all of them aren’t answered in the first book. But enough of the questions are answered so that you buy the sequel.

Not surprisingly, The 5^th Wave has already been optioned as a film. I can’t wait to see how this shakes out as a movie. It’s an epic fated for the big screen.

ow I’m halfway through The Infinite Sea.