The 5th Wave (The 5th Wave #1) by Rick Yancey

Depending where you are, The 5th Wave hit theatres either last week or today.  On first look at the trailer, it looks like it has a decent premise.  With it so quickly adapted into a movie that even casts Chloe Grace Moretz, who I personally think is a potentially great young actress, The 5th Wave had me intrigued.  Mind you, so far YA novels have been rather lacking at good alien invasion movies and the trailer has hints of some very teenage cliche romance that probably is way more sappy than it needs to be.  I am rather forgiving for YA novels, mostly because I’m not exactly their target audience anymore, yet I enjoy them from time to time because it is easy reading. Still, whatever the movie has to offer I don’t know and its definitely not going to be what is to be expected in the book.

I’m still on the fence on whether to go see The 5th Wave but let’s see if the book has convinced me, shall we?

The 5th Wave
(The 5th Wave #1)
by: Rick Yancey

After the 1st wave, only darkness remains. After the 2nd, only the lucky escape. And after the 3rd, only the unlucky survive. After the 4th wave, only one rule applies: trust no one.
Now, it’s the dawn of the 5th wave, and on a lonely stretch of highway, Cassie runs from Them. The beings who only look human, who roam the countryside killing anyone they see. Who have scattered Earth’s last survivors. To stay alone is to stay alive, Cassie believes, until she meets Evan Walker.  Beguiling and mysterious, Evan Walker may be Cassie’s only hope for rescuing her brother—or even saving herself. But Cassie must choose: between trust and despair, between defiance and surrender, between life and death. To give up or to get up. – Goodreads

Goodreads score: 3/5

The 5th Wave makes me feel a little like watching The Host. The premise is there but the approach could have been a lot better.  But then, that isn’t even the issue.  You know, the troupes and the predictability and the heavy YA novel feeling. All those things was not a problem.  My biggest issue with this novel is the writing especially right at the beginning when I read this line, which probably might be a key line in the movie (who knows, right?).  Wait for it… embrace it, ok?

When you can’t trust anyone, then you can trust no one.-The 5th Wave

Writing: 10 out of 10… *rolls eyes* When I read that line, I dog-earred the page to remember where it was and closed the book. I took a little breather and found a reason to back up why I’m reading the main character’s diary and inner monologue, because the author wants us to remember that she’s an innocent high school student and reinforce that point eventually that this alien invasion has changed and toughened her up. With myself slightly convinced, I moved on with the story.

Forget the writing style, that can be adapted to. The premise is good.  It might be a little flawed at parts but I can buy that.  At least a part of it.  Not exactly how people survived 4 waves of disaster since those were pretty intense situations and somehow in all this, they got some tough-ass homes that remained standing but they do try to answer why the aliens are aggressive as they are and who they are.

After you get past that part and the story really starts moving along, the entrance of the character of Evan Walker and the other narrative by Ben Parish really makes the story much more intriguing to read.  Cassie is supposedly the main character (according to the movie) but her character seems to never be built enough to captivate my attention.  She doesn’t seem like a girl caught in an invasion trying to get back her little brother. She just seems like a teenage girl that is insecure and doesn’t trust anyone because she lost her family but yet she wants to feel loved and fall in love but also find her brother and its a constant struggle because she doesn’t know how to put her priorities in place. Does it make a difference? It kind of does to me and I really don’t know how to explain it better. Maybe its the fact that I wished her character was more consistent but then it could be trying to make her more reflective of her age and lacking the experience to actually be a soldier in this situation. So no, Cassie makes some bad choices and she’s kind of naive and in the most random situation she’ll be a teenage girl who focuses on how hot Evan is and wants to touch him.  Her character is missing something that I can’t quite grasp.

However, Ben Parish’s narrative is much better.  Its because there is this comparison that makes me question the author’s writing for Cassie because with Ben, its much better. His character is really well written and there’s a pain and struggle in his story.  There’s growth and it feels real.  Its even the surroundings and the characters around him put together with the situation he is in that makes it more intense to read. Evan Walker also makes for that mysterious feeling.  Its pretty easy to guess how everything unfolds but yet, those characters are much better developed.

In all fairness, The 5th Wave is an easy read.  The writing style doesn’t always quite work for me and some lines were really…not so well-crafted. But, the idea is there. Maybe its not all logical or probable but for any YA novel, there is a certain level of suspending our beliefs.  Cassie’s character could’ve been better developed but it was balanced off with a much better alternate storyline narrated by the other main character Ben.  The insert of loner Evan Walker was also done well.  The 5th Wave isn’t an epic or even great read.  I’m still a little lukewarm on how I feel about it.  The completionist in me might want to read the rest of the trilogy just to see what happens because that ending kind of made me wonder about one of the character’s fate.  I haven’t quite decided on that just yet. I guess we’ll see…

Before we end this post, I should address the question before the little review here.  I’m actually on the fence about the movie.  It feels like it could be impressive as a movie if they decided to keep the meat of the alien invasion although I’m pretty sure that it wasn’t the route taken.  While I don’t particularly see an issue with Chloe Grace Moretz playing Cassie since she is a good young actress, I am a little skeptical of Nick Robinson playing Ben Parish, especially after what he goes through.  There’s a level of inconsistency of what I feel like his character looks like in the novel to in the movie.  Maybe I need to watch the trailers to see what renewed feelings I have. 😉

Have you read The 5th Wave? Any thoughts? Are you planning to see The 5th Wave?

The Death Cure (Maze Runner #3) by James Dashner

Wow! If anything, these book reviews are falling way behind. It happens when I had more time to read than to write (aka waiting in line for an hour before movies and overshot data on my phone).  I’m about two reviews behind so I’m working hard on getting things back to speed. After The Cuckoo’s Calling (a more grown-up book), I always like to fall back to some YA fiction.  My choice after looking for a while was the next book in the Maze Runner series by James Dashner.  If you missed it, you can check out my review for the previous two below:

#1 The Maze Runner
#2 The Scorch Trials

For a recap, I loved The Maze Runner and enjoyed the Scorch Trials but not quite as much. Not exactly sure what to expect for this one, The Death Cure.  Let’s check this out! 🙂

**If you have not read and finished up to The Scorch Trials, please stop reading as Book 2 reveals are mentioned a little.**

The Death Cure
(The Maze Runner #3)

by: James Dashner

Thomas gets out of The Scorch Trials and wakes up to find himself locked up by himself in a dark cage.  His meals are delivered to him on time everyday as he loses track of time.  When they finally release him, he learns about WICKED and the lines between who is on his side or not is getting blurry.  Is WICKED good? While they took away all his memories, he starts remembering more about WICKED but this time, he is on the run outside of WICKED to track down his friends and get them out. Will he be able to do it?

Let’s start off with the basics here.  The Death Cure is not exactly as great as The Maze Runner but its definitely a lot better than The Scorch Trials.  It was a lot of fun to watch and it worked well because it went back to being how we know the first one.  It was fast-paced, lots of stuff going on to keep the amp up and Thomas wasn’t a whiny baby that didn’t know when he had to man up.  [Just a side note: Its sad because that’s the reason why I’m worried about The Scorch Trials.  While Teresa gets a bigger part, Thomas turns into this character that I really loathed reading about.  Where was all the courage and bravery he had in the Glades?]

Back on The Death Cure, we now have a label for the virus called The Flare.  We know what its about and in this one, Thomas tracks his friends back to one of the cities as we see how the normal people are coping with it.  There’s more outside world than the WICKED but if its anything we learned in The Scorch Trials, even when it feels like there is no control, WICKED is control of everything.  Trust and loyalty is taken in to the grand scheme of things here.  Who can Thomas trust? Who is looking out for the greater good? They even get the option from Janson, who has a much bigger role, to move to the next phase which includes getting back their memories.  Is getting the memories back a good thing? Are they even their own memories? WICKED is all about finding a cure for the future but to what ends?

Its a lot of questions that we’ve had rumbling around in our heads through the last two books to this one and demands answers.  The Death Cure does a decent job at doing it.  In the end, it makes you question: is WICKED good or bad?

I don’t have much to say about The Death Cure.  The ending was meant to be a surprise that kind of took me by mild surprise because a lot of people like to do this sort of ending nowadays in movies or books.  It was a little apparent at a certain point. I can’t say that this ending wasn’t a possibility that popped in my head but still, points for making this work for the most part. What makes The Death Cure feel more intense is again we have a time limit in place so things need to proceed faster and it pushes the plot along.  Also, it puts some of our favorite characters that we’ve grown to know in the last two books into iffy situations that take the ethical and emotional turn.  Its always better to have that sort of test especially with the friendships bonded over the rest of the trilogy.  Honestly, that is the big thing for me.  I never thought the love bits were a necessity and Thomas and his lady friends really don’t interest me all that much.  Although it was still apparent in this one, it was enough to not overshadow the main goal and the urgency of the entire situation.

Overall, The Death Cure was a quick read.  It wasn’t exactly a page turner but it was easy and thrilling.  I like it more than The Scorch Trials and less than The Maze Runner.  The ending worked hard to add that twist in, although used frequently in the last few years, it seemed to be the only outcome that would be kind of a surprise and would apply here.  The setting being outside of WICKED controlled headquarters is a good one because it lets us see what the Flare is and how the world has been fallen.  Thomas being more like the one in Book 1 definitely was a plus.  In the end, it does wrap up the main questions we have: Is WICKED good? Is there a cure for the Flare?  While I’m not totally behind whether the ending was great or not, the intentions are good.  It ties up The Maze Runner trilogy decently.

Have you read the Maze Runner trilogy? What are your thoughts on it? 

The Scottish Bank of Surabaya (Ava Lee #5) by Ian Hamilton

Its been a while since I’ve dived into the Ava Lee series.  I really love the whole Chinese-Canadian roots for this intelligent, brave and tough forensic accountant.  I’m still thinking this series would be prime for TV but then, maybe not for various reasons that don’t bother me but might bother other viewers.  Without being too offensive, if you’ve read it and know the character, you might know what I’m talking about.

I have reviewed all the previous books if you missed it.  You can find it here:

#1 The Water Rat of Wanchai
#2 The Disciple of Las Vegas
#3 The Wild Beasts of Wuhan
#4 The Red Pole of Macau

Now, let’s check it out! 🙂

The Scottish Banker of Surabaya (Ava Lee#5)

By: Ian Hamilton

After the events of The Red Pole of Macau, Ava has slowed down to heal from all the physical damage (if not a little, her mindset about her business as well).  That is until her mother introduces her to a woman in need who has a bunch of Vietnamese investors that fell for an investment scam and lost a lot of money.  Being forced into taking the business, Ava flies to Vietnam and then Surabaya hoping to figure out and trace back the money. This leads her to a Scottish banker in Surabaya who runs Bank Linno who ends up having a rough clash with her and takes it to a more personal issue.  While Ava has finally figured out where the money has gone, the situation gets more complicated when she realizes that its related to one of the biggest Italian mobs and their grand scheme of money laundering. Faced with difficult decisions and dangerous situations, Ava must try to make the best choice while things also get more personal as she realizes that there is something Uncle (her partner) is hiding from her about his health.

I love this Ava Lee series a lot.  I stumbled on this book completely be accident and honestly, its one of the series that has a lot to love.  The adventure and the wit in all the stories are great.  The cases themselves are unique and feature a whole travelling adventure just to track it down with compelling characters each time.  What the previous few books did lack was diving a little more into Ava’s personal life and her relationship with Uncle.  We saw signs of her personal life being a part of the picture in the previous book and when things get more personal, the stakes get higher, making the story even more intriguing.

At this point, after 4 books, jumping into this one, Ava Lee is a character I know fairly well of.  She’s connected with me and I look forward to what she’s up to.  This time, Ava Lee is given a much more dangerous situation and she even gets into a few bad tangles herself.  Those tangles are the turning point for her character and I think that is the game changer here.  One that is tough to swallow but also one that shows us what Ava is capable of.

I still struggle a little to understand why branding is a such a huge thing in these books.  I wonder if its to show the class that Ava is or the type of person she is or its just brands that stick out.  I don’t think that talking about Adidas workout gear or Brooks Brothers shirts or Cartier watches are details that matter so much.  They don’t quite bother me as much as it did in the earlier books but its still something I have a hard time wrapping my head around the reasoning of choosing that.  It feels like meticulous unnecessary details.  Still, thats not enough to pull away from just how awesome this novel is.

For a series to run for so long and after 4 books, still manage to drag me right into the story and craving for what will be next in the following novel.  It definitely something that I never expected when I spontaneously picked up this book after the bookstore shelf.  I love pleasant surprises and this fifth book is one that you don’t want to miss! 🙂

Have you read the Ava Lee series? What are your thoughts on it?

Book Review: The Fall of Five (Lorien Legacies #4) by Pittacus Lore

I love monthly book recaps.  Its been working so well until the last few months where I was focusing on the independent writers and then those deserve their own posts to share all the talent in our little blogosphere alone.

BUT, the Lorien Legacies deserve its own post.  Most book series (even movies) kind of taper off and lose the original greatness to it as the books and the story build up.  Lorien Legacies is fantastic at keeping the pace, developing the characters and I just keeping this whole Loric business in check the whole time. Even after Michael Bay took up the project and turned into a hopeless effort with his signature stamped over it, this series has such a great potential for the big screen, if not, a TV series based on this would pretty much kick-ass.

Wait I’m getting ahead of myself…

THE FALL OF FIVE (LORIEN LEGACIES#4)

by Pittacus Lore

I didn’t review I Am Number Four (Lorien Legacy#1) on here but if you do happen want to check out #2 The Power of Six and #3 The Rise of Nine, you could find them HERE and HERE respectively.

Much like the rest of the series, The Fall of Five is a really fun read.  Its action-packed and with so many books, this one is where the Gardes are finally all reunited, after finally finding Five.  The Mogadorian fights are more and the creatures are bigger and badder.  There are a few additions back into the story.  This time around its narrated by John (Four), Marina (Niine) and Sam, one of the earlier characters.

The beginning of The Fall of Five took me a little while to catch again since the last time I read this series was back in January.  Its not a lack of desire to read it that I’ve waited this long but rather, I have to sit patiently and wait for paperback versions to come out.  I lug these books to and from work along with a bunch of other stuff so for the sake of my shoulders and my back, I try to choose the lighter option, that being paperback but those apparently now take forever to come out.  And with exciting books, I very much prefer having it in my  hand than on my tablet.  I’m going off topic again.

The Fall of Five is so much fun to read.  At the same time, it goes a little more personal.  Why? As much as its about saving Lorien and eventually being able to go back once they get everyone together, everyone has their own story.  There’s a few unexpected twists that really bring everything to perspective.  Thats the key to what makes these books fantastic reads.  Sure, they are for teens but I don’t really care because it does a whole lot better in pacing than a lot of more adult books that I read.

That last few chapters was like heart attack intensity. I think I held my breath through it all.  Exciting stuff, my friends.

I highly recommend it and thats why I’m avoiding revealing too much of the plot itself. Its worth your time.  Trust me! 🙂

The Rise of Mallory (Everville#3) by Roy Huff

While I had to figure out why one of my ebooks didn’t transfer well onto Kindle, I bumped up the next book and started reading the third instalment of the Everville series called The Rise of Mallory.

I’ve reviewed the first and the second HERE and HERE respectively.

The Rise of Mallory (Everville #3)

by Roy Huff

The fantasy YA series by Roy Huff is about an alternate world that exists where there is a war to keep the evil out as it continues to threaten its existence.  Some people in the “real” world (we live in) are gifted to know about this world and have the power to transport between the two worlds.

The Rise of Mallory picks up after the events of the second book, The City of Worms.  In the City of Worms, the goal was to protect Everville from the possibility of the destruction that the power the worms held inside them and to destroy it.  Although, it was overall destroyed with the opening of the Second Pillar by Owen Sage, the main protagonist of the series, there were consequences that leads us into this instalment.

Owen and his friends are living with the remaining of effects and trying to get past all that has happened, except Owen suddenly gets contacted by The Second Pillar in the form of his father telling him that The City of Worms has some leftover business that he must attend to.  There are shady characters in play and they have a big plan to destroy Everville in hopes of gaining more power.  The obsession over this power has made this Fron (inhabitant of Everville) turn bad.  With that, Owen sets off to find the Third Pillar while also having to figure out the mysteries of not only why his father is possibly The Second Pillar and also certain events that went on in the past two books.  I’m going to stop it right here because in case,  you are reading this, I don’t want to spoil anything.

The reviews for the past 2 has been a while so I’ll go into a little recap to say that the first wasn’t so great because it was a bit confusing when dealing with the real world and the Everville one along with the whole The Other in Between and all that stuff.  The second one was lacking because of the pacing being a little bit lagging.  Although not perfect, the first two does show potential and set the stage for somewhere to rise higher in the next novel.

The Rise of Mallory is the best of the 3 books so far. Why do I say that?

1. It has a good length and fantastic pacing
2. The story flows perfect with the last and answers a lot of questions while leaving room for further mysteries
3.  It keeps the different story lines going on at the same time very well that its not confusing
4. The fantasy world of Everville introduces the “worm” which turns into something cool and just exactly what every fantasy story needs
5. There is some character development for Owen especially.

Although it has a lot of great stuff going for this Book 3,  there are a few aspects that fell short for me.  I’m still adapting to the writing style.  Its definitely improving and more engaging and intriguing but its still something I’m adapting to.  Aside from that, its really this one part that comes as a surprise but that part is a little rushed and doesn’t give me the feeling that I was supposed to feel to connect with Owen’s character.  These are really the bits that bothered me a little bit but overall, its the best out of the three.

Everville is imaginative and fun.  Roy Huff may not particularly have the writing style that I’m used to but he does have a really great premise going with reality and Everville.  He uses the simple terms that we use everyday to show the enemies and I appreciate that a lot.  The enemies are quite simple called Them and the lingering space is The Other in Between.  Sure, there’s some other names (like Fron that I mentioned before) but travelling to Everville with Owen is never dull plus every Pillar has had something valuable to offer.

I’d definitely recommend giving Everville series a shot (if you haven’t started reading) 🙂

You can find Roy Huff’s blog right HERE!

Book Review: Stefan’s Diaries Vol.1 Origins (The Vampire Diaries series)

I’m a huge fan of Vampire Diaries.  I think that the series was super smart but its just lightly similar to the book series.  I never intended to get this as its more of a tangent that was made after the series happened and was successful based on one of the main character, Stefan’s coming to be a vampire. He’s the good brother in the whole series, or at least he tries to control his humanity a lot more.  If you watch the series, you will understand what I mean.

If you don’t, this book doesn’t really matter.  Its really just a more detail version of Stefan’s life. This book starts off from the little snippets from the series about how he became a vampire and his infatuation of Katherine and his fight with his brother Damon over this girl.  How they each had to make their choices.

Its a pretty average young adult supernatural romance fiction. Honestly, I enjoyed the original book series a lot more mostly because the TV series only extracts the characters but the story itself is so different.  This book, the first in the Stefan Diaries series, was pretty much creating a back story for the TV series for the fans who want to know more.  Its definitely a strategic move.  Its an alright book. I never really felt compelled or pulled in.  I never really felt the urgency of the situation because I do know the outcome and the general idea of what happens, especially since this was written a 2-3 years back or something and the TV series has touched some of the parts already.

I’m going to keep this short. If you haven’t watched the series, this might actually be more interesting to read though.  The Vampire Diaries TV series and book series both have engaging storylines in their own way.  It all depends which path you choose to take.  I got this book only because it was to fill up an Amazon order to get free shipping and it was half price promotion.  My expectations were not high to begin with and it was not exceeded.

This actually puts me in a little rut.  I never start a series and not finish it…which also means, I need to hunt down the other books slowly 😉  Although, I think the next books could be more interesting since it might shed light on actual details that the series never mentions.  Who knows, right? I like to stay positive and expect the best!

*Just a quick update on my 2013 Reading Challenge in Goodreads! This completes my 18th book out of 30 goal 🙂 I realize its past the halfway point but I figured it was worth a mention 🙂 Things are on track 😉 If you have Goodreads, feel free to add me as a friend!*