Mass power outages. Massive tsunamis. Deadly viruses. Humans turned aliens. Captured children. What do all of these have in common? They’re all waves that are part of a larger plan.

     The 5th Wave, written by Rick Yancey and published in 2013, tells the story of Cassie Sullivan and her journey through a post-apocalyptic alien invasion. Cassie struggles to push through and resist giving in to the enemy, and her only motivation is saving her five-year-old brother, Sammy “Nugget” Sullivan, from a camp established by the Others (known to us as aliens). The novel depicts five different waves of destruction caused by the Others, each one increasing with intensity.

     Although the general concept can be deemed as cliché and overused because of the recent dystopian society trend, The 5th Wave appears to take a different approach to the concept of an imperfect, post-apocalyptic world. Compared to other novels of the same genre, The 5th Wave’s setting is more realistic, using everyday humans as the main characters and the familiar small-town setting, which in turn causes what is happening in the book to be easier to imagine in the readers’ heads as they move through the novel.

     Each character has something that makes them stand out, and that’s what makes the story solid. Cassie loses her mother in the third wave, the virus, causing her to develop intense trust issues. Cassie’s high school crush, Ben “Zombie” Parish, is persistent in his efforts to resist the aliens, which the book refers to as the Others. Sammy is placed into military training at a very young age. The main characters, as well as the supporting ones not mentioned, become stronger and more stubborn as the novel progresses because of what they’ve been through/experienced.

     Overall, the ratings given below accurately reflect the quality of the book, because Yancey works at creating a scenario that is easily paralleled to the problems of today’s society and approaches it in a way that hasn’t been done before.

RATINGS:

Goodreads: 4.2/5

Barnes and Noble: 4.3/5

Common Sense Media: 5/5

     The movie version of The 5th Wave follows the same plot as the novel. It also contains all the same characters that the novel depicts.

     Overall, the movie accurately reflects what the novel contains. The pacing of the movie, however, initially moves faster than the book. This is shown through the first wave appearing within the first ten minutes of the movie and the next wave appearing quickly afterward. Once everything in the movie is established, the rest of the movie develops at a rate that is easy to follow.

     The 5th Wave doesn’t follow any alien-movie stereotypes at all. It captures the Others (the aliens) in a way that appears to be better than the novel does by making them as human as possible and not using any computer-generated characters to depict them. The characters are exactly how they are described in the book in terms of personality and appearance.

     The only negative thing about the movie is that it wasn’t as suspenseful as the novel. The viewer of the movie is easily able to draw conclusions and accurately figure out how the movie will turn out.

     Despite having the ratings that it does, the movie is a good representation of the novel and is definitely a must-see.

RATINGS:

IMDb- 5.6/10

Rotten Tomatoes-17%

Metacritic-33%

Verdict: if you want to see both, definitely read the book first, then see the movie. If you have to pick between either one, choose the movie.