Ani's Book Abyss

The Last Star

by Rick Yancey

Book 3 (final) of The 5th Wave

I'm going to be totally honest and admit that I went into this book expecting... well, I don't know what I was expecting from it other than a struggle of a read.  When I first read The 5th Wave, I was completely drawn into it and loved the entire book through.  I loved Cassie and her snark!  I really did.  I was looking forward to the rest of the trilogy.  Then came The Infinite Sea, and I don't know whether it was just my reading mood or the book, but things just didn't work out--mainly, I felt like the book was just more repetition of the same things from the first book, but in a more dragged out, boring narration.

No offense to Ringer or any Ringer lovers out there, but her POV was difficult to follow--she was just so boring.  When we got around to Cassie, or even Zombie, I was a bit more placated.  So I had kind of been dreading the concluding book of The 5th Wave, worried that it wouldn't live up to the hype of the first book.  I wanted to finish this trilogy, but I wasn't as excited going into The Last Star as I probably should have been.

The Last Star, however, came back around with an enjoyable, well-rounded, even if open-ended, resolution.  Sure, a lot of the book DID drag out, and I felt like there were some side tangents that seemed unnecessary.  Also, a lot of the time, there were events that were either WTF moments... or just didn't make any sense to me at all.

Cassie's snarky POV was very welcome, except I feel like maybe she went a bit overboard with some of it and got annoying at some points.  Still, I once again welcomed her narration more than the rest of the characters.

And speaking of POVs...

--Side Tangent Rant Warning--

I've mentioned before that I'm not exactly the most thrilled with first person POV.  A lot of times it works, but I like being able to see what other characters are thinking or doing as well.  When you get a first person POV, the story and it's world are subjective to the one character who is telling it.  It's a popular POV used in young adult books, I've noticed; and I suppose it serves the purpose of letting the reader feel like the main character is more easily related to.  So I can usually read first person without problems even if it's not my preferred POV.

But then you get books like The 5th Wave where, you not only get a first person POV, you get alternating first person POVs... and then you get random third person, as well as third person present tense, and then some.  A lot of others might be fine with this, but I personally find the flip-flopping POVs a little confusing and frustrating, especially when Cassie's and Zombie's voices aren't that much different from each other.  Ringer's voice was much more unique and I never had a problem knowing it was her first person, but I got confused a few times and had to flip back a few pages or make a guess based on context if I had to put the book down for one reason or another in the middle of a chapter.  The third person POVs were even more out of place and made me wonder why we didn't just write the entire book in third person to begin with.

Anyway, aside from the whole POV thing and the other little quibbles I mentioned, I found The Last Star actually quite enjoyable and easy to read.  The ending had a sudden hit of FEELS I hadn't been anticipating, and despite the strangeness and the chaotic cluster of the entire adventure and journey surrounding these kids, I really DID feel like the ending was quite well-rounded.

Just don't get me started on the romances in the book--it might not be a good outcome.


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2016 Reading Challenges:
• Goodreads Reading Challenge
• BookLikes Reading Challenge
• Bookish Resolutions Challenge
• COYER Summer Vacation 2016 -- Bingo Board Two | Square O12 -- Post Apocolyptic