The Last Star (The 5th Wave, #3) by Rick Yancey
Genres: Sci-Fi (YA), Dystopian (YA)
Pages: 338
Goodreads
The enemy is Other. The enemy is us.
They’re down here, they’re up there, they’re nowhere. They want the Earth, they want us to have it. They came to wipe us out, they came to save us.
But beneath these riddles lies one truth: Cassie has been betrayed. So has Ringer. Zombie. Nugget. And all 7.5 billion people who used to live on our planet. Betrayed first by the Others, and now by ourselves.
In these last days, Earth’s remaining survivors will need to decide what’s more important: saving themselves…or saving what makes us human.
* This is the third and final book in Yancey’s The 5th Wave trilogy. If you have no read the other books, I recommend you not read this review. However, if you still want to, there will be NO spoilers in this review.
** Also, it’s been quite a while since I read the other two books that I can’t remember everything in regards to the writing style and character development (I did have to google some of it).
Well, the finale to the story was a bit lackluster. Sure, it moved quickly, but really, not a lot happened (of significance) until the end. By that point, everything went so quickly and a bit clunky that I was left unsatisfied. Things happened hat should have shocked me but I was left with a sort of “meh” feeling. With that said, I still enjoyed the overall plot, it was actually the characters that left me feeling this way.
I felt the most disconnected from the characters in this one. I remember the earlier books having multiple point-of-views, but I don’t remember them blending together so much. If it wasn’t for the names at the beginning of each point-of-view change, I would not have been able to discern which perspective I was reading. I remember loving The 5th Wave and hearing from all the different perspectives, but in this one, I just did not follow it as well. Yancey didn’t create wildly independent personalities for each point-of-view and that definitely changed how I viewed each character. The only things that would help me really tell the difference between the characters would be certain word choices (like curse words and pop culture references), but that wasn’t enough for me.
On top of that, I wasn’t convinced of any of the romance. In fact, it was almost non-existent. Which is not something to make me dislike a book, but it was a huge element of the series earlier and it fell flat in this one so much that it was barely there and barely believable.
Yancey’s writing is good, but I just didn’t love it. Although, I believe that is just because it’s not my style anymore. I think other people will enjoy his way of blending together this poetic tone with a more young one. For me, that blend was slightly awkward to read. It would throw me off when one paragraph would be all metaphors and deal with a serious internal thought, and the next would be all about the teen angst. The pacing, however, was right up my alley. Because the entire story takes place over a five-day period, the story accelerates quickly.
Nothing stood out in this one, nothing made me love it like I did the previous two. Whether I just grew out of my interest in the story, or there was something different about this one, I’m not actually sure. Like I said earlier, it’s been a long time since I read the other two books and I can’t remember everything. Either way, I was left feeling unsatisfied and disconnected from characters that I used to love.
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| Overall: | 2 / 5 |
10 Comments
Well now I don’t feel too bad about never getting into this series. I read about 1/3 of the first book and was so bored that I gave up. I wanted to wait and see how people felt about the finale before deciding whether to continue and… meh. I’m sorry you didn’t love this book! Hopefully your next read is better.
Tracy @ Cornerfolds
Yeah, if you weren’t digging the first one the rest of the series probably would have sucked for you >.< haha
I have this book sitting on my shelf since July, despite not having read The Fifth Wave yet. So after buying it, I went to watch the movie. Honestly, it kinda made me lose interest in the series but the first two books seem to be enjoyed by many so I might give it a go sometime.
It might be good for you if you are interested in aliens. I kind of wish I didn’t binge read book 1 & 2 because by the time 3 came out I had completely forgetting major plot points :/
I’ve only watched the movie for this series but was really interested in reading the books. Now, I’m not so sure. Your experience sounds like mine with The Hunger Games. Disappointing end for me. Thanks for the review, I think I’ll skip this one.
Ah, I hope you’re not missing out on anything! It’s a good story, and I like the lesson from it, I think I just got over Yancey’s writing. It wasn’t my favorite :/
You know, I have this problem sometimes with YA series. I start one and book one rocks, maybe book two does too, and then a third comes out and I’m like… boring. lol maybe it’s me but it’s happened. I do want to see the movie though and just enjoy that. The one thing I d like the sound of is the 5 day period- I do like it sometimes when a book moves fast like that. Sorry this one was a little disappointing!
I’m usually the opposite, book 2 always sucks to me then book 3 is good again. So, this one was a huge let down. It wasn’t terrible, but I didn’t enjoy it nearly as much as I expected to.
Aw…I’m sorry you felt disappointed with this one. 🙁 That’s what I’ve been hearing from a lot of reviews too – that it didn’t quite meet people’s expectations. Nonetheless, thanks for sharing and, as always, fabulous review! <3
I saw the mixed reviews as well, so I was warned xD Ah well, I still really enjoyed the first two. I’ll just remember those lol