The 5th Wave Book Review

The first time I encountered "The 5th Wave" was through the movie's trailer and my first thought was 'Chloe Grace Moretz versus an Alien invasion?!' You could say that my interest was ticketed, it is Chloe Grace Moretz! After a little research, I found out that the movie is based on a Young Adult novel by Rick Yancey. 

I got a copy of the book and started reading. I've read a lot of Young Adult books, but not one with aliens. I'm actually not a big fan of aliens. Paul knows how much I hate it, when the TV is on 'Ancient Aliens' (Paul insists on the show, even as background noise). I really didn't know what to expect when I started reading, but I really loved the tone of the book. 

I liked the spunky lead character, Cassie. I love reading her thoughts and I like how she tells the story. She's not your typical damsel-in-distress. Cassie is your tough-Alien-apocalyptic chic. I love how she was surviving alone, inside her tent, living on cans of sardines and going to a nearby store to stock on water, every few days. I love that as she is fighting to survive, she is also fighting for her humanity. 

Then, things start getting weird. The reader is introduced to to different characters with weird enough story arcs, but the one that I can't seem to wrap my head around SPOILER ALERT is what the 5th Wave actually is; the creation of child soldiers (like 5 years old kids) by the enemy to kill what is left of the human race. 

Once you get past the cruel and gruesome training the child soldier goes through things get pretty interesting. Not sure though if a SPOILER ALERT Romeo-and-Juliet / Alien-Human story is going to work but that seems to be among the sub-plots in the novel. Thankfully it's not where the whole story evolves around in. 

It's funny because you want to condone the cheesy romance between the strapping handsome stranger and the beautiful lead character but you can't stop yourself from reading it. 

Once you get around the romance (that you secretly don't want to read) and the child soldiers, it's pretty exciting stuff. 

Opening across the Philippines on Jan. 20, 2016, “The 5^th Wave” is distributed by Columbia Pictures, local office of Sony Pictures Releasing International.

Chloe Grace Moretz is 'bad ass' Cassie in Alien Dystopian "The 5th Wave"

You can say that deep down I'm a bit of a "Clo-Bro", you know fans of the lovely and talented Chloe Grace Moretz ( Yes, us 'Clo-Bros' could be girls too!) so I was naturally thrilled when I found out that Ms. Moretz would be playing the lead in the next YA Post-Apocalyptic Dystopian.

In Rick Yancey's 'The 5th Wave', the Earth has been stricken by a series of 'waves' which has left the earth and it's population wiped out-well, mostly.

Strong-willed survivor Cassie Sullivan, who is played by Moretz in the movie adaptation has a promise to keep and with a worn-out teddy bear and her trusty M16 by her side, Cassie will do whatever she can to keep that promise. 

“Cassie Sullivan is a great heroine – but she’d never describe herself that way. She’d say she’s just a girl who has lost her brother, and will do whatever it takes to get back to him,” says Chloë Grace Moretz, who takes on the lead role of Cassie in Columbia Pictures’ adaptation of Rick Yancey’s bestselling novel “The 5th Wave,” the first book in his planned trilogy.

In the film, four waves of increasingly deadly attacks have left most of Earth decimated. Against a backdrop of fear and distrust, Cassie is on the run, desperately trying to save her younger brother. As she prepares for the inevitable and lethal 5th wave, Cassie teams up with a young man who may become her final hope – if she can only trust him.

For the filmmakers, Moretz combined the right combination of talents and traits: she is a seasoned performer (especially needed if the character would be appearing in multiple films), but, like her character, is herself just coming of age. The result was a perfect fit of actress and character – and a match that only became more deeply ingrained for the filmmakers as filming proceeded.

“As an artist and writer I do believe in serendipity,” comments Yancey. “I have the writer’s tendency to become overly emotionally involved with my characters. So it was very important to me when I heard that they will be making a film that they got the right actors, and everyone’s going to agree that they got the right actors. I can’t imagine anyone else but Chloë now in the role. From the very first scenes that were shot I knew that we had found our Cassie.”

“Chloë became pretty much synonymous with the character because she inhabits Cassie so well,” adds director J Blakeson. “Playing somebody who’s normal in extraordinary circumstances, rather than somebody extraordinary in normal circumstances, gave Chloë the ability to plug into stuff from her own life, and you can really see that coming through in her performance. That allows the viewer to really go there with her and makes it easier to accept the big leaps of the story. Watching your own world slowly evolve into an Orwellian world is more terrifying than if we were just dropped there in the first place.”

“We were very lucky to get Chloë because she’s so proficient at everything,” Blakeson continues. “She’s fantastic at emotional scenes, family scenes, fun scenes, but she’s really good at the tougher action sequences – she’s wildly experienced for somebody so young.”

In fact, despite her age, Moretz has done so many action films that she has a very good sense of the sequences she can handle herself. “I've done action since I was 11 years old,” says Moretz. “Action is my second hand… it’s super fun and easy for me. It's fun when it's the real thing. The car fight ended up being my favorite sequence to shoot. It was really awesome and it's exciting to see fighting done in close quarters.”

The most important thing in Cassie’s life is her brother, Sam – and she’ll do anything to protect him. “Cassie and Sam are the yin and yang of this story – they’re both going through the same issues, in different locations and under different circumstances, that come up over and over again in the movie,” says Blakeson. “By the time they get back together, they’ve both been through a similar experience and are very different people from when they started.”

I've been reading the book, I'm almost done and will be out with a book review soon! Hoping to finish the book before the movie comes out next week! 

Opening across the Philippines on Jan. 20, 2016, “The 5^th Wave” is distributed by Columbia Pictures, local office of Sony Pictures Releasing International.