One of the best things about blogging is the opportunity for people to share their opinions with likeminded people and given my love of literature, I am always open to recommendations of what books I should check out. In that same vein, here is a quick overview of a couple of my own recent reads (without any major spoilers). Please feel free to share your own thoughts if you have also read these particular books or even to leave your own suggestions of what I should read in the future if you, like me, are always on the lookout for a great story to get stuck into.
The 5th Wave – Rick Yancey
I really enjoyed this book. At its core it is a dystopian, supernatural thriller but there are a broad range of themes and ideas explored throughout; from love and human relationships to the devastating effects of war. The story is told in first-person but from the perspective of a few different characters, with focus shifting between them at intermittent points. Though at first I thought this slightly threw the pace off balance – mainly because I had already become so invested in the charismatic teenage heroine, Cassie – it soon became more accessible when the characters’ stories began heading towards an inevitable collision. With the two main protagonists going through very different experiences from each other, it can at times feel almost like two separate stories being told simultaneously in the mid-section of the book but this soon rectifies itself and becomes a wholly enjoyable read.
I rated The 5th Wave 4/5 on Goodreads.
Sleepwalking – Nicola Morgan
Another futuristic, dystopian, YA novel in which the hopes of mankind fall firmly in the hands of the teenage heroes; I had not even considered beforehand the arguably similar core themes when I chose to read these two books back-to-back. I found a few parts of Sleepwalking a bit rushed and didn’t find the heroine as appealing as I did Cassie in The 5th Wave, so perhaps did not get quite as immersed into the world of this book but what I did love was the heavily rooted links to literature throughout. Overall I loved the concept of the story and did enjoy reading it, though, without giving anything away; I will say I found the ending somewhat frustrating and contradictory to what had previously seemed to be the central theme of the book.
I rated Sleepwalking 3/5 on Goodreads.
Have you read The 5th Wave or Sleepwalking? What did you think?