Rating: 5/5

“And what happens when we go soft?”
“We die.”
“And do we want to die.”
“Not yet.”

What the hell?! I think I am more confused by this book then I was the first! But this book, just like the first, is a crazy, wild, thrill ride exploding with action, drama, and a whole lot of feelings. Rick Yancey has such a talent for writing. His writing draws the reader into every emotion and scene as if they are living in it. His ability to write a novel in so many different view points but never lose the voice of the particular character whose point of view it is is uncanny. Yancey definitely exceeds at his craft. He also excels at character development especially in this book with Ringer. He took a very one sided character we meet in The 5th Wave and turned her into a fascinating character with many different attributes that allow her to grow into the person she should have always been. Being able to see Ringer with such compassion and integrity from inside her head became my favorite storyline in the book. Yes, she beat out the love story between Cassie and Evan. I applaud Yancey for his success in this unbelievable page turner that really does keep you on the edge of your seat. (Seriously I bit down all my nails in anticipation.) Now I just wait for the inevitable conclusion which I hope comes sooner rather than later.

Okay there is no way I can write anymore without spoilers. I have many a thing to say. So feel free to read my favorite quotes but then stop unless you’ve read the book!

“That’s the cost. That’s the price. Get ready, because when you crush the humanity out of humans, you’re left with humans with no humanity.”

“I wonder if they’ve finally broken me; after surviving the tsunami that took my home, the plague that took my family, the death camp that took my hope, the innocent little girl who took my bullet, I am terminal, done, finished, and was it ever in question, never if but always when?”

“The temperature of true rage is absolute zero, and mine is deeper than the ocean, wider than the universe.”

“You never know when the truth will come home. You can’t choose the time. The time chooses you.”

“Ben and I convened the latest oh-we’re-screwed planning meeting in the hallway.”

“‘They made a major mistake,’ he blurted out, ‘the dumb bastards, when they didn’t start by killing you first.'”
“‘Benjamin Thomas Parish, that was the sweetest and most bizarre compliment anyone’s ever given me.'”

“When you look death in the eye and death blinks first, nothing is impossible.”

“But there’re the things we tell ourselves about the truth, and there’re the things the truth tells about us.”

“Finding the truth was like chasing the horizon.”

“Love is the one thing in the universe that’s unpredictable.”

SPOILER ALERT!!! SPOILER ALERT!!! SPOILER ALERT!!!

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So a small heads up. This review has been sitting half finished for 3 weeks so my emotional review right now might not be as intense as it should but here it goes anyway…

When we first met Ringer in The 5th Wave she came off has very cold and robotic but now we got half the book written in her point of view and oh my god! I actually felt bad for her! She was honestly tortured and broken by Vosch and his little alien experiment but she fought through it just like I imagined she would and in the process she gained the humanity I never thought she had. And then we meet Razor, the quiet kid who just brings her meals and cleans her bedpan, and then all of a sudden they have created some secret way of communicating! I kept trying to figure it out, I knew they were doing something all along. AND THEN AND THEN…they finally escape from Vosch’s camp and with Teacup and you think oh yay happy ending they just need to meet up with the others but then BUT THEN NOOOOOOO! This was just another test for Ringer and her new alien hybrid powers. WTF. I could not believe Razor was just a pawn. (Well I should have figured that out because pretty much everyone is Vosch’s pawn.) And I was devasted because it was Razor who brought back the humanity in Ringer! And then they hate each other and then they realize they don’t hate each other, they love each other and then they do the dirty and then Ringer had to go and not listen to him when he told her to run! Typical Ringer. AND THEN AND THEN AND THEN LIFE PRETTY MUCH ENDS FOR ME AND MY HEART GETS RIPPED APART! I can’t believe that Razor killed Teacup to free Ringer of her burden. And the Razor had to die. NOOOOO! I get it, I do, but now I wonder what kind of person Ringer will become in the third book. Is she going to be cold hearted again or was this love enough to give her back her humanity permanently?

As far as the other story line in the book. I am so happy that Evan didn’t die, again. I think Rick Yancey just likes to make the reader keep thinking he is dead. I love that Evan and Cassie found each other again twice in this book and especially at the end, so at least I got a little bit of a happy ending. However, this whole part of the story has kind of slipped my mind since it has been so long since I finished the book and lets face it the Ringer story line was much better. The one thing I did like was the very short sections that were written in Poundcake’s POV and then the fact that he was the one that killed Grace. I felt like he got to have his redeeming moment and felt complete in his life for saving the others since he was unable to save his mother and he lost his baby brother.

Now all we need is a date and a title for the third book. This is going to be the longest wait ever…