Evan’s point of view is presented in third-person limited, and his sections are possibly the most interestingly written. His voice is surprisingly descriptive, but there is a lack of sentimentality about his living conditions and the grim reality of what he is being trained to do. When Ben narrates, the book becomes a soldier’s story. Cassie’s sections run on silence, memory, and action, giving us a visceral experience of her reality.

Upon my second reading, I am almost persuaded that Yancey has deliberately crafted Cassie to be utterly normal with one very flawed moment for both she and Evan, but this is your cue to have your comments ready to convince me in either direction.Ī consequence of the difference in male and female voice is that when the book switches narration between Cassie, Ben, and Evan, the book also shifts slightly in tone. This is such a dangerous concept to perpetually romanticize. Initially this disparity between the male and female character development feels uncomfortable, especially when Cassie is written as the kind of girl who says, “Don’t kiss me,” twice-threatening bodily harm to Evan if he kisses her again-but succumbs to the kiss anyway. As a character, Evan is intentionally inscrutable, but more interesting because of this quality. The invasion has changed him from a normal teenager to a brainwashed army grunt to an enlightened rebel. Where Cassie’s sole motivation is the need to survive and find her brother, Ben goes through this incredible emotional transformation. It’s such a difficult determination to make, especially because the two other principle characters in the book, Ben and Evan, have much deeper inner lives. It’s a fine line though between relatable and generic, and I’m still on the fence if Cassie is the former or latter. Schools us.” She’s a character who serves the narrative first, before existing in her own right.

Roughly half of the book is written in her voice, and Yancey uses her as his authorial surrogate, explaining the waves of the alien invasion, describing backstory, and making tumblr-ready aphorisms like, “It’s the strong who remain, the bent but unbroken … What doesn’t kill us sharpens us. Her personality consists of sarcastic quips, and a bleak attitude despite her strong will to keep moving and living. Cassie, Yancey’s first narrator, is fairly generic as far as teenage female survivalists go.

The 5th wave book 4