Name: Lacy W's review of The last star by Richard Yancey
Item: The last star
Rating: 2
Author: Lacy W

Richard Yancey

"The enemy is other. The enemy is us. There'y 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 lasy days, Earth's remaining survivors will need to decide what's more important: saving themselves ... or saving what makes us human." - Publisher

the final book of the 5th wave

The last star

Lacy W

I don't know if it just me or it's the book slump in me but i didn't really enjoy this book compared to the first two books. Maybe it's been a year the last time I read The Infinite Sea but I really dragged myself in this one. I couldn't get into the story (i think I'm already on the 60? to 70% of the story before I got the grip of it.

First, I really noticed the difference of writing of the author between this and the first two books. There's something really gripping in the first two books that's why it became one of the best reads of my 2014 or 2015 (I'm not really sure in the date but boy I was so hyped in this book I gave it 5 stars!!!!!) There are some details and events in the story that was out of place in my opinion????

*SPOILERS*
Cassie was the first reason why I enjoyed this series in the first place. I find her really bad ass that's why it really hooked me. Her POV's were like the best for me. For me she's the real focus in the story but I don't know she kind of went "blah" in this book. I like Ringer okay and I still think Ben's one of the best character here besides Cassie of course, but why I felt like she's so left alone in the story? Well maybe that's the purpose of the story, Cassie has her flaws and she's not always strong. If you asked me, I was never a fan of the Evan/Cassie pairing even in the first two books, I was shipping Cassie and Ben!!!! Evan though, I hope he found happiness later on. And Nugget, he's got the best character development in the whole series. I just want to hug him (and Ben too lol) BUT CAN WE TALK ABOUT THE ENDING!! SHE DIED OH LORD CASSIE DIED. SHE SAVED EVERYONE. I was tearing up when she's all alone in the space, I felt so lonely and I just want to grab her back in the Earth but it's her decision. It was such a bittersweet ending.

Congratulations Rick Yancey for finishing this series. I'm looking forward for your other works.

Colleen

3 Stars (barely)

This review contains spoilers.

This series started off so promising but really went down the drain after the first book. While I did not hate The Last Star the way I did The Infinite Sea, I did not like it nearly as much as I did The 5th Wave. My reason for giving The Last Star a three star rating is mostly that it did not piss me off the way its predecessor did. But even with how boring and annoying The Infinite Sea was, I still held hope that Yancey would manage to revive something good for the finale. But the most I can say about this book is that it did not suck as badly as it could have. It definitely did not redeem itself, and the series overall was a disappointment. 

As with the first two books, I had a hard time engaging with the beginning of the story. Yancey just does not write engrossing openings. Once again, I had to push through to get to the somewhat better parts.

Nearly the whole book takes place over four days so the whole thing felt rushed. There was no atmosphere or build. I suppose one could argue that the first two books and the many months those books span are the build up... but it was so inconsistent and choppy. There was no flow. It was go-go-go the whole time with no breathing room. At least with the chapters being grouped by days, the segmentation finally made sense. The chapters still go overboard with cliffhanger endings though. It might be even worse in this book since nearly every moment is packed (over packed, really) with action. And yet, hardly anything happens, and a lot of what does happen is repetitive of what has already happened. 

There were far too many points of view. Even more than in the previous books. The writing also skips from first person for some views (Cassie, Ringer, Ben) and third person for other random views (Evan, Sam). Cassie's section were written as if they were a diary, but they clearly could not have been. She kept a running monologue of things that were happening to her in present tense - there was no chance to write them down. Still she mentions things to the effect of "No one will ever read this anyway." She may have previously kept a diary, but there was no way that her sections of the story were written down. It just added to the inconsistency of the story.

The symbolism was entirely too heavy handed particularly with the whole "Last Star" thing. That was clearly built up to over all three books but it went so far as to reduce the characters to nothing more than what they represented. I get it; Cassie was named after a star constellation; she spends a lot of time thinking she is the last human on earth and that she represents humanity; she goes to the stars... blah, blah, blah. I fully expected the "Last Star" symbolism to be present but not to be so overdone. I should have known given how forcefully the "Infinite Sea" analogy was smashed into the second book, that the finale would have to out do that.

This story was still floundering from the muddled plot of The Infinite Sea. The true motivation and plot of the aliens was still never explained satisfactorily. The story seemed repetitive in a lot of ways which made it hard to be engaged. The fact that I read it in a day and a half was mostly because I was home sick on a weekend not because I could not put the book down. I just did not have anything better to do.

The non-stop action did not leave much time for cheesy romance, but it was still present. Mainly through the bad sex scenes. Is no one else disturbed by this horrible, awkward teenage sex written by a man in his fifties. Particularly since the sex scenes in both books 2 & 3 are all written from the perspective of sixteen and seventeen-year-old girls. HOW IS NO ONE CREEPED OUT BY THIS??? (view spoiler)[ Still, it is good to know that even in the end of the world teenagers will still be dumb enough to have unprotected sex and get knocked up. (hide spoiler)] These are not explicit sex scenes but there is enough detail to make things very uncomfortable. The whole way the sex scenes in both books 2 and 3 were written made me feel decidedly icky reading them. I was literately cringing. And it is not just teenage sex; it is Angry Virgin Sex. (view spoiler)[Seriously, what sixteen-year-old girl looses her virginity out of anger? How realistic is it that she gets so pissed that she jumps his bones and her first time is angry hate sex? Even accounting for Apocalypse, that is disturbing. 
"'We Shouldn't.'
I almost laughted. Well, the shouldn't list is awfully long, Evan. I scored my teeth across his stomach. The land beneath my tongue quivered, shock and aftershock.
Shouldn'tNo, we probably shouldn't. Some cravings can never be satisfied. Some discoveries demean the quest." Just... Eww. And:
"My hands roamed his body, an undiscovered country, which henceforth I shall call Evanland. Hills and valleys, desert plains and forest glens, the landscape pockmarked with the scars of battle, crisscrossed by fault lines and unexpected vistas. And I am Cassie the Conquistador: The more territory I conquer, the more I want.
His Chest heaved: a subterranean quake that rose to the surface like a tsunamic wave. His eyes were wide and wet and filled with something that closely resembled fear." Right because fear and wet eyes are really something you want to see in the person you are getting it on with. So healthy. That was also another example of a greatly overused analogy. Oh but there is more:
"My face is hot. I'm thinking of the night I landed on the shores of Evanland and planted my flag upon that sculpted beach." First of all, who talks like that? Second, EWWW. (hide spoiler)] That may sound prudish but the whole thing was disturbing.

Ringer was not as annoying as in the previous books. Her character was slightly more rounded but still severely lacking. (view spoiler)[Her pregnancy was obvious from the first mention of nausea. And of course that meant she was going to survive, because you just can't kill off the pregnant teen mom... Hello, predictability. That really made the ending even more anticlimactic. (hide spoiler)]

Cassie's spunk gets a few shining moments, but she is still very overshadowed in this book even with the large part she plays. She is reduced to a symbol, an analogy, and so her character looses touch with what made it enjoyable to read about in the first place. In turning her into some overblown representation of humanity and in absorbing everyone else (quite literally as it turns out) Cassie the individual is erased. And since Cassie was mostly what I liked about the start of the series, it made it very hard to care about the rest of what was going on. She is in almost every way completely different from what she started out as and it is not as if she organically grew into a different person. No, this is just inconsistency in the writing. Because Cassie from book 1 and Cassie from book 3 do not sound or act anything alike. She lost everything that made her a enjoyable character.

Ben's character recovers somewhat since in the second book he was mainly viewed through Ringer's eyes and she saw (still sees) him primarily as a goofy pretty boy. Though in this book she relies on him more, she is still very condescending to him. Ben narrates enough sections that he can make up some ground. And he does get a few good one liners in. But mostly his sections are filler.

Evan's character kind of drops off the map. He is a major catalyst in the story, but he really does not feature in it much. And the little he does is mostly just carried over from the first two books. If someone read this book without having read the first two, they would be hard pressed to understand who Evan was or why he mattered. Even when he is present he has very little dialogue or present action, mostly he is thought about after the fact in the other characters' monologues. It felt more like Evan nipped off to go have some fun and left a cardboard cutout of himself but no one noticed and just kept having one-sided conversations with it. 

Vosch's character never really made sense to me. Sure he was crazy but... it just did not work for me. His attentions towards Ringer never made sense. Actually, almost nothing that he did made sense. The whole plot with him and the aliens never made sense. And I hated the cope out of avoiding explaining alien technology with the overused excuse of "well, mere humans could not understand." Don't play that get out of jail free card to make up for your plot not being well thought out. It was poor writing and a predictable plot.

The survival element is completely gone. The teenage martyrs saving the world is in full swing and eclipsed any real meat to the story.

Other thoughts: There was still a lot of swearing although not quite as bad as book 2. Still, the dialogue was nearly laughable at times and not intentionally. 

Things were just too inconsistent: the characters, the plot, the writing. It just didn't work for me overall. I wish someone else would completely rewrite the second and third books and make them less disappointing. The quirkiness morphed into awkward strangeness and inconsistency. A few good ideas that were all poorly executed. 

The ending cuts off and fades to black just when things start getting sort of interesting. And he does the obnoxious cliffhanger but then slowly explains things in a backward manner throughout the terrible epilogue. That is absolutely one writing trope that most annoys me. I did not read through three whole books and some terrible sex scenes just to have the author cheaply deny the reader the ending. It irks me so much when a writer builds something up so much for so long and then snatches away the satisfaction of actually experiencing it. The whole epilogue felt confused, forced, and it the most poorly written part of the whole book. What a terrible way to end a series. (view spoiler)[ And what was with the Ben/ Ringer relationship? That was never more than a one-sided flirtation, so for them to end up together felt like they just settled for each other because they both survived. And naming her baby Cassie felt like a cheap, over-the-top gesture. The whole situation just felt contrived. (hide spoiler)] I would not be surprised if there ended up being some sort of spin-off series just to drag the torture out some more. Isn't that what they do with all successful (yet disappointing) YA series now? (Cough, cough Cassandra Clare)

Overall, I can not really say if I would recommend this series to anyone. After the first book, I definitely would have said yes. But having finished the series, I am less inclined to suggest anyone else trudge through it. Most likely a lot of other people will not be as discouraged by the writing as I was and may very well still enjoy reading these books.

RATING FACTORS:
Ease of Reading: 3 Stars
Writing Style: 3 Stars
Characters and Character Development: 2 Stars
Plot Structure and Development: 2 Stars
Level of Captivation: 3 Stars
Originality: 3 Stars

Emily Ann Guerreor 

** spoiler alert **
           I was disappointed with the fact that Cassie died. My review would be more of a 4.5 if that was an option because this book was very good. Very engaging and there was so many twists that I did not see coming. I wish Cassie would’ve lived or that atleast Evan wouldn’t have lived to see what she died. I stay wondering though, what will happen to ringers baby as she growls older? What would happened to here when Ben and ringer die? 
Very great book definitely recommend

Man, what a disappointment. My first 2 star rating on Goodreads in the year I've had this thing. And I was so jacked about it, too. Ugh. I hope that this doesn't put a damper on my reading. I was so looking forward to finally finishing this series and getting all the answers I wanted. I didn't really get what I was wanted. 

Let me explain. I am going to assume that this takes place pretty much what happened after the second book. But I was just so damn confused, I had really no idea what was going on. Not to mention there were 8 freaking POVs with 3 of them being first person. The rest were in the third. So that was really hard to keep track of. 

I adored  The 5th Wave.  It was my first introduction to science fiction. I was amazed! Then the movie released with one of my favorite actors of all time, Chloe Grace Moretz. I read  The Infinite Sea.  A bit boring but necessary. I remember there being a lot of information. I admit, there was about a year or less between that read and this read. But I didn't think I had forgotten THAT much. 

I don't know. I was just so damn confused most of the time. I also didn't like the fact that Cassie didn't get much time as the others. Ringer was one of the main POVs. I didn't really care for her in the second book. Zombie/Ben was okay. He was more annoying than anything. 

Then the whole ending. I was just like really? I never got the answers I wanted. (view spoiler)[ Did the aliens lose? Are they still on Earth? What really happened to Cassie? Is the world being built back up? What was the whole deal with Evan? He was dead and then he wasn't? Is Ringer still paralyzed?  (hide spoiler)] There are just so many questions that I didn't get an answer too and I was disappointed in so many ways.

Andrea Pais

Didn't love it, didn't hate it. Definitely not what I expected but I couldn't put it down.

Mark Anderson

Shay Henrion

I hate books that don't have 100% happy endings

Nicole Dykeman

I really liked the first book in this series. The second was disappointing. But I really wanted to finish it. Still, it took me more than sixth months to get past the first 12 pages or so, and I ended up listening to the majority of it on audiobook and then finishing the last bit on paper. It's not my favorite conclusion ever, but I thought it was satisfying - I know now what happens to all of the characters I cared about (specifically, Sam, Cassie, and Ben).

I've decided that I don't care much for books with multiple points of view. When it changes too frequently, a lot can get lost. My brain can't handle all the jumping around. Still, I thought this finale was engaging and entertaining. I'm glad I finally came back to finish the series.

Tanya Segarra

The whole book was painful to read. I liked the first book, and I didn't love the second one but it was fine and I tried reading this one but it took me months to read because I couldn't get through it. It drove me crazy how immature the protagonist (Cassie) was and how stupid her thoughts were but I had invested a lot in the first books so I just couldn't leave it unfinished. I had to know the end. I'm not giving it one star because the ending made it worth it. It was a good ending, I was pleased. Loved it even. But the book overall sucked in writing.

Noelia Abreu

2.5 stars.

I don't know. I didn't love it or hate it, I'm just indifferent.

Alex

** spoiler alert **
           Can someone explain to me what even happened in this book? I read 300 pages of WTF plot and what I understand is:

1. Aliens aren't in bodies but are still real, they're actually trying to save humanity (from what and how I seriously don't understand). 

2. Aliens are still bad but why they did the 5th Wave and why they've accumulated recruits and Silencers I still DONT KNOW. 

3. Cassie sacrifices herself for humanity, which I GET. But, isn't humanity basically killing each other off by themselves at this point? Aren't there way more brainwashed kids and Silencers than regular innocent humans now?? What's the POINT? The damage has been done. 

4.. Ringer has a baby, Evan is completely broken, Sam and Meagan are whatever, and Ben is the only good thing about this book. 

I'm so lost in a plot that got lost in itself. This book tried to explain the aliens and this mass human genocide but I am more confused than when I started and less content with the quality of the writing. And it was SO BORING. This was just a bad go for Yancey.

cláudia

cassie sullivan vc!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11 arghhh sem nem explicar
to sem palavras pra dizer o quanto esse final me deixou triste porra afff 
evan walker compartilho sua dor e sua fúria

Noah Warner

** spoiler alert **
           Wow! I didn’t know that going from the best in the series (the infinite sea) to the worst (the last star) could be in the same series - it felt nothing like the other two and I honestly hated it. The second book with ringer and razor had some actually good moments, but this was just bad. I feel like I didn’t give it the change it deserved, but I’m probably not coming back to this just to give it another try. Go read some good Sifi like Ender’s game, or read the hunger games for good YA.

Krystal 

(2.5)This book dragged on for so long! There were some parts of the book I enjoyed but most of the time I didn’t fully understand what was happening because the writer would skip to the next thing without explaining anything! Very glad I have finally finished this book series and that it’s over.

Jordyn Wassen

** spoiler alert **
           This novel was amazing and I loved it. The only thing I had a problem with was the explanation of the aliens and how they aren't actually aliens. But besides that I loved the plot and I'm sad it has ended and I'm mad that Cassie died and didn't end up with Evan but in glad that Ringer finally smiled. The ending in happy and sad about but it was truly phenomenal and I hope to reread the trilogy one day.

Kayla

** spoiler alert **
           The only thing I can think about after finishing this book is that I have never seen this many literary devices in a modern novel. Some of it was very obvious -mainly the religious symbolism, with Ringer being gone for 40 days AND becoming pregnant under dangerous circumstances, and the priest Silencer- but it made the images presented so much more clear. Other things, like the irony of Cassie referring to herself as "all of humanity" in the first book and then literally BECOMING humanity in this book, were inappropriate in the way that it made my heart break in two. 

Swirling themes of "love conquers all" and "humanity cannot survive without humanity" were repeated throughout the series in ways that I wish we're less in my face. I get that these are themes that are very popular in YA culture, but it seems like they've been overused to the point of making everything boring when you're reading a book. 

Negative comments aside, I loved this series. There were no characters that I liked or hated the whole time, because they were all so dynamic and HUMAN. Some of the decisions they made were completely stupid, but that's okay, because I probably would've made the same choices as them, had I been in their position. 

The relationships in this series are so, so good. Not just the romantic ones, either. I love the camaraderie amongst Squad 53, Cassie and Sam's sibling love and bickering, and the tension between Evan and Ben, and between Ringer and Cassie. 

I wanted to cry so many times reading this series, but I am too empty inside to do it anymore. 

The love I have for this stupid, tragic, amazing series is completely irrational. I highly recommend it to book-lovers and non-readers alike. Also, the first movie (as I write this review, there are not movies for the second and third books) is pretty great and stays true to the book's storyline, so if you're not a fan of reading, you can still get most of the experience from watching that. However, THE BOOK IS BETTER.

Ella Zegarra

En alguna parte del mundo, Rick Yancey está riendo malvadamente

Jane The Bookaholic

The end, THE END! 
I really think that everything about this trilogy is so perfect, and where the book was going in this one is just the best. I'm so happy that I read those books, I feel it really affected me. Will recommend forever.

Sophie Elaina 

I know a lot of people have mixed thoughts on this series and especially this book but I honestly think it’s great. Even though the second book was pretty much a filler and wasn’t needed, this finale definitely picked up plot wise and I saw a lot of what I loved about the first book return. It was highly addictive, and so engrossing. I am so glad that I read it, and I am really satisfied with how it ended even though it was heartbreaking as hell. And I think the fact that this is the first book I’ve ever read in less than a day says enough about how much I enjoyed reading it. 

The Fifth Wave: 5 Stars
The Infinite Sea: 3 Stars
The Last Star: 4.5 Stars

Paige Green

Rating: 2.5/5

Genre: Dystopian/ Sci-Fi

Recommended Age: 16+ (language, mature scenes, gore, children’s death, etc.)

Favorite Quote: “’He’s no different from us, Sam,’ I tell him. ‘None of this will end until somebody decides to put down the guns.’”

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. – Amazon.com

This is it… the last battle for good and evil… but why do I not feel pumped about it? Well, to put it honestly my dear Watson, it’s because this series did not live up to the hype that was created around it. More on that later, though. Instead here are some good points that did have me excited about the book. I felt that for the most part Cassie, Sammy, Ben, and Ringer were very well developed and I cheered for them as they tried to survive in this literal Hell on Earth. I also felt that the pacing was very well done and it didn’t feel too fast or too slow. Unfortunately, those were the only good things I had to say about this book.

It’s not that this book was a bad book. I’m genuinely in love with the series… HOWEVER, there were enormous problems with the book. The plot was very complex. While complex plots can be pulled off it doesn’t make sense to readers when something they’ve been told to believe since book 1 is actually false. The plot was too overcomplicated and it was so for no reason. I could go on and on about all the ways this book failed in that regard, but I like to keep my reviews spoiler free. I also had an issue with a character death. No, it’s not because I was very upset about it. It’s because in the end it becomes a moot point. The writing is also not very impactful. In the first book, Yancy’s writing made me cry because Cassie felt so real and her struggles became mine… but in this one it just felt very flat. The book also would have been more insightful if it ended in a different way… but I’m not going to share that either because it would be a spoiler. 

Overall, I would say if you are a fan of the series maybe read the book with your own precautions. The first two books are wonderful and I loved them. This book ranks up there with the last book in the Eragon series on how bad of an ending it was.

Angie

Amé y odié este libro. Ese final fue el peor final de mi vida, no puedo con tanto dolor

abbey

Review up here https://abbeysreading.wordpress.com/2... enjoy :)

Meagan Fowler

I was super disappointed with how this series ended. I loved the first book and I should have just stopped there.

Lacy W &
The last star by Richard Yancey

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