YA Book Pick: The 5th Wave

On the second Monday of every month, we choose an outstanding YA book to review. We want to spotlight books of interest to aspiring writers, as well as highlight some of our favorite books and authors!

This month's Book Pick is THE 5TH WAVE by Rick Yancey.

Synopsis (from Goodreads): 

The Passage meets Ender's Game in an epic new series from award-winning author Rick Yancey.

After the 1st wave, only darkness remains. After the 2nd, only the lucky escape. And after the 3rd, only the unlucky survive. After the 4th wave, only one rule applies: trust no one.

Now, it's the dawn of the 5th wave, and on a lonely stretch of highway, Cassie runs from Them. The beings who only look human, who roam the countryside killing anyone they see. Who have scattered Earth's last survivors. To stay alone is to stay alive, Cassie believes, until she meets Evan Walker. Beguiling and mysterious, Evan Walker may be Cassie's only hope for rescuing her brother--or even saving herself. But Cassie must choose: between hope and despair, between defiance and surrender, between life and death. To give up or to get up.

First Line: "There will be no awakening." This is the first line of the prologue. Although many agents and editors advise against beginning your novel with a prologue these days, this one really works. The author keeps it to half a page, and what occurs in that half page is chilling enough to hook the reader instantly.

The first line of Chapter One: "Aliens are stupid." This does a good job of establishing the young adult voice immediately (not many adults would put it quite like that) and setting up that the aliens are, in fact, already here.

Highlights:
I'm a big fan of well-written sci-fi, and this book delivers. As the description says, it definitely has a similar feel to Ender's Game (reviewed by fellow blogger Jenn here), in that the kids and teenagers in the book are dealing with situations and events that would make most adults curl up in a ball on the floor.

Although it's not mentioned in the Goodreads summary above, the book also includes kids and teenagers going through military training and then deploying on missions to fight the aliens as a major plot point. I loved this section, as it was very reminiscent of one of my favorite classic sci-fi novels, Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein (insider tip: read the book, but skip the movie!).

Notes for Writers:
Correct pacing is important for all types of books, but it's vital for sci-fi. If things unfold too slowly or there's too much time without much action, the reader gets bored. If the pace is too fast (what the movie trailer guy likes to call "Nonstop Action!"), the reader can feel like the characters aren't well-developed or that they'd like to put the book down to get a break. The 5th Wave has perfect pacing: not too fast, not too slow. I couldn't put the book down.

The characterization is also excellent. The main characters have been changed and hardened by their environment, but there are still flashes of the people they were before the invasion. It's this humanity that ends up propelling the plot forward.

A Good Read For:
Fans of sci-fi. If you're working on pacing or characterization in your own writing, this would be an excellent book to study.

What Pacific Rim Can Teach Writers

I saw the movie Pacific Rim last week. From the advertising, I was expecting something big, loud, and dumb.

I mean, can you blame me?

But surprise--I loved the movie. Guillermo del Toro (screenwriter and director) and Travis Beacham (screenwriter) created an interesting, well-thought-out dystopian world where robots battle alien monsters from another dimension (I know, I know--but trust me, they pull it off!).

In the traditional post-movie analysis with my husband, I figured out the reasons I liked the movie so much, and I realized that a lot of them relate directly to novel writing.

1. Pacing.

Getting the flow of events right is vital to successful action movies--and there are a lot of films that do it wrong. Ever heard the advertising claim "nonstop action?"

The problem with this is it doesn't give your characters (and therefore your viewers/readers) time to process what's happened or what's about to happen. Pacific Rim did a great job of blending robot-monster fight time with slower moments of character development. Which brings me to #2...

2. Character Consistency.

Sure, the big fight scenes in Pacific Rim were special-effects triumphs, but the only reason they worked for me was because I cared what happened to the characters. The movie gave us just enough backstory to make us sympathetic to the protagonist, and then it backed up our original impression of him by keeping him in character throughout the movie. He was a competent guy who thought before he acted, so he didn't suddenly start making rash decisions or crumpling under pressure.

The female lead (played wonderfully by Rinko Kikuchi) had a similar consistency of character. She was just as competent as the male lead, but had a tendency to get overly emotional--and this was consistent throughout the movie.

Hollywood movies often get this wrong--inconsistency of characters is a frequent complaint in unfavorable movie reviews--but spotting when it's done incorrectly can help you as a writer too.

3. Subtlety

So now you're looking back up at that poster and wondering what could possibly be subtle about this movie, right? The truth is, the little details and lack of big, loud moments are what really appealed to me. There's a love story, but it's basically just implied (the characters don't, for example, pause in the middle of fighting aliens to make out--because that would be ridiculous, right?). There's a touching evolution in the relationship between one of the secondary characters and his son, but it's painted with such a light brush that it feels real.

I don't know about you, but when I'm writing, I have a tendency to spell things out too much. If I've come up with a neat bit of character development or plot, I want to make sure the reader doesn't miss it. But this doesn't mean I should hit them over the head with it. If I keep the moments little and subtle, that doesn't mean the reader will miss it, it just means I'm trusting their intelligence.

Who would have guessed I'd learn so much about writing from a big, loud, dumb movie? Not me. But believe me, I'll be keeping an eye out for lessons when I go see Elysium next week.

YA Book Pick: UNRAVELING

On the second Monday of every month, we choose an outstanding YA book to review. We want to spotlight books of interest to aspiring writers, as well as highlight some of our favorite books and authors!

This month's Book Pick is UNRAVELING by Elizabeth Norris.

Synopsis (from Goodreads): Two days before the start of her junior year, seventeen-year-old Janelle Tenner is hit by a pickup truck and killed—as in blinding light, scenes of her life flashing before her, and then nothing. Except the next thing she knows, she's opening her eyes to find Ben Michaels, a loner from her high school whom Janelle has never talked to, leaning over her. And even though it isn't possible, she knows—with every fiber of her being—that Ben has somehow brought her back to life.

But her revival, and Ben's possible role in it, is only the first of the puzzles that Janelle must solve. While snooping in her FBI agent father's files for clues about her accident, she uncovers a clock that seems to be counting down to something—but to what? And when someone close to Janelle is killed, she can no longer deny what's right in front of her: Everything that's happened—the accident, the murder, the countdown clock, Ben's sudden appearance in her life—points to the end of life as she knows it. And as the clock ticks down, she realizes that if she wants to put a stop to the end of the world, she's going to need to uncover Ben's secrets—and keep from falling in love with him in the process.

From debut author Elizabeth Norris comes this shattering novel of one girl's fight to save herself, her world, and the boy she never saw coming.

First Line: "I can tell the exact moment Nick steps onto the beach."

Unlike some of the other books we've featured for YA Book Picks (like LEGEND or BITTERBLUE) this one doesn’t have a "grabby" first line. But to be honest, this book doesn't really need one. The inciting incident—the turning point that propels the whole story forward—happens on page seven. We get to know Janelle and something about her attitude and her family situation… and then boom, we're into the action, hurtling forward toward the inevitable climax.

Highlights: I really liked the characterizations in this book. Janelle, her friends, and her family all had good reasons why they acted the way they did. They weren't one-note characters, and they sometimes behaved irrationally because of strong emotions—like real people do. 

I'm a big fan of sci-fi (and am currently working on a sci-fi thriller of my own!), so the twist in the middle of the book was right up my alley.

And finally: I'm a huge X-Files nerd, so all the references to the show kept putting a grin on my face.

Notes for Writers: If you're writing action, suspense, or thriller, you've probably heard the "ticking clock" advice. Having a deadline or a kill date helps heighten tension and drive the reader forward.

Elizabeth Norris takes this advice literally in UNRAVELING. The book's tagline is "Stop the countdown. Save the world." Each chapter begins with a number that shows exactly how much time is left before… well, you'll have to read the book to find out. But trust me, the stakes are really high.

A Good Read For: Anyone interested in sci-fi and action-packed thrillers, or anyone who wants to see an example of breakneck pacing done exactly right.