Book Review: The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey

The 5th Wave

Rick Yancey

457 Pages

Published May 7th, 2013

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 trust and despair, between defiance and surrender, between life and death. To give up or to get up.

Rave reviews sprouted from many of my favorite bloggers back when this book first came out in 2013. I bought it only a month or two after the release date, eagerly anticipating another fantastic book about aliens, a subject I've grown to become fascinated with. Obviously that didn't happen and months passed on. I recently started seeing recommendations from Amazon for the upcoming sequel, and that prompted me to finally pick this baby up. Why, why did I wait?! This book is amazing and one of the best alien books I've read!

Our main character Cassie, (short for Cassiopia!) has survived the first four "waves" of an alien invasion. Each wave brings new hardships and millions of deaths. Now she awaits the 5th wave with much fear and trepidation, not sure if any other humans are alive. Her entire family is gone, but she believes her younger brother is alive.

Cassie was a strong character, though she trusts no one. she struggles with loneliness and fear, along with feelings of being a monster for killing a man she wasn't sure was human or alien. Yeah.. the aliens look like us.. they are inside of us. That made the whole story so much more creepy and terrifying. Could this really happen? Are there aliens among us?

Later on we meet Evan, a haunted boy who isn't who he appears to be. Though Cassie doesn't trust him at first, she slowly falls in love with him. She doesn't trust him completely though, always suspicious of his actions. He never sleeps, he always goes hunting in the middle of the night, but he never brings back any reapings of the hunts. Though their romance was sweet, it was also unusual with all the unease brewing between them.

The setting moved along quickly, never failing to surprise me with th many twists and tuns. Lots of shocking "oh my god!" moments come into play, and that made the book that much better. Short chapters and changing points of view really add another layer to this story, making for a very quick read. I was done with this in less than two days. Hurry up book number two I need you in my possession!!