Review: The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey

The 5^th Wave

Author: Rick Yancey
Series: The 5^th Wave, Book One
Publisher: G.P. Putnam’s Sons
Genre: YA Science Fiction
Format: Hardcover, 457 pages
Release Date: May 7, 2013
Source: Mid-Columbia Libraries
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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 trust and despair, between defiance and surrender, between life and death. To give up or to get up.

My Review:

I don’t even know where to begin to describe how amazing this book was. I’ve been thinking about how to write this review for hours. How to describe the amazingness without giving anything away… Well, first of all, read it. You will not regret it. If you like mystery, aliens, apocalyptic settings, and characters that you can’t figure out, then you will love this book.

This whole thing was one big mess of trying to figure out what was going to happen next. The POV jumps around a lot. When we are hearing from our main character, Cassie, we are in first person. But certain other characters are in third and sometimes I felt as though we were in third person omniscient. But somehow, even with all the jumping around, it made sense. This book is pretty long, but broken down into 13 different sections. The sections are short and this made the book flow really quickly. I would be looking at the clock knowing that I should go to sleep, but then glancing at how short the next section was and then deciding, oh what the heck, I’ll just read one more. I couldn’t put it down. I was worried that this book wouldn’t live up to the hype it’s been getting, but it did and then some.

Our main character Cassie has pretty much lost everything, along with everyone else that is still alive in the world. The aliens arrived and wiped out 7 billion people in the first four waves. As if that’s not discouraging enough, she has no idea when and where the 5^th wave will strike, nobody does. Cassie is forced again and again to decide whether she is going to give up and wallow in despair and self-pity or fight, even if it means dying. Cassie is a strong, strong character and I loved everything about her. At first she kind of annoyed me because she was obsessing over a guy that didn’t even know she existed and refused to talk to him. But then after losing both her parents and getting separated from her five year old brother, something changes in her. She has a fierce determination to find her brother and go down fighting no matter what.   

“Because if I am the last one, then I am humanity. And if this is humanity’s last war, then I am the battlefield.” –Cassie

 

Evan Walker is a mysterious boy that Cassie meets. He saves her life after being shot by one of the aliens. I love Evan. I wish I could say more, but I don’t want to spoil anything for you guys. But I absolutely adore his character. He is sweet, compassionate, and fierce. And hot. Of course. 

"We're here and then we're gone, and it's not about the time we're here, but what we do with the time." -Evan

 

Sammy is Cassie’s five year old brother. Man is this kid a trooper. We actually get to hear from his perspective a little which I found very interesting having not read many books from the perspective of a five year old. Rick Yancey did a fabulous job of really finding Sammy’s voice. He depicts a terrified five year old perfectly. Sammy tries his best to be brave, but breaks down like any little kid would under the stress of an alien invasion, losing both parents, and being pulled away from his last remaining family, Cassie. I worried constantly about him throughout the book and was so thankful when Zombie steps up to help him.

Zombie is being trained to become a soldier. He lost his entire family and has some dark feelings of guilt buried deep inside him because of it. So he throws that energy into becoming the best soldier he can and vowing to never run away and always fight to save the people he cares about. He decides to protect Sammy, nicknamed Nugget (omg adorable, am I right?) even if it means getting himself in hot water with his superiors. I loved the loyalty he showed toward Sammy and his bravery while staring into the face of death.

Overall, this book was incredible. It had me on the edge of my seat from the first page all the way until the last. There were many plot twists, some I figured out, some I didn’t and some that I thought I had figured out, but was constantly second-guessing myself. This book was filled with tons of action and mystery. The characters were relatable and likeable. If you are a fan of Icons by Margaret Stohl or Invasion by Jon S. Lewis, then you will love this one. The second one has an estimated publication date of August 2014. Why Rick Yancey? Why? I’m going to go cry now and possibly re-read this book. Happy reading all!