Summary

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. 

– Goodreads

What I Thought

This book!  This. Book! I had heard very good things about The 5th Wave ever since it was released, but I was always a bit hesitant to give it a try.  However, I’d always been intrigued by it, so when I got it for Christmas, I knew it was time for me to read it, and oh, am I glad I did!

Where should I start? I’ll start with the characters! The characters in this book were so well-rounded, and realistic to the situation. The relationships the characters shared with each other were so great to. The friendships, the rivalries; everything was so good! Basically, I loved them all. 

I really like that Cassie was always aware of the situation. Too many times in sci-fi or futuristic YA novels the protagonist gets way too caught up on their love interest(s) instead of the actual danger around them, and that’s not realistic at all. Like, if you’re in a life and death situation, now is not the time to make out with your boyfriend, and I loved that Cassie never acted like that.  Yes, there was some romance, but saving Sammy was always what was the most important to her.  That was always made clear.   

Staying sort of on that topic, I loved Cassie’s sarcasm. She was very self-aware, and it was refreshing to me for her to be able to see how ridiculous it was for her to care about appearances when she was around Evan, even if she did care. 

Another thing I really loved was the different perspectives. When I first started this book, I didn’t realize there were so many different perspective, so I admit I was really confused the first few perspective changes. 😂 But once I realized they were there, I really appreciated them. And, unlike some multi-perspective books, there wasn’t any part of the story that I didn’t want to read about. I wanted to know it all!  

This book was really action packed! The 5th Wave is a bit of a bigger book, but don’t let its size intimdate you! There is not a dull moment from the first page to its last.

I really, really enjoyed this book. That being said there was something I didn’t enjoy. Like I said, this book is very action packed, and because of that there were certain parts, especially in the beginning of the book, that were quite hard for me to read. I’m a pretty sensitive person, so the violence and suffering might not affect everyone the same way it did to me. Plus, reading about Sammy made me think of my little nieces, so I took his part of the story a bit too personal, I think.  Because of this, I’m not sure if I’m interested in seeing the movie. It’s one thing to read about the death and violence, but it’s an entirely different thing to actually see it being played on a screen.  So, we’ll see…

Overall, The 5th Wave is a really good book. I would definitely recommend it to any alien/sci-fi fan, or just anyone who is looking for a good, action-filled story. I look forward to reading book 2 in the series, The Infininte Sea!