The 5th Wave - Rick Yancey [Review]

This review contains spoilers.

The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey

Title: The 5th Wave

Author: Rick Yancey
Publisher: Putnam Juvenile
Series: The Fifth Wave #1
Release Date: May 7th 2013
Pages: 457
Rating: ★★★★☆

Synopsis of the Book:

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.

Review:

After all the mixed review this book got on Goodreads, I was a bit hesitant to read this book. But it turned out to be a great read, revolving around an alien invasion of the Earth. This invasion goes in waves, the first 3 have already taken place (1: electricity out, 2: flood, 3: pestilence).

There are 4 different POV's in this book, which gives you different views of the invasion.

The book starts with Cassie. She's a 17 year old girl, she survived the the first three waves and she is determined to survive the following waves too. She is a very strong character, she has a gun and is not afraid to use it and makes sarcastic comments about the world. From her we learn step by step about the first three waves and who the 'Others' (the aliens) are (reminded me of Game of Thrones everytime I read that word.). Her father has been killed and her brother Sam taken somewhere by the military and Cassie is trying to find him.

Then we meet Ben. He is sick from the 3rd Wave (pestilence) when his refugee camp is taken over by the US military (the 'good' guys). We find out what the remaining humans are doing to stop the Others and how they have infiltrated the human world long before the Waves. In the end of his passage we find out he is actually the childhood crush from Cassie, I liked that there was a connection between these POV's.

The third POV is Sam, Cassie's brother. I did not really like his point of view. Probably because he is a five year old which made his understanding of the world quite limited. He was taken to the same place they took Ben and they are placed in the same squad of the army together. I liked their interaction, Ben kind of became a brother to him. We also meet the other kids in Ben's squad. I particularly liked Ringer, she was pretty bad-ass.

The fourth POV is Evan. I absolutely did not like this character. In the beginning we find out he is an alien, who shoots the surviving humans. He has set his eyes on Cassie, but for some reason cannot shoot her. This made me interested, the enemy has a consience? 

But then after he rescued Cassie after shooting her in the leg.. The book switches to Cassie again and slowly the strong character from the beginning of the book turns into a too-trusting blind girl in love with someone she barely knows. 

Evan really creeped me out. He kept lurking outside her door, keeping secrets and constantly making comments about how connected they are etc.. Cassie's instinct tells her something's wrong with Evan, but she just waves it away because he is handsome. This really disappointed me. I hate it when writers turn strong female characters into weak ones when they meet a boy they like.. Luckily she comes round later when they go look for Sam. She takes the strings into her own hands again and confronts Evan. They start a relationship, but this is not really developed in the rest of the book.

There are some major plot twists and everything you think you know about the Others turns out to be false. (this you have to read for yourself:D)

In the end all POV's meet when Cassie, Evan and Ben try to rescue Sam from the Others.

The end itself was pretty open, but it looks like there is going to be a second book. Can't wait to read it!

What I liked most in this book whas that when you started to get bored a little, the writer would throw in some action or new information. This kept you interested throughout the whole book.

I would definitely recommend this book. The whole concept of the alien invasion was pretty cool and the different POV's gave the reader different views of the world. The romance was bad, mostly because Evan really creeped me out. But as a dystopian book it was good.

Stars: 4 out of 5