Review Detail

The 5th Wave is a thrilling novel about an alien apocalypse. The aliens on the mothership are slowly wiping out the humans in Waves to study their behavior. There have been Five Waves-- Wave One: The Silence. At this time all electronic equipment was wiped out by a very powerful EMP-Powered Cannon. In this Wave planes crashed, boats sunk, cars stopped, and cell phones and lights were no longer able to be used. The world was dark to the extreme; Wave Two: Surf's Up. A HUGE flood occurs over the Earth; Wave Three: Pestilence. A disease known to many survivors known as the Red Plague has conditions such as constant bleeding and fainting has only a ten percent chance of being cured. Only a select few are immune to the Plague; Wave Four: The Silencers: Aliens disguised as humans wipe out any of the resisting humans; Wave Five: They Are Coming For Us: The extraterrestrial beings have created a program called Wonderland, which the US Government has claimed to have discovered, but can the survivors trust them after the first four waves? Can they trust anybody but themselves? It turns out the Government has a dirty, big, secret that will change the world forever...

The 5th Wave is a book written by Rick Yancey. It follows the life of 16-year-old Cassie (Short for Cassiopeia) through her journey to save her adorable, innocent little brother (Sam) from the aliens. As she reminiscences on her misfortunes from the past events of the apocalypse we learn how the Waves and attack started. The aliens are referred to as 'Others' by the surviving humans because they have no true form. The Others often do appear as humans and it causes a large distrust among the scavengers. The Others are a highly advanced and intelligent race of extraterrestrial beings who have been able to give up their bodies to become micro-organisms who can merge with the minds of humans in a hope of starting a new lifestyle on the ripe planet, Earth.

The plot of this novel is absolutely fantastic and the style of writing is decent. You really wish that, although the realistic circumstances are absolutely horrifying, you could me put in Cassie's shoes.


This thrilling book had me on the edge of my seat for the length I was reading it. It was so good that I would secretly keep the light on in my room just to finish this. I would recommend The 5th Wave to ages 12+ because of the violence. If the reader is at a 6th grade reading level it will be okay for him/her to read.