The 5th Wave (The Fifth Wave #1) - Rick Yancey

This book was a thrill ride! We start with Cassie. She's lost her mother in the 3rd way and her father was killed in front of her after the 4th wave. Her baby brother was taken by the 'others' and little does she know that they will prepare him to be the 5th wave.

Cassie is alone, living in a forest, afraid to trust anyone. Not that she sees many people of course. Almost everyone is dead. Seven billion humans on earth and less than a few thousand left. She's trying to survive and at the same time find a way to get her baby brother back. Just like she promised him before he was taken.

When she finally decides to leave the forest, she gets shot on the highway by a Silencer - the 4th wave. she gets die from the leg wound. She passes out and wakes up in a house. A very good looking young man had saved her. She grows to love this man - Evan. He loves her too. Cassie can't bring herself to trust him... she tells Evan that she has to rescue her brother. He tries to keep her there with him. Doesn't work. Soon they go together to find her little brother. In which time she discovers that Evan is an alien. One of the 'others'.

Ben Parish survives the 3rd wave, barely. Now he's being trained to what he thinks are the aliens... but he and Ringer find out the truth and it messes with his head. Ringer says they should all just run away but Ben made a promise to a young boy in boot camp. He has to go back to the alien lair for the kid. He won't leave him behind like he left his younger sister.

That's where Ben runs into Cassie, she's already gotten into the boot camp and got her brother. Cassie is stunned to see her old crush. She'd spent so many times before the arrival daydreaming of him. With the help of Evan and later Ringer, they make it out of the alien fort. With nothing much left behind...

I was hooked from the first page of this book. Cassie just has this voice that made me want to see what she said next, what her plan was. I also felt so sad for her, not being able to trust anyone. How was she to know if they were alien or human? I love the slow building relationship between her and Evan. I really hope he lives as I really like Evan. For an alien he's pretty awesome. You can see how much he loves her. It's so sweet.

The writing was very forward, and flowed together nicely. I found myself unable to put the book down. I read it all in one day.

This was a good book. At first I was reluctant to read this book, but once I got started, I couldn't stop. I know that Evan Walker didn't die, thankfully. I couldn't believe who he really was and his true love for Cassie. This is an amazing book and I totally recommend it. It can get confusing, but it will clear up later in the book. And I liked how there were different perspective throughout the book including the Silencer!

This book was so good. I loved reading it and I can tell you right now I will definitely reread this book. It was a great book to read.

So what I really liked the beginning and how it shows us Cassie's past and what happened to make her where she is today. It gives us insight into her life and I really liked that. Also, I like Cassie as a character. She knows enough to stay alive and be independent but is also lonely with only a bear to keep her company. I felt bad for her because she was alone and I commended her because she was still alive after everything that has happened in the world.

I liked how Rick Yancy doesn't just stay in one point of view, he deviates perspective. I personally love when there is more than one point of view to read from because it gives you more insight into what is happening.

Also, Rick Yancy does a great job of keeping you interested by not revealing everything that has happened right at the start of the book. He slowly reveals things which makes the book suspenseful and makes you as a reader curious so you read on. So he doesn't just flat out and say what the 4 previous waves were which I liked because it kept me interested throughout the whole book.

I choose to read 5th Wave for New Year’s Eve because what better way to end the year, right? I was so glad I did. The book entrapped me from the first page – it was so realistic and I was immersed in the experience. The whole body-snatcher alien theory was turned around in such a way that made you question the limits of humanity. I was pin-balling between dread, anxiety and horror throughout; it was quite intense to read it.

Told from different perspectives, but majorly from the first perspectives of Cassie and Ben, the story questions your deductions at every turn. It is obvious that the boot camp is shady from the start but until halfway through the book, it is very difficult to pin down the real baddie. Cassie was such an amazing character – strong, resourceful, smart and alien-apocalypse-ready. Evan comes off a bit creepy at times, and Ben was annoying in the start with his hero-worship. The writing was brilliant and utterly 3-dimensional and the voices so distinct – Cassie being dry-sarcastic, Ben with his guilt-hero thing, Evan in conflict and Sam through his childish eyes. I wouldn’t go into the details of the alien construct, because that would be spoilery, but the whole process of their invasion – totally fabulous. One of the best alien sci-fi I have come across!

This book has been just sitting on my bookshelf for a long time while I was debating whether or not to read it. The synopsis was intriguing. The synopsis was killer especially this part: "To give up or to get up." The cover of the 5th Wave is clever, matched with the setting, perfectly colored, and beautiful.

The 5th Wave was a whopping five hundredish pages book. It's actually four hundred forty-seven. Still a lot of pages, though. Many people wouldn't bother reading this book because of the thickness of the 5th Wave. The author could have cut a hundred pages from the book. A little more editing and cutting please. And cutting shouldn't involve a lot a trees.

The 5th Wave in general was entertaining and delightful and perfectly paced. The switching POVs made the 5th Wave even more exciting. The 5th Wave's genres are Young Adult, Romance, Dystopian, Science Fiction, Extraterrestrial, and Supernatural. (That's a lot of genres). The 5th Wave was easy to understand yet also difficult for an outsider.

1st Wave: an electromagnetic pulse
2nd Wave: a giant metal slab that hit the earth
3rd Wave: bird flu
4th Wave: Silencers
5th Wave: unknown

The 5th Wave has many theories of what it is. It may be soldiers. It may be something else.

The plot was confusing at first. It gets easier to understand over time. Hopefully the second book in The 5th Wave will not be like the first book. I felt the need to flip back to the beginning to understand the plot. A little recap between events may be helpful. Or a little hint that can link the memory to mind.

The writing. Easy to understand and flows well. Not the worse I have seen before. It is certainly not the best of all the books I have read. Rick Riordan could have done a better job.

The POVs. You have to name the POVs. Whose is whose. Readers can become very confused by all that unnamed POVs. I rarely become confused with POVs. In the 5th Wave, it was a new story. I was confused every time the POVs swap. Every character's beginning felt the same to me. It was hard to hear their individual voices.

Characters:

Cassie for Cassiopeia... Not for Cassandra. Cassiopeia, the legend. The upside down queen on the night sky. Punished by a certain god for her (Cassiopeia) flaws/mistakes. Cassie carries a M16 gun and is Katniss Everdeen in a worn down, bleak, uncertain future. She's looking for her brother Sammy. She made a promise and she wants to fulfill it. Cassie is an interesting character who is has defiance in her eyes. She refuse to believe that anything is impossible. Her determination and bravery and strength will lead her to where she is at the end of the 5th Wave.

Evan Walker... A Silencer. One of the 4th Wave. He's been targeting Cassie for a while. Interestingly enough, Evan didn't shoot Cassie. He's one of those aliens. Evan Walker is a rebel to his people. He doesn't do what he is suppose to do. He helps Cassie find her brother. He helps Cassie get better and protects her too.

Ben... A soldier. He is another fellow rebel, although Evan and Ben never met till the end of the book. He is a major character in The 5th Wave.

Sam... Cassie's brother. I love how innocent and charming he was at the beginning of the book. Let's hope that The 5th Wave wouldn't go Hunger Games. After all, in the Hunger Games Trilogy, Katniss Everdeen's sister dies.

Rating of the 5th Wave: four out of five. Should be three, but I feel good today.

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It did not take me long to finish The 5th wave at all, i really did enjoy the book but there was a few things that bugged me and it was the use of swear words all the time, Don't get me wrong i swear all the time more then i should but when i am reading a book it bugs me. I really hope there will be a 2nd book cause the ending kinda leaves you a little confused. What i did like about this book was it suppressed you like when you think you have figured it out what was going on and then twisted it to where you are like what? When? How?

This book kinda reminds me of The host but with The hungers games and The tv show falling skies all twisted in one.

The 5th Wave was easily one of most anticipated books of 2013. Penguin seriously caught my interest with their insanely fantastic advertising campaign for this book. After several Goodreads members compared this to The Hunger Games, I knew I had to read this. I was going to go to the library to pick up The 5th Wave which I had on hold when the UPS delivered an ARC of the book to my house. I didn't expect Penguin to send me an ARC and it was such a pleasant surprise.

Truthfully, I didn't expect The 5th Wave to take the direction it did. Even though I had read the description and countless reviews, The 5th Wave still completely surprised me. Rick Yancey created a completely original spin on the classic alien invasion tale. I have never read a book quite like The 5th Wave. I didn't think any author could surprise me anymore, to my surprise Rick Yancey proved me wrong.

Cassie is the kick-ass protagonist of The 5th Wave. For the most part, I really liked Cassie and I enjoyed reading from her point of view. I love Cassie's attitude and humor which added some comic relief to this dark sci-fi book. Cassie's determination and dedication towards finding her little brother Sammy. The only negative thing I need to comment regarding Cassie, is her relationship with Evan.

Alot of reviewers seemed to like Evan and his relationship with Cassie. Truthfully for most of the book I found Evan to be a creepy stalker who lacked chemistry with Cassie. Evan undresses and bathes Cassie, he watches her sleep, and is constantly watching her. Doesn't this strike you as creepy and odd? Later on in the book, I started to like him more but I still couldn't get over his strange demeanor.

The romance in The 5th Wave isn't done particularly well and it comes across as superficial. I didn't really believe Cassie and Ben had any chemistry for most of the book. Their romance was extremely fake and it seemed like Cassie and Ben instantly fell in love. The way Cassie spoke about Ben was extremely cheesy and way too melodramatic. Seriously? Thankfully this book didn't have a love triangle but I have a bad feeling that book #2 will feature a love triangle.

The 5th Wave alternates from the POV of a few characters, my favorite POV was definitely Cassie. I really enjoyed the multiple POVs and how Rick Yancey connected their stories into one. Alot of reviewers said that they weren't a fan of Sammy's point-of-view, I actually really enjoyed reading from his POV. Some commented that his POV was repetitive and badly written, but I think Yancey perfectly captured how a little kid would react to an alien invasion.

The 5th Wave definitely started with a bang but the plot definitely became a bit sluggish after the first couple chapters. Luckily Rick Yancey threw in a few plot twists that perked my interest and kept me turning the pages. Keep in mind that The 5th Wave is more focused on humanity than the Others, which are The 5th Wave's aliens. This book is extremely intense and that ending of The 5th Wave was simply epic. I can't believe that the next book comes out in August 2014. I need book #2 immediately, I really hope it's not called The 6th Wave because that would be so cliche.

Is The 5th Wave the next Hunger Games? The 5th Wave could definitely be the next big YA book! I am pretty excited by the fact that Sony has the movie rights because this could be an epic film. I'd highly recommend this book to fans of Sci-Fi books like The Host, and The Knife Of Never Letting Go. The 5th Wave definitely deserves the hype it's receiving!

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.

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