Name: The 5th Wave
ISBN: 9780147519085

Richard Yancey

"Cassie Sullivan, the survivor of an alien invasion, must rescue her young brother from the enemy with help from a boy who may be one of them"--Provided by publisher of original edition.

The 5th Wave

Natalie Baye

Loni Wild

Angelica Garcia

I open up like a flower to the rain, achingly slow and dizzying fast, dissolving in the warmth, dissolving in him and there’s nothing to see. That’s just the convenient word he used because there is no word to describe him, he just is. And I open to him, a flower to the rain.

"Cassie Sullivan, the survivor of an alien invasion, must rescue her young brother from the enemy with help from a boy who may be one of them"--

Monicap

THIS BOOK. IS SO. GOOD. 

Yancey really enjoys playing the battlefield metaphor.

Plot: 5/5
Okay, lemme start this off by saying the way the plot in this book was done KINDA reminds me of something Veronia Roth said in a blog post about how to write a novl with series potential. She used the analogy of these two problems: “Oh shit, we’re in a boat in the middle of the ocean. And OH SHIT, we’ve sprung a leak! We’re gonna sink and drown and die!”
So, to apply that analogy to this book, finding and saving Sammy is the leak. The fact that there are aliens here and they’re succeeding in killing off mankind is the we’re stuck in the middle of the ocean. I felt it prudent to mention that, because I feel that helps explain why I’m so anxious for book two despite the fact there wasn’t really a cliffhanger.
Anyways, onto actually talking about whats actually happening in the book. This book is divided into thirteen parts, which alternate (mostly) between two plotlines. The first four parts were the most confusing for me cuz I had to figure out who was talking and what was going on. Part 1: Cassie. Part 2: Ben. And then parts 3 and four both featured points of view we only got the one time, and then it went to just alternating between Cassie and Ben. 
The first part was the longest in the book and it was very much introspective Cassie thinking about stuff and flashbacks. The first part was definitely NOT the most action-y part, but still good. 
Towards the end, there is so much action, it’s like there is something BLOWING UP IN YOUR FACE every five minutes, it’s insane. I was also trying to think of whether certain people were aliens or humans. It was hard to decide, because I was convinced they were aliens, but then they gave me an explanation that would make sense for them to be humans, and it was…
Agony. Epic. Astonishing. Brilliant. Incredible. Staggering. Harrowing. Beautiful. (I’m using a thesaurus)

Characters: 5/5
Gonna try really had not to spoil here.
Cassie: Imagine all the best, strongest characters in SF lit: Melanie Stryder, Jake, Rachel and Tobias, Max Ride, and take all the best, strongest parts of them and put them in a blender. You come up with a brilliant character who is preternaturally strong and comes with flaws on the flipside. Now take this character and put her through the worst scifi ordeal of them all and come out the other side. There you have Cassie.
Sammy: Was, as I believe I mentioned, the leak in the boat. An adorable five-year-old that gets kidnapped by the aliens.
Ben: I’m not too sure about how I feel about his character was developed. See, we first heard about him as Cassie was thinking about how she’d had a humungous crush on him. And then we met him and saw him grow and develop as a character on his own. I’m not sure if how we first heard about him was a stroke of genius on Yancey’s part, or one of the only things in this book that annoyed me.
Evan: <3 <3 <3 And I can’t say much more than that.
Ringer: Is one of the only other characters in this book, and I really she gets developed more I book two. I want to understand her and know her backstory and just… just really want more of her.

Other factors: 7/5 (extra credit for the writing)
Romance: There was one, I did enjoy it, but I can’t say much more than that.
The writing: the writing in this book is the sort of I have trouble putting a name too. You know beautiful writing. Laini Taylor and Lauren DeStefano have beautiful writing. But the writing here is just… I’m calling punch-in-the-gut writing, but not because it hurts. Punch-in-the-gut writing is the type of writing where yo read it and it goes straight down to your core, shakes the foundations upon your being has been built. Writing that is so Beautiful, so impacting, that it does hurt, but in the bet possible way you can hurt.

Plus two more extra credit points because this is one of the most—no one word in the English language can describe exactly what I’m going for, but lets go with beautiful—books I’ve read in, well, a long, long time.

Overall grade: 19/15
That is the highest grade I’ve given a book since I started reviewing. 
All the hype surrounding this book is well-deserved.

Teodora Nagy

Iti schimba cu totul perspectiva asupra venirii extraterestriilor, etc., si vorbesc aici pentru intreaga serie. Iti da un nou mod de gandire, iti arata noi posibilitati, la fel de posibile ca altele. Eu iubesc aceasta carte, chiar daca te cam induce in eroare de multe ori. Partea frumoasa e ca trebuie sa citesti pana la final pentru a afla toate detaliile si raspunsurile la toate intrebarile, dar lasa si portita aceea prin care pot fi interpretate intamplarile.

Rick Yancey

The 1st Wave took out half a million people. The 2nd Wave put that number to shame. The 3rd Wave lasted a little longer. Twelve weeks . . . Four billion dead. In the 4th Wave you can't trust that people are still people. And the 5th Wave? No one knows. But it's coming. On a lonely stretch of highway, Cassie runs. Runs from the beings that only look human, who have scattered Earth's last survivors. To stay alone is to stay alive, until she meets Evan Walker. Beguiling and mysterious, Evan may be her only hope. Now Cassie must choose: between trust and despair, between defiance and surrender, between life and death. 'Wildly entertaining . . . the pages turn themselves.' Justin Cronin, New York Times 'Nothing short of amazing.' Kirkus Reviews 'A modern sci-fi masterpiece . . . ' USA Today 'Chilling.' Sun 'The pace is relentless.' Heat 'Action-packed.' MTV.com WWW.THE5THWAVEISCOMING.COM

Colleen

4 Stars

I considered reading The 5th Wave when it came out, however I have been pretty burnt out on Dystopian type novels particularly Young Adults ones. The previews for the movie peaked my interest again. But then a coworker recommended that I read this which meant it automatically got bumped down the list. I did finally pick it up because I wanted something light to read on my flight.

The opening of the story did not immediately engage me. In fact, if I hadn't been on a long layover with nothing else to read, I probably would not have pushed through. The beginning was hard to grasp. It was particularly disjointed about explaining what happened leading up to that point. The reader is plunked down midway through an alien invasion with no idea how they got there. Neither the writing nor the characters were initially riveting. Cassie's character seemed inconsistent at times. Granted a hormonal teenager alone and evading aliens is bound to be a little unbalanced and wacked in the head. But some of those moments definitely felt due to slips in the writing not dazzling depths of character development. 

However, as the story went on the characters grew on me (well, except maybe for Ringer. Her character felt too flat). The backstory was gradually explained enough to remove most of my befuddlement. I felt for Cassie as she struggled to balance her drive for survival with maintaining her humanity. 

The story starts off being told from Cassie's point of view. Later on it starts switching back and forth between Cassie and Ben with one or two random chapters told by another character. I know that I complain about multiple points of view often, but I usually find stories written that way to be less enjoyable. The 5th Wave not only had multiple narrators but was told in first person and was not always chronologically. While the flashback sections did help explain the backstory, they were also disorienting at times. There was nothing to indicate which time a section was supposed to be about since the flashbacks were randomly placed. Well, not entirely random. The information revealed in the memories was clearly arranged for building suspense and leaving pieces of the puzzle out until they would cause maximum shock at their revelation. But the juxtaposition between those sections was choppy. And most of the time I had to deduce who was narrating more by the circumstances they were in rather than their "voice." It was also odd the way the story was segmented into parts.

As I mentioned in my review for The Girl with Ghost Eyes, I find it slightly disconcerting when grown men write from the perspective of teenage girls. That's probably why Cassie's character felt so off in the beginning. Not that there is anything prohibiting writers from crossing gender lines, but it is harder to make a convincing character that way particularly when writing in first person.

The romance angel was admittedly cheesy but it did not overpower the story. It did set up for the predictable teen love triangle though. (Seriously, is that a requirement for all YA books now??) It reminded me of The Host in quite a few ways although the two books are fairly different in others.

Overall, it was not the best writing but did build an eerie atmosphere. The plot revs up at the end making up for the slow start. By that point, I was interested in how it would turn out and was much more engaged. The second half was notably more of a page turner. But of course being the first in a YA series, it had to end with a cliffhanger.


RATING FACTORS:
Ease of Reading: 4 Stars
Writing Style: 3 Stars
Characters: 4 Stars
Plot Structure and Development: 4 Stars
Level of Captivation: 3 Stars
Originality: 3 Stars

RECOMMENDATIONS:
If you like this, try Angelfall or The Host

Zachary Cleek

It was a good book, it was just too sad and depressing for me where I could not finish the book. I like books where there is sad moments but also good ones. This book just had too many sad moments.

The 5th (Fifth) Wave 1

Audrey Lord

A slow start that spirals into a big finish.

Lacy W

Oh my gosh. Why did I not hear about this book and the series sooner? I mean who dropped the ball and didn't tell me about this fantastic series? WHO, I SAY? Well, I think it's my fault. I very rarely branch out beyond romance and history based books. This is a scifi book so it's my fault. 

Moving on. What an incredible journey this book was. I loved everything and anything about it. It kept me hooked and on the edge of my seat. While I wasn't reading it, I was thinking about it and the time when I would be reading it again. A series hasn't done that to me since  Harry Potter . 

The book is about Cassie. She is all alone in the world, except for her brother, which the Others, have taken. Cassie is on a one woman mission to find him and save him. Along the way, she gets shot and meets Evan. Cassie resists Evan or at least tries too. Gradually, her frosty heart melts and together they go and attempt to rescue her brother. 

I loved Cassie. At times, she was very gruff. There were times where I was like  dude, unmelt your heart. You're such a damn frosty box.  But then again, I get it. Aliens have invaded your world and you don't know who's alien and whose human. It's a scary and dangerous world out there. You can't trust anybody. 

I also loved that there was another POV, which was from Ben, Cassie's crush. She has no idea he is alive which makes it all the more better. I was surprised when I turned the page and it started on Ben's POV. I was like  oh, so he is alive. Good to know.  He talked about what he went through when the Waves started and how he managed to survive. He ends up in the military and trains other kids to fight the Others. Although, things are not what they seem. 

I saw the movie and let me just say, it was almost spot on to the book. Seriously, only a few minor details that were messed up. But other than that, nearly perfect. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time I watched it. I had this stupid smile on my face because I was just so damn excited. 

Seriously. Everybody should read this book. It's amazing! Everybody should also watch the movie because it's just as good as the book.

Beatrix Haase

4.5/5

I have decided to just finish this book. It was a great book about family, love, and sacrifice. Full review soon!

M.G Derio 

Es emocionante aunque lo compare un poco con la huésped pero créanme que no son iguales, los personajes son muy interesantes y me encantaron ciertas frases por ahí la historia te da un panorama bien descrito en general esta súper genial

Rachel Kanyid

An interesting take on the whole post-apocalypse scene. 
There aren't many that are about aliens!
I really enjoyed this book!

Jeannette Ordas

This isn't a great dystopian read and the plot and characters aren't wonderful or unique, but it kept me reading. The love story didn't gel with me and the alien invasion plot points felt predictable and kind of dumb. I still don't know why the aliens needed to use the children. Not quite 3 stars but maybe I don't know what that means anymore.

Chantal usher 

Rick Yancey
After the first wave only darkness remains. After the second, only the lucky escape. After the 3rd, only the unlucky survive. After the 4th wave, just one rule applies: trust no one. 
Now its 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 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.


This month i had a chance to read the sci-fi book " The Fifth wave". The Fifth Wave follows the storyline of 4 people, Cassie, her little brother Sam, Ben Parish and the Silencer, they all have one thing in common, they're part of a new world that has been controlled by aliens, or as Cassie calls them "The others". Now I'm not really a big fan of Science Fiction books but this book totally changed my perspective of them, "The 5th Wave" isn't just your normal alien book, its much more than that. This book is about survival, love, trust and family. My favorite parts of this book were the parts when Cassie met Evan and they got to learn things about each other, and when they just spent time together. I'm a sucker for love and to see Cassie and Evan fall in love in a world gone to hell just made the storyline more lovable. I like how the story lines of all 4 characters tied into one another and at the end of the book how everything molded into each other to make all 4 story lines into 1 big one. I fell in love with the characters from the beginning and seeing them progress and grow into this new world makes me love them even more because you get to see how there just normal people trying to survive something that they believe is unsurvivable. 

There was absolutely nothing I hated about this book and in my honest opinion I would give it a 5/5 and I cant wait to read the next book!! Rick Yancey is a brilliant writer and he's changed my opinion about science fiction and believe be if you don't like science fiction just read " The 5th Wave" and it will change your mind forever!! 

Thanks for reading my review and I hope that you all have the experience and honor of reading and falling in love with this book, just like I have

Olivia Mitchell

Ah this was so good! I cannot wait for the next one. A must read for everyone!!!

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

As we all know, books (mostly) are so much better than the movie and I made the mistake of watching the movie first because admittedly, I was slightly taken away by just how much the film took away from the book — it was a little bit like reading a whole other story.

Aims

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

{4.5}

As we all know, books (mostly) are so much better than the movie and I made the mistake of watching the movie first because admittedly, I was slightly taken away by just how much the film took away from the book — it was a little bit like reading a whole other story.

Natasha Musa

Fast paced and actioned packed. Good storyline though I didn't think it was original. Had similarities to The Host. Overall, good read and entertaining enough for me to finish the book. The ending was left hanging to be addressed in the next book (like most series). I am quite interested to know what happens to Cassie, Evans, Sammy, Ben and Ringer so will definitely get through the series just so that I get some closure.

Scott Wilson

This is a Hunger Games crossed with the Walking Dead mixed with some Catcher in the Rye with a bit of Animal Farm thrown in for good measure.

Really LOVED this book by Rick Yancey that shows Earth after an alien ship mysteriously shows up one day and then people start dying.

Couldn't put it down and I zoomed through this book in record time! Many subplots and characters but all will be revealed near the end... have to say I was disappointed that the ending was not developed as I would have hoped but imo, you can't go wrong with this one if you like the books mentioned in my intro.

Annie

Pop Sugar Challenge:
- a book with a number in the title

Rachel Metzger

This book was AMAZING. I couldn't put it down and can't wait for the next book to come out. I've read about a million plus of these type of dystopian books, and this one had my attention from the beginning to end. 

I really loved how the main things the aliens did to cause the end of the world, was to make it where you couldn't trust anyone else. In every book or movie the way things got fixed was the small amount of people teaming up and destroying the enemy together. But how can you do that when the enemy disguises itself as humans? This book was full of action, adventure, and took you through this inside of a lonely girl in look for her brother. I liked how you got to see the story from other perspectives as well.

Nicole Dykeman

I will definitely be picking up the final two books in the trilogy at some point soon. The 5th Wave is basically the perfect fusion of The Girl with All the Gifts and the Host. 

I really appreciate Rick Yancey's writing style. The internal monologue of each character was like reading a journal. It felt truthful and natural. If I had the time, I probably would have sat down and finished the entire book in one sitting. Each chapter (they're pretty short, Maximum Ride style) led smoothly into the next. The action was nonstop and I was always anticipating the next page.

I loved Cassie. She's an amazing protagonist, driven by the need to protect/save Sammy, but also afraid. Sammy is adorable and I want to wrap him up in a blanket and give him a hug. Zombie was a great character as well. Evan was one of my favorites and I can't wait to find out what happens with him in the next book in the series.

I'm guessing there will be an Evan/Cassie/Zombie love triangle, but we'll see, I suppose.

Amanda

Oh my!!!! So good, so many feels. Can't review right now... Still living it!!

jess

** spoiler alert **
           wow. wow. 

the 5th wave is really good. i heard about the hype in this book before and i wasn't sure what i was expecting but it wasn't this. i wasn't expecting it to be so good, or so dark. because this book is really dark. i mean, it's not dystopian, it is post-apocalyptic, and in a major way. it ends with the smallest ray of hope (but at least no one major dies). i really love the concept of the alien invasion and it brings to mind other sci-fi i've read/watched, sci-fi where the humans eradicate the native species on the plant. 

it's chilling, really. in fact, this book gave me chills. i personally liked ben's story more than cassie (because cassie was trapped in the romance ... oh god ... if you're going to make a female mc please make her do more than sit around for most of the book. i don't usually criticize this but i think this needed to be criticized because while ben was getting a lot of action, cassie was barely getting any.)

but yeah. amazing book. very intense (it triggered my anxiety multiple times which nearly never happens in books) and there was a lot of tension and some of the plot twists were mildly predictable, but some weren't. and i love the fact that it's not a futuristic that completely avoids naming things before the apocalypse (like divergent, and the maze runner, and the hunger games). the world of the 5th wave is marked with our world; movies and tv shows and brands and it's very, i don't know the word, but rick yancey did a very good job with it.

Tracie McMurray

Really liked it! Great adolescent fiction.

Maggie Gordon

The Fifth Wave has received a lot of hype this past year, and while it is certainly not one of the best novels that I have ever read, I thought it was quite enjoyable. The story is about an alien species trying to kill off the human race through waves of different attacks. First came the destruction of our technology, then a series of tsunamis that wiped out the coastal regions, followed by a devastating plague, and finally the revelation that some of the aliens had been living among us all along and were quite happy to start killing the remaining humans. Now only a scattered few people remain, clinging to the hope that the government can protect them as they wait for the start of an unknown fifth wave…

My one major complaint about this book was that I really didn’t like the perspective changes. For a good hundred pages, readers follow Cassie, a teenage girl who has managed to survive the first several waves. Then the narrative shifts to Zombie, a teenage boy’s perspective, without any warning. Not only was this transition too abrupt, I wanted more Cassie! Subjectively, I found her more interesting than Zombie and his crew, despite the fact that his plot was essential for the book as a whole. Those who like Ender’s Game, on the other hand, will probably love Zombie’s segments of the book.

Overall, The Fifth Wave was an entertaining read with lots of action sequences and good characters. The plot is a bit stereotypical, but the author manages to keep things interesting regardless.

Illeana

This Review is originally Hosted at: Illeana's Book Reviews on Wordpress 

"I tried reading this book once before, in the beginning of 2014. I couldn’t get past the first page. It just wasn’t my cup of tea then. Trying it again a year later, well it was good. But not the best book I’ve ever read. That’s for sure.

Let’s start off with Cassie. In the start of the book she is really likeable and more of a “I won’t take any crap.” kind of girl. Which was great! It’s what an alien book needs! I mean hell. The last one that was huge (The Host) just was NOT that…powerful. After she gets shot at and almost dies, and meets Evan, she becomes a typical teenage girl that totally has Stockholm Syndrome, even though she isn’t technically a hostage she might as well be one." 

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