REVIEW: The 5th Wave - Rick Yancey

(Goodreads) (Amazon UK)

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.

My review of The 5th Wave:

The 5^th Wave is the ultimate ‘unputdownable’ book. It absolutely blew me away. I’m not sure if I can actually put into words how much I loved this book as I flew through it devouring it completely within a day. It was just utterly gripping, thrilling, compelling and had me on the edge of my seat (and sanity!) throughout the entire book. I was entranced by the fast paced plot but it also toyed with my emotions. As I read this book I literally couldn’t trust a soul. I couldn’t distinguish friend from foe. The plot, the characters made me utterly paranoid as I distrusted everyone and I found the narrative so disorientating (in a good way!). I loved turning each page not knowing the complete truth, kept in the dark just like the characters waiting for the next wave. It was just a brilliant book, completely amazing and as I finished the last sentence I really did think “Wow, what a book!”

The plot of The 5^th Wave amazed me. I loved the different POV’s and how we viewed the alien invasion from different perspectives. I also enjoyed how the POV’s jumped from character to character as it heightened the disorientating and unsettling feeling of the whole narrative. Just like the characters we are left in the dark, not knowing what is really going on which I found a really fun and gripping experience.

I loved the characterisation in The 5^th Wave. I attached myself to Cassie, the tough female protagonist from the first page. She was like a common, familiar link, a solid piece of ground in a world of uncertainty and distrust. I really enjoyed Cassie’s character. Determined and strong she lives day by day fighting to survive in a world where she has learns that she can no longer trust anyone. Alone, she sleeps with her brother’s teddy bear her only companion for most of the book. I just loved her story and how determined she was that she would one day find her brother Sammy and reunite with him. Despite everything she has witnessed and been through she puts one foot in front of the other every day.

Zombie, our male protagonist is the ultimate killing machine, moulded into a deadly warrior in order to eliminate and annihilate the enemy. I was really shocked when his true identity was revealed but loved his whole transformation. His storyline just had me gripped and I loved trying to put all the pieces of the puzzle together.

I had my suspicions concerning Evan but in the next chapter they were overturned and then I was suspicious of him again and in the next minute I wasn’t etc. This book will leave your brain throbbing whilst you try to figure out who exactly the characters are! The whole Cassie and Evan thing did have me a little frustrated at first but I did enjoy the dynamics between the two towards the end. I also thought, hey, the world is ending so why not have a little bit of fun and romance? Annoying to some I’m sure but I like it as love is essential to humanity, setting us apart from the aliens. It also becomes a form of transformation and redemption in their relationship.

One thing that I enjoyed about The 5^th Wave was the aliens. They’re not stereotypical green blobs or beastly beings; in fact we don’t really see an actual alien just the ‘individuals’ deployed by the mothership. The mothership hovering over Earth is the first signifier of the end of the world, the destruction of humanity. I found the portrayals of the aliens much more eerie than if they were monstrous beings running around the planet savagely killing people. They seem cold and calculating treating the invasion like a game, slowly picking off the population in waves then one by one watching from afar. Then even more eerie and frightening is the fact that you can’t tell if someone is human or alien. That freaked me out just a little. The book is a lot more emotionally and psychologically terrifying than I ever expected it to be.

All in all, The 5^th Wave was a truly fascinating read. I urge you all to read it and be sucked into a story of deception, fear and excitement. Like others I read it because of all of the hype but my expectations were blown away. It was an exhausting and riveting read and it kills me to have to wait until next year for the next book!