I tried with this book, and just could not. Cassie was horribly written, and I wanted to like her. However, I was willing to overlook the author's inability to write a realistic female character, because the premise was interesting, but then they threw in a romance out of left field. Ugh! ( )

I’ll be super honest, I got really excited about reading this book mainly when I first saw the trailer for the movie [last winter??]. So I really wanted to read it before I saw the movie. I still haven’t seen the movie, and at this point I probably won’t see it, based on the poor ratings it received. Which makes me really sad because after reading this, I really wanted to see a good visual adaptation. I guess some wishes don’t come true.

So for those of you who don’t know, The 5th Wave follows teenager Cassie, who believes she’s the sole survivor of a devastating alien invasion to Earth. The invasion occurs in four waves, each more devastating than the last, and resulting in the death of the majority of the planet’s population. When we meet Cassie, her situation is extremely isolated and she genuinely believes she’s the last true human on Earth. But, needing a goal, she decides she will go out and search for her younger brother, who was separated from her. Despite thinking he may be dead, she made a promise to him that she would come for him. Throughout the story, the main characters feel an impending dread towards what the aliens may have planned next... will there be a fifth wave, and what exactly does that entail?

One of my favourite aspects of this book is that it's not told solely from Cassie’s perspective. We also get to read the story from the perspective of Cassie’s brother and our other two protagonists, Evan and Ben. Evan is a serious, stoic young man who, like Cassie, is extremely isolated and has experienced devastating loss. By “chance” chance he finds Cassie, and has a strange fascination with her. (Which I won’t spoil!!) Additionally we have Ben, Cassie’s former classmate whom she harbored a crush on, when times were simpler. Without divulging much of the plot, Ben finds himself on the brink of death, only to be saved by a militaristic group with ulterior motives.

Now, I’ve read a lot of books where the plot is told from multiple perspectives, but Yancey writes his characters’ perspectives quite masterfully. Each character has their own voice, their own personality, which I could clearly perceive in my head while reading. It's detailed even to the point that each character has their own speaking mannerisms, and even senses of humor. I feel that and issue many authors have when writing from multiple POVs, is that the characters end up sounding too similar. In The 5th Wave this is not the case.

Another thing that makes this book stand out to me is the alien-invasion theme. Every aspect of the invasion that the aliens use to devastate humanity, from EMP blast, to flu epidemic, to destructive earthquakes, are all things that are more or less (un)conscious fears today. To me, this made the book feel more *real*, or scary, because of the prevalence of these subjects in real-life media.

And lastly – a simpler thing to appreciate about the book – was the romantic aspect. First of all...
ALL THEM FEELS.

But it's also not predictable! I don’t necessarily enjoy when a story has a romance I can guess at from the first third/half of the book. And from what I understand about the next book, it doesn’t totally seem like my predictions will come true…. BUT I won’t know until I read it!

Overall, I would completely recommend this book, especially if you’re looking for a young adult novel that’s refreshing and different. I would say it’s one of my top favourite books of this year, so far. ( )

Amazing character development and world building (destroying?)
Deeply troubling psychoanalysis of the human condition.
Every chapter is a cliffhanger. ( )

6 stars out of 5.
Fantastic.
Excellent, well-drawn characters and story. Logical and surprising twists and turns. Handles flashbacks expertly. (are you listening, Station Eleven?)

Clear your schedule before you start reading, you will not want to put it down.
( )

Predictable, but not in a bad way. Nicely paced, but contains a lot of filler. ( )