The 5th Wave (The 5th Wave #1) by Rick Yancey

The 5th Wave (The 5th Wave #1)

Rick Yancey

457 pages

Publisher: Putnam Juvenile

Release Date: May 7th, 2013

Rate: Loved it

Cassie will never forget the day Them arrived. Some optimists, like her father, thought they would be friendly. Why not? And then, the first wave arrived. No cell phone, no car... nothing than runs with electricity works. But the worst part is the planes falling from the sky. That was the day they first attacked.

They all waited. Wait for what? It was like they have almost forgotten about what they were doing. But the second wave came and only the lucky ones escaped from it. The third, however, you could say the unlucky ones were the ones that survived. At least they didn't see their loved ones bleed until death and madness took them away from them. 

They thought they couldn't create more creative attacks, but they were wrong. The forth wave make no shame to the others. Knowing your grandmother could be one of Them or your father, your mother... create one unbreakable rule: trust no one.

Now Cassie is alone. They took their brother, kill her father and make her mother bleed until death. She now lives with a gun in her hands constantly and a bag that is her home. She's been living ok, by now. She's still alive, so pretty much we could say she's the best in surviving. However, she needs to leave her safe spot. She made a promise and she has to make that happen.

However, after been shot and taken care by a mysterious and gorgeous boy, Evan Walker, she starts to forget her unbreakable rule. She needs to stay alive to find her brother, but now Cassie has more problems than before. Now she's not alone.

We have to confess. Alien story? Not a Summer Read for us, at all. However, just watching the cover and reading the description of the book made us want to read and know more about this story.

And we weren't wrong. This is totally and completely amazing. This story goes way beyond aliens and fights. It blowed our mind.

While reading Cassie's point of view we were beyond amazed. We don't know how Rick Yancey did it, but he nails the main female character. Sometimes is really difficult writing about the other gender without leaving traces of your own. We don't really know how guys think or act or if there's an encyclopedia for that, but it seems that Yancey found the girls encyclopedia. The way Cassie thinks and acts and talks it's the normal behavior of a teenage girl. So while reading the book we couldn't stop thinking how the author did it to captivate us like he did.

Cassie is a strong character. She's been running, surviving. At first she was with her family. Everything was falling around them, but at least she was not alone. Then her family starts to die. First her mother. It's horrible how she watches her dying, knowing there's no way to safe her. It's really sad, but she keeps her strength and her determination to keep her father and little brother alive. Then they stole her brother and kill her father and almost kill her. Like nothing bad has happened already to her. She keeps pilling up situations where the characters proves to us that she's even more strong than that, because she has a purpose in her life. It doesn't matter that the world is ending, that she may be the last teenage girl alive on Earth, she made a promise and that keeps her fighting back.

We really like her attitude and we are glad to see that she kept fighting instead of surrender. 

It's true that, at first, the story goes slow. You need to know everything about Them and get to know what happened in the different waves to make Cassie act, think and behave like she does and why is where she is now. You kept wondering things, asking things to yourself, like why is she alone, who is the thing/boy/guy/something that is watching her, etc. It kind of feels like a drug. To unravel everything and to finally know Cassie's story and what the fifth wave is about.

However, what makes this book different from the other alien-dystopian books is the four points of views in this story. Four different people that gives you a different insight into the invasion. 

As you can guess, one of them is Cassie. The other is Ben. We met him before reading his POV. He's Cassie's secret crush in High School back when everything was normal. We can see through Ben's eyes. He's in a sort of military camp training for a battle. You can see the change of his life after the invasion, what he thinks and what he feels. His POV's is important because is thanks to him that we know what the 5th wave is all about.
Another POV's Sam, Cassie's brother. He's a little kid. He's expecting to see his father and sister again and its a little heartbreaking. He ends up in a military base with another character, Ben. They are in the same military squad and became "brothers!". It's really cute how Ben takes care of him.
The last POV's Evan. Mystery Evan Walker. He's troubled. He's here to accomplish a mission and Cassie's making tumble his plans without her even knowing. The best part? He's the bad guy. The one Cassie should be running from and he should have killed Cassie the first time he saw her in the woods. But he did not. We knew from the beginning that he was lying. Shooting animals at night? Really? It's normal that Cassie's instincts where on fire with him. We didn't trust him, but wanted to. Badly!

The story is not an expected one. It's not one of those stories that you know how the book is gonna end or what is going to happen or who is going to die or not (OMG, we need the second book. NOW). It's a great story with unexpected twist and unraveling secrets that would make you scream all the time. Like us. Just saying: OMG.
Rick Yancey wrote an excellent novella and we are dying to know more about The Fifth Wave. We can assure you, Book Addicts, that you'd be captivated by this story. It would make you feel everything the author wanted you to feel while reading it.
So, Book Addicts, don't doubt a second. Read The Fifth Wave. You're going to love it. And that's why it's in our highest ranking with five gorjuss dolls.