Author: Rick Yancey
Genre: Young Adult/Sci-fi/Thriller
Publisher: Penguin
Publication Date: 7th May 2013
ISBN: 9780141345819
Stand alone or series: Book 1 in the Fifth Wave series
Pages: 480 pages
Book Received from: Penguin (Publisher)
First Lines: There will be no awakening. The sleeping woman will feel nothing the next morning, only a vague sense of unease and the unshakable feeling that someone is watching her. Her anxiety will fade in less than a day and will soon be forgotten.
Synopsis:
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.
My Thoughts:
This has got to be one of the best books I've read in 2013. After reading the synopsis of this I had no idea what I was going to expect when I started reading it! And once I finished it, I wished I could have read it in one sitting because it is seriously that good! The suspense to pick it up while I worked was just about killing me. I needed to know what Cassie was going to do. How Sam was, and how Zombie was coping.
The very first part drew me in with the narrative. Eerie and to the point. We are then introduced to Cassiopeia ("Cassie") the main character of the novel. She's a strong character and one I grew to admire! She's alone in the woods trying to survive the beings that have landed on earth.
What I liked most about this book was that it didn't start at the first wave but began just before the fifth wave. So Cassie goes back over what happened in the last four as well as what has happened to her family. It kept me hanging on every word of her POV.
Admittedly, once I got to Wonderland the narrative threw me. I wasn't expecting another character to take over and had to read it a couple of times when he referred to his sibling as Sissy and not Sam and then it clicked, POV change. God sometimes I feel slow. The narrative swaps between Cassie, Zombie, and a random chapter of one of the "Others", and Sam so we all get an overall feel of what is going on, not just being stuck in just the two POV's.
Along the way Cassie meets the elusive Evan Walker. Strange and caring Cassie breaks her two rules: Trust Noone and the only way to stay alive as long as possible is to stay alone as long as Possible. Csssie's promise to Sam weighs heavy on her shoulders though and as soon as she's able to she will find him. Whatever it takes
The Fifth Wave is one of those read-all-at-once books. Once you pick it up, you'll be gripping the book as hard as it's grip is on you to finish. It's exciting and scary and has you wondering who you can trust when you can't tell the difference between friends and the enemy. For YA Sci-Fi this has got to be up there with the best! Bring on book 2!
And just to share with you all, the film rights have already been sold. I cannot wait!!
