The 5th wave

 Author: Rick Yancey 

Series: The 5th wave #1

Genre: Sci-fi, Dystopian

Original publication date: May 7, 2013

Book description: 

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

Thoughts:

This is a classic YA dystopian story.  Humans discover they are not alone in the universe as a ship enters their atmosphere. the whole planet is paying attention. We follow a few characters, Cassie is our main POV, we see everything unfold through her eyes since the first sighting of the ship, her refusal to accept her life could change. Truth be told, it is a reasonable reaction. When the ship first came into the atmosphere people reacted differently: it went from panic, mild fear, hopefulness. But then the hits began, hell breaks loose.

The first thing to go is technology, a wave that destroyed electricity, and all engines in the planet. Humanity back to the stone age. From there other disasters befell one after the other. We have a young woman who has lost almost everyone she cared about. Her mother to a plague, her father was killed right in front of her and the same people who did it took her brother. Cassie is determined to reach her brother and rescue him. 

Cassie is only 16, her brother is 5 years old. Everyone has lost too much and seen too much violence and loss.  The others show a very obvious interest in children. Too bad Cassie does not know why for most of the story.

Zombie, in his previous life he was known as Ben Parrish. AKA Cassie's high school crush. He survives the plague and is recruited as a soldier to fight back against the Others. We follow him and his fellow trainees. We have a little tight group of people, not exactly a found family as I expected. The stress and hopelessness get to them and they just seem to clash. Fights and competitiveness is part of their day to day life. Not a lot of information is given about them. Everyone has a past but they let that go. Ignore the past and just focus on training. They are filled with vengeance. 

We also have Evan Walker, a lonely farmboy who runs into Cassie while she is still trying to make her way to Sam. We see Cassie fall for him. It is a YA story a building romance was bound to happen really. Cassie seems to be too interested in him since day one. He is the knight in shining armor, it makes sense. The why he is taken by her is not so clear. Even by the end when he confesses his love for her, Evan does not provide good reasons for his sudden interest in her. They know each other for a few days and he loves her and is willing to die for her. Both are very dramatic in their own way. I love it! 

We find quite a variety in this story but we have military training, survival in the wilderness, a star crossed lover situation, suicide missions, and well a huge reveal that shatters reality as they knew it. Definitely is a book you fly through.

As I was reading I noticed that I remember the movie way more than the books. A few details were changed in the adaptation and I remember those clearly. I was expecting a few of those details to come into play and then was a bit confused when they did not. I enjoyed my time reading this book. Totally recommended to YA lovers of sci-fi. 

This book was used to kick off the 1000 door readathon. So now I finally get to see what my next challenge is going to be. I am starting this month strong! One book down!

Sidenote: I am participating in this readathon as a last-minute decision so I read the 5th wave ahead of schedule, but in doing so I didn't start the book I was supposed to start and get done by today. I do have a few more days. I am having my book discussion Friday so I can still start it by then right? Why did I leave the book to the very last week? Doing things in a rushed way is never such a great idea really. 

Ok so that's it for now, see you next time.

Stay safe!