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

Book Title: The 5th Wave
Author: Rick Yancey
Series:The 5th Wave #1

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

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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.

“I had it all wrong. Before I found you, I thought the only way to hold on was to find something to live for. It isn't. To hold on, you have to find something you're willing to die for.” -Evan

This book is the first one I read by this author and I totally loved it! I can clearly see why it has sooo many positive reviews!

Cassie is just a normal girl living a normal life. That is until the alien's arrival and the waves. The alien plan to eradicate the human population and they plan to do that in stages, the waves. Cassie is "lucky" enough to survive the first four waves and lives to tell us about them. Of course the main plot point of the book is't the waves but Cassie's journey to reunite with her brother after he was taken from her and her father. Before reading the book, I already knew that the main idea of the book was a girl's effort to save her brother while the Earth was taken over and humans were dying because of the waves. While I was reading the book, though, I discovered that the 5th wave was so much more than a simple journey.

Cassie had so much to go through and endure but she had hope and she never gave up even when circumstances were against her. Anyway, when the aliens arrived people weren't sure what exactly they wanted until the frst wave.

The first wave took out the electricity on the planet. Lights, computers, cars, phones, planes didn't work anymore. Half a million people died.

The second wave caused huge tsunamis that wiped out the coastlines and nearby areas.

The third wave created the plague. Those who hadn't died at the previous waves, were killed by this one. This wave lasted twelve weeks, killed four billion people including Cassie's mom.

They can all see the fourth wave coming and they know they must protect themselves better if they want to survive. Cassie, her father and her brother, Sammy, seek a safe haven, which they eventually find and live peacefully for a while. Until the fourth wave comes and rips apart Cassie's family. He father dies whle her brother is taken by an army that promises to "protect" the children.

They fifth wave??? No one knows but it's coming, promising to kill even the few people that are left.

After losing everyone in her life and witnessing her father's murder, Cassie swears to find her brother and reunite with with once again. But her journey isn't going to be easy. She can't trust anyone. If the Silencers ( the silencers are aliens implanted in human bodies which were released in the fourth wave) find her she will be killed on sight.Turns out Cassie isn't as carefull as she should be and is almost killed by one but she's saved.

Meet Evan Walker. Evan is the only survivor of his family. I loved Evan sooo much! I did of course question his motives in the beginning but he just won me over by his personality. Evan as just so sweet, protective, trying his best to save Cassie, easy her worries even sacrificing himself to save the person Cassie loved the most. I trully understand the reason why Cassie tried to protect herself by staying away from him but she was just wasting their time together. Evan, on the other hand, was so open about his feelings for her. I really think that Cassie was too hard on him and he didn't deserve to be treated like that. Of course Evan had his own secrets, secrets that Cassie couldn't handle but stll in my mind Evan was perfect.

The 5th wave was a stupendous book. I can't say how much I loved it. I loved the way the author chose to develop his story. The story had a really nice flow, we got to see not only Casse' point of view but Evan's, even her brother's and Ben's, her high school crush. All the characters were well developed and it was so much fun dscovering each and every one of them. What I really loved was Cassie and Evan's relationship. What they had was pure and so innocent. Cassie felt betrayed and didn't trust him but yet Evan's feeling didn't waver. he saved her every time. It was obvious he loved her and felt guilty about lying but she just wasn't ready to face the truth. In the end though, when finally she was ready to accept her feeling for him, it was very late.

One of the thing I found surprising was the way the aliens managed to take over the Earth. It seems that years before their arrival some of the aliens came to earth and implanted themselves ino human babies when the babies were still in the womb. These aliens would "awaken" when the right time came, after the human developed enought. Thus the alien would live among the humans acting like one and the real humans would never know. The plan was so brilliantly evil.

All in all, I really loved this book. It was a nice surprise to see that the book wasn't told only by Cassie's point of view but we got to see the others as well. Each character had to fight his/her own battle and we got to see that firsthand. Sammy, Cassie's little brother, perfectly described what the army did to the children but so did Ben. Ben actually was the one who found out about the fifth wave and tried to stop it before it was to late.

The end was bittersweet with enough twists and turns. It was an incredible journey that kept me on the edge from the first page till the end and I don't really believe that's the end. It just can't be. I definitely hope it's not. I can't wait for the next book to come out (The Infinite Sea (The 5th Wave #2)by Rick Yancey Expected publication: September 16th 2014)

Highly recommended!!!