Review | The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey

Wowsa! Talk about a page-turning thriller! I just finished Rick Yancey’s The 5th Wave in a little more than 24 hours. Yes, this means I have a sink full of dishes and an unmade bed.

The 1st Wave = Lights Out, The 2nd Wave = Surf’s Up, The 3rd Wave = Pestilence, The 4th Wave =The Silencers. What’s next for the last remaining humans on Earth? What will the 5th Wave be? Will there be a 5th Wave?

Cassie has two rules. The first: Trust no one. The second: The only way to stay alive as long as possible is stay alone as long as possible. These rules don’t pose much of a problem for Cassie in her secluded forest hideout. But with winter coming, Cassie knows she can’t stay in her hiding place for much longer. Plus, Cassie has made a promise to someone she loves, that she’s determined to keep. That promise will be the driving force that pushes Cassie to put herself out in the open and exposed.

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—and for saving herself.

The 5th Wave was a fantastic book, perfect for a summer read. It’s well deserving of all the buzz it’s gotten since it’s release earlier this year. It is told from four different perspectives. I liked the way Yancey used italics to clarify the difference between dialogue and thoughts.

I recommend that if you have something important that you need to get done, that you postpone reading this book until after it’s completed, as this book will suck you in and you won’t want to do anything but devour it. The worst thing about the book is that when it ends, you’ll have to wait until the release of the next book in the trilogy (which isn’t scheduled until August of 2014) to find out what’s next for humans, Earth, and its ruthless invaders.

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Overall Rating:  

Parent’s guide:

• Sex: a boy and girl kiss a number of times
• Language: some swear words including 3-4 f-words
• Violence: the extermination of the human race through calamity, sickness, hunting them down and shooting them, lots of gun violence and children using guns, multiple people sustain gun wounds, the use of alien bombs that obliterate everything within sight, brainwashing of children, a death camp somewhat reminiscent of WWII death camps