Book Review: "The 5th Wave" by Rick Yancey

"The 5th Wave" by Rick Yancey
First published in 2013
First in a trilogy
457 (very fast) pages
My rating: 4 stars
Image from Goodreads

The first wave in the alien invasion of Earth was an electromagnetic pulse that fried all electronics. The second wave was a tsunami that wiped out everything within sixty miles of the coast. The third wave was a plague that took care of everyone else, save the 3 percent of the population with a natural immunity. But the fourth wave works differently, it eats away at hope, trust and the things that make us human. The fourth wave in the extermination of our race is aliens masquerading in human bodies to look just like us -- meaning there's no way to tell your friends from your enemies.

Our narrator, 16-year-old Cassie, puts it concisely: lights out, surf's up, pestilence, and silencer. She wonders what horrors the fifth wave will bring.

Cassie's camped alone in the woods when meet her with just her little brother's raggedy teddy bear for company. Her parents are dead and her brother, Sammy, is missing -- and the only thing that keeps her moving is a promise she made to him. She hasn't seen another human being since the beginning of the fourth wave and she begins to wonder if she's the last homo sapien on Earth.

So when a boy named Evan Walker saves her life, she doesn't know what to think or whether she can trust him. Her instincts are screaming to beware, but as he nurses her back to health with gentle hands she can't deny his kindness, his survival skills or the fact that he hasn't killed her yet. And there's something else there too -- a spark of attraction, a thing Cassie never expected to feel again as the end of her world looms near.

"The 5th Wave" is told from a couple different perspectives, but Cassie is our main protagonist and the glue that connects our unlikely cast of characters. It's a young adult book, so the writing isn't the best ever, but it was decent and it definitely held my interest. It's the first book I've read in a while that kept me up way past my bedtime devouring page after page. I'm looking forward to reading the second book in the trilogy, "The Infinite Sea."