The 5th Wave - Book Review

The 5th Wave (The Fifth Wave #1)
by Rick Yancey

What is it about:
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.

What did I think of it:
I'm a sucker for post-apocalyptic settings and although I prefer apocalypses that feature zombies and other man-made horrors The 5th Wave sounded promising enough I was willing to overlook human-looking aliens.

And let me say: Wow!

This is an amazing read.

Forget I ever grumbled about human-looking aliens, Yancey spins such a convincing and gripping tale I didn't even for one moment question the technicallies of this story. I even almost didn't mind the present tense.

Instead I let myself be pulled in the grim future world Yancey created. A world where nothing and no one can be trusted and where all the certainties you ever knew are torn away.

The story switches between Cassie and a couple of other characters and while Cassie's story was emotional and had me totally engrossed, I was even more drawn into the story of a boy who is called Zombie. He's enlisted in an army that will fight the alien invaders and the things he and his squad members encounter took me by surprise a few times.

Overall this is a really cool post-apocalyptic tale that left me yearning for more. I'll definitely be getting my trotters on the next book in this series.

Why should you read it:
It's a great Post-Apocalyptic YA read with aliens.