REVIEW #164: The 5th Wave (The 5th Wave #1) by Rick Yancey

Title: The 5th Wave
Series: The 5th Wave #1
Author: Rick Yancey
Publisher: Putnam Juvenile
Release Date: May 24th 2011
Pages: Hardcover, 457 pages
Source: Audiobook from the Library

Summary from Goodreads:
The Passage meets Ender’s Game in an epic new series from award-winning author Rick Yancey.

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.

So I always tend to get nervous reading a book with a lot of hype, so I procrastinated reading my copy of The 5th Wave. Then the library got a copy of the audio book and I felt compelled to check it out. I can honestly report, The 5th Wave lived up to the hype. It was full of GREATNESS.

The story is told from multiple POVs with the different story lines weaving together in a beautiful, intense manner that kept my emotions on a roller coaster. The story lines were mostly independent yet had threads connecting them to each other with what seemed perfectly seamless writing. This allowed for each main character to develop and to really connect with the other characters; I was able to see and connect with each character’s journey.

As for the characters, I loved Zombie. He felt so real to me, his actions seemed so honest. Even though he was tough and jaded, Nugget breaks him and gives him the ability to love again. The Nugget-Zombie relationship is one of my favorites! Cassie on the other hand was an extremely stubborn yet strong character. There were a couple points where her stubbornness got annoying but I felt like the situation she was in justified it. The villains/aliens were perfectly creepy; the way they developed the ‘waves’ and method of attacks were dark and evil.

The pacing was spot on; while it did slow in some parts the action would always pick back up full force. I felt like I was holding my breath for the last 50 pages as the POVs switched back and forth between Zombie and Cassie. The ending was excellent, Ahh I could breathe again. Yancey left room for so much more yet there was a great conclusion to this part of Cassie and Zombie’s journey.

The 5th Wave was an easy 5 star book. I highly recommend it if you are looking for an apocalyptic, alien invasion fast paced action story. (Caveat: There is some violence, a little cursing, and some intense imagery) Audiobook wise, it is now ranking as one of my top 3 favorite audiobooks. The narration was fantastic, it was so easy to keep track of the changing POVs and quickly sink into the crazy war they were facing.