The 5th Wave

4.7

I had an intense ‘reader's block' for almost a year and this is the first ~full~ novel I've ever finished ever since. I thought I'll never be able to finish another book because of that, but I'm glad I did. This is actually one of my goals by the end of the year - to get into reading again. Anyway, here's my review for this awesome book.

This book messed up my mind! I now understand the hype, the ranting and the raving, the hangover it causes once you finish it. There's a mixture of thoughts and emotions on me that I'm very unsure of. I have already read so many post-apocalyptic/alien novels and they're somewhat forgettable. But not this one. While reading, you just can't put it down. It's an absolute knock-out thriller that will make you not let go of the book.

Rick Yancey is a magnificent author, a great writer, and has a rare gift in storytelling. I love how he shifted the narrations between a few major characters because it works very well with this novel. To give you a little overview, Cassie and Ben are the primary narrators, with a chapter here and there from the POV of Cassie's little brother Sammy and also a stranger she meets named Evan. This really adds to the overall climax of the story, because as a reader, you hold a lot more pieces of the puzzle and you're just itching for them to find out things about a certain situation. There are also some twists in the story, that aren't much of a big reveal to the reader, but it really adds up to the tension.

What makes this book standout from other alien invasion tales is that the aliens never had an intention to damage nor destroy Earth. Since they need it so much, and instead of blowing stuff up, they find more sinister ways to exterminate humans. I don't want to give away too many plot details, but I have to say that the character development in this novel is absolutely splendid and the concept of the 5 “waves” is brilliant!

To sum it all up: The 5th Wave ended up being the type of book that I love and will be talking to people about for a couple of weeks or months. Excellent, compelling fast-paced story that kept me up all night just to finish it. It's a wonderful start to a series that I assume is only going to get better. I can't recommend this book enough. JUST DON'T MISS THIS ONE!