The 5th Wave Review: Cassie

Book: The 5th Wave
Author: Rick Yancey
Series: The 5th Wave
Standing: Book 1 (ongoing)
POV: 1st person by mainly Cassie
Genre: YA sci-fi, post-apocalyptic 


Source: Physical copy
Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons
Pages: 457
Release: May 7th, 2013

Goodreads 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.

"I may be the last one, but I am the one still standing. I am the one turning to face the faceless hunter in the woods on an abandoned highway. I am the one not running, not staying, but facing. Because if I am the last one, then I am humanity. And if this is humanity, then I am the battlefield."

Sign me up for the first to avoid an alien invasion. I'm serious. This is one alien invasion you do not want to be in. Though no matter where you run, you won't be able to escape them...

This sci-fi book introduces us to Cassie, and her recently destroyed world. Six months ago, aliens made their presence known, and have been killing humans in a series of waves. 1st wave? All electricity gone. 2nd wave, an earthquake large enough to wipe out cities and cause devastating tsunamis. 3rd wave was when an airborne virus swept over the world, killing millions. 4th wave was when the remaining humans realized the aliens were already on earth, masquerading as humans. And now the 5th wave is approaching. But meanwhile, Cassie's brother, Sam, has been taken. And she'll do whatever it takes to get him back, even if it means wading into the operations of 5th wave...

Cassie started out as your average high school girl: worried about marks, trying to get the attention of a boy, going to soccer practice. The invasion changed everything, and we get to see how it hardens her. Her journey is something many would be able to relate to, from  denial to disbelief, to sadness, anger, and fear as the waves keep on coming. There is nothing special about Cassie--she's just a girl trying to survive, desperately trying to keep what little remains of her family alive. Which is why her determinism to get Sam back is strong. If she makes a promise, she will keep them, or die trying.

What I really liked about Cassie was how human she was. Many books will talk about how invincible the protagonist is, how they have an edge over everyone else. Not Cassie. She's not invincible. Far from it. Fear is constantly there, invading her thoughts. It doesn't overwhelm her, but there's enough of it to make readers anxious. Panic is another thing. She panics, like a normal person, and things seldom go her way.

The concept of the invasion was very easy to grasp. People are doing their best to survive, holding onto the hope that the government or the People in Charge have a plan, that they'll start fighting back and save everyone, and the world will go back to how it used to be. Hope is a fragile thing, one that many people continue to grasp at, even as everything is turning upside down. 

The only downside to all this was that the plot was slightly predictable. There were smaller elements that did take me by surprise, but it wasn't hard to predict where the plot was going. But Cassie's snark and the author's writing made up for it, since I could barely put the book down!

All in all: if there's an alien invasion, you better hope it's not like this book. Because 7 million people dead in the course of 6 months? Not fun. I don't know what would be worse: being one of the ones who die, or being one of the ones forced to watch what happens to the earth as yet another wave comes... Now to the movie!