In The 5th Wave we followed Cassie (short for Cassiopeia) Sullivan through the alien apocalypse. The aliens, or the "Others", arrived in the mother ship and sat silent for 10 days before the waves started to wipe out humanity.
1st Wave: Lights Out. In the first wave the Others destroyed human technology with an EMP that knocked out all power on the planet.
2nd Wave: Surf's Up. The second wave was literally a wave. The Others caused an earthquake so big the resulting tsunami killed everyone who lived near any shore.
3rd Wave: Pestilence. The third wave was a genetically modified plague that killed 97% of those who survived the first two waves.
4th Wave: Silencer. The 4th wave was when the Others revealed they had been among us for years and were now hunting the survivors in human bodies. This meant the human survivors couldn't trust anyone because they couldn't tell friend from foe.
5th Wave: Child Soldiers. The Others had now gathered up human children from refugee camps while pretending to be human soldiers. They then trained the children to become soldiers themselves and brainwashed them into thinking they were killing aliens, when in fact they were being groomed to kill other humans.
The best part about this book were the relationships. Cassie and her brother, Sam, who was kidnapped by the Others and taken to become one of their soldiers, were so loyal to each other and never gave up the hope of finding each other again. Ben Parish, who went to high school with Cassie and was her unrequited football jock crush, also ended up at boot camp with Sam (who was nicknamed Nugget) and the two of them formed a touching bond as Sam was missing his big sister and Ben was missing his little sister. Cassie was injured on her hunt for Sam and was rescued by the mysterious Evan Walker who had his own interesting backstory. But, we got to see Evan taking such care to nurse Cassie back to health and become really protective of her. And, possibly my favorite relationship of all, was Cassie and Bear, who was Sam's stuffed animal that she carried with her on all her travels in the hopes of returning it to her brother when she was reunited with him. Cassie took him everywhere and talked to him while she was all alone in the world. It was very sweet and somewhat comical since Cassie could be very snarky and sarcastic (in a good way!). We got to read through all the main characters POV, but my favorite was Cassie's because she was so quick witted and entertaining in the face of the world ending around her.
I gave this book 4 stars because, while I loved the relationships, some of the plot wasn't adding up for me. Perhaps some of the questions I have will be answered in the next book so I'm holding onto that hope. This is definitely a fast paced, edge of your seat ride that will leave you wanting more. I highly recommend checking this one out.
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