A review by ravensandlace
The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey

medium-paced

5.0

Title: The 5th Wave

Author: Rick Yancey

Genre: YA Science Fiction

Format: own book

Series: The 5th Wave (#1)

Star Rating: 5 stars 

Please note that this is a review from 2016. At that time, I did not keep track of trigger warnings so apologies. Young Lacy did not know what she was doing back then. 

Oh my gosh. Why did I not hear about this book and the series sooner? I mean I know why. I don’t normally go for science fiction books. I think the only other science fiction I was excited about was Ender’s Game. I mean who dropped the ball and didn't tell me about this fantastic series? WHO, I SAY? Well, I think it's my fault. I very rarely branch out beyond romance and history based books. This is a sci-fi book so it's my fault.

Moving on. What an incredible journey this book was. I loved everything and anything about it. It kept me hooked and on the edge of my seat. While I wasn't reading it, I was thinking about it and the time when I would be reading it again. A series hasn't done that to me since Harry Potter. That is always so exciting when I keep thinking about a book while I’m not reading it. That’s a sign of an excellent book in my opinion. 

The book is about Cassie. She is all alone in the world, except for her brother, which the Others, have taken. Cassie is on a one-woman mission to find him and save him. Along the way, she gets shot and meets Evan. Cassie resists Evan or at least tries to. Gradually, her frosty heart melts and together they go and attempt to rescue her brother.

I loved Cassie. At times, she was very gruff. There were times when I was like dude, unmelt your heart. You're such a damn frosty box. But then again, I get it. Aliens have invaded your world and you don't know who's alien and whose human. It's a scary and dangerous world out there. You can't trust anybody. So I understood why she was so hesitant to trust anybody. 

I also loved that there was another POV, which was from Ben, Cassie's crush. She has no idea he is alive which makes it all the better. I was surprised when I turned the page and it started on Ben's POV. I was like oh, so he is alive. Good to know. He talked about what he went through when the Waves started and how he managed to survive. He ends up in the military and trains other kids to fight the Others. Although, things are not what they seem. This whole book is like that. 

Overall, this was a pretty good book. Everybody should read this book. It's amazing! I enjoyed the two main characters quite a bit and how different they were. There’s a ton of character growth, which you know I am a huge sucker for. The world and how it came to be was incredibly interesting and I thought that the worldbuilding was well done. Overall, I truly enjoyed this book.