The 5th Wave (The 5th Wave #1)

Summary:

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.  (Summary and cover courtesy of goodreads.com)

Review:

I really struggled with the first third of the book as there was a lot of setup and dwelling on the teenage angst in the journal entries.  I am sure that some folks would like the entry’s juxtaposition to the story in real time, but to me it didn’t add anything to the story.  The background was necessary, but it did have a slow build because of it.  Once we got to the action of the story, I enjoyed the book a lot more.

There is a lot of psychological manipulation that you will have to pay attention to in order to follow.  If you were to read this while distracted you might miss some of the subtleties that result in some big reveals towards the end of the story.  All in all, this was a solid read, but did not knock my socks off the way it did for some others.

Warning: Contains repeated violence.

Rating: 4 stars!

Who should read it? Dystopian fans who are intrigued by all the hype with the movie coming out.

Want to read the whole series?

• The Infinite Sea (The 5th Wave #2)

• The Last Star (The 5th Wave #3)