Alice Reeds: Review: The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey

The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey
Published: April 7th 2013
Number of pages: 457 Pages
Series: The 5th Wave, #1

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. (goodreads)

“What were they thinking? 'It's an alien apocalypse! Quick, grab the beer!”

When I first heard about this book I was really skeptical due to the fact that it involves aliens, because (thanks to Hollywood) aliens somehow are normally always presented in this certain way that’s always the same, they are always those weird creatures flying in saucers with the mission of destroying the US. BUT I still bought it and I did NOT regret it.
The way Rick Yancey builds this story, the scenery and the events in this book are magnificent and very interesting. He changed the alien game; he changed the way they are portrayed, even though one thing stayed: they came to destroy the humans.

“Why did they come billions of miles just to stare at us? It's rude.”

The way the story unfolds is very interesting and grabs you from the first page on and doesn't let you go till you read each and every page of it. The events were cleverly played and surprising, in a way. Surely, there were a few things which I was already quite sure that its X before I was told that yes, it is X but I'd say it's inevitable that a few things are predictable BUT that did do no harm to the story or to the greatness of this book.
The characters are distinct and interesting. I really liked Cassie, even though I somehow really dislike that name. I liked the way she thought, the way she reacted and I always asked myself if I would be able to survive ALONE in a forest, and in most cases the answer I gave myself was no, but who knows?

“I would kill for a cheeseburger. Honestly. If I stumbled across someone eating a cheeseburger, I would kill them for it.”

The male characters, Ben and Evan, were also interesting even though Evan was a little bit creepy at times, but also really sweet. I liked them both and so will not choose which one I prefer, no teaming up on one side cause I know there are a few people out there who already started the whole team ben and team even thing but I think both are great so.
I enjoyed the military chapters and also the chapters from Cassies brothers point of view. His voice was distinct and childlike which made it very authentic and simply funny to read and see how someone of his age deals with everything that happened around him.
I very much liked the fact that even though this book deals with this problem of aliens coming to destroy humans and all, there is still humor in it which is very pleasant and builds this kind of contrast between this serious situation and humor which I really like especially in books like this.

"Maybe they're spacefaring micemen from Planet Cheese and they've come for our provolone."

All in all, I really loved The 5th Wave, it took a different and very amazing turn on the whole alien apocalypse topic and therefore I can honestly recommend it to all the fans of apocalypse/post-apocalypse stories, as this one is amazing in so many ways.