The 5th Wave
Book - 2013
The blockbuster bestseller comes to the big screen!
"Remarkable, not-to-be-missed-under-any-circumstances."—Entertainment Weekly
"A modern sci-fi masterpiece . . ."—USAToday.com
The Passage meets Ender's Game in the first book in an epic series by award-winning author Rick Yancey.
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.
"Wildly entertaining . . . I couldn't turn the pages fast enough."—Justin Cronin, The New York Times Book Review
An Amazon Best Book of the Year
A New York Times bestseller
A USA Today bestseller
Winner of the 2014 Red House Children's Book Award
2014 Children’s Choice Book Awards Finalist for Teen Book of the Year
A YALSA 2014 Best Fiction for Young Adults
A YALSA 2014 Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Readers
A Booklist 2014 Best Fiction for Young Adults
A VOYA 2013 Perfect Ten
Books in the series:
The 5th Wave (The First Book of The 5th Wave)
The Infinite Sea (The Second Book of The 5th Wave)
The Last Star (The Third Book of the The 5th Wave)



Opinion
From the critics

Community Activity
Quotes
Add a Quote“I thought I knew what loneliness was before he found me, but I had no clue. You don't know what real loneliness is until you've known the opposite.”
“There's an old saying about the truth setting you free. Don't buy it. Sometimes the truth slams the cell door shut and throws a thousand bolts.”
“When the moment comes to stop running from your past, to turn around and face the thing you thought you could not face--the moment when your life teeters between giving up and getting up--when that moment comes, and it always comes, if you can't get up and you can't give up either, here's what you do: Crawl.”
“We'd stared into the face of Death, and Death blinked first. You'd think that would make us feel brave and invincible. It didn't.”
“What doesn't kill us sharpens us. Hardens us. Schools us. You're beating plowshares into swords, Vosch. You are remaking us. We are the clay, and you are Michelangelo. And we will be your masterpiece.”
“You can only call someone crazy if there’s someone else who’s normal. Like good and evil. If everything was good, then nothing would be good.”
“That's what you do when the curtain is falling--you give the line that the audience wants to hear.”
Age Suitability
Add Age SuitabilityMADELINE KNIGHT thinks this title is suitable for between the ages of 9 and 99
violet_gazelle_31 thinks this title is suitable for 13 years and over
Notices
Add Notices
Frightening or Intense Scenes: This whole book was frightening and intense (hence the age suggestion).
Frightening or Intense Scenes: Some gory fighting and lots of death, but it's a book, not a movie. Yet. :)
Violence: Quite a bit but nothing to graphic. People get shot in the head. Blood Splatters some brutal deaths ect...
Coarse Language: Ya know. Some uses of F bombs and SOB (frequent) and sh*t and some other stuff.
Summary
Add a SummaryCassie struggles to survive and protect her younger brother Sammy during an alien invasion.
This novel was outstanding. It is not predictable, as are many sci-fi novels. Aliens come to earth, but they are not like what we have imagined in the movies. They came not only to conquer us but also to annihilate us. They came in 5 waves, hence the book title.
Wave 1: turn off all electricity, machines, wipe out 500,000 people
Wave 2: cause earthquakes, wipe out 3 billion people
Wave 3: disease and pestilence , wipe out 97% of the survivors
The bulk of the novel is Waves 4 & 5. It involves trying to know who the enemy really is and what does he want!?? And how to survive. Great book!
Wave 4:
Wave 5:

Comment
Add a CommentIt started off well, but I found myself losing interest as the novel opened up from the main characters. I'm a fan of YA fiction, particularly dystopia, but this went on overlong and had too much moony teenage angst and lovelornness (is that a word?) in it for my taste. Guessing by the abrupt ending, I'm assuming there will be more to come and that this is the beginning of a series. I won't be back.
This book is so good! I can't wait to see the movie!
This book is amazing! I believe that Richard Yancey has created a truly brilliant work of literature, that kept me engaged and excited to read more, which is not something I can usually say. This book is very complex, with many different levels, and I sometimes even felt like I was in the book and envisioned what I would do in the midst of an alien invasion. This book posses a whole new side to the alien idea, and was different from every other sci-do book I have read. If you read this book, you will see new thrills around each corner, and you will be shocked at the ending. Thank you Rick Yancey! I can't wait to read The Infinite Sea!
A unique mix of sci-fi and teen romance
The 5th Wave isn’t like the other YA dystopian novels. It feels like a realistic interpretation of how us humans would act if an aliens invade. Our assumptions and predictability are what makes us incredibly easy to pick off. A teenager named Cassie lives a typical American life until the aliens start attacking. She has miraculously survived all the other “4 waves” and is desperately looking for her younger brother. Now she must choose either to give up or to keep fighting. I really enjoyed this book. (submitted by JR)
I never really liked sci-fi until I read this book. Now I do. The 5th wave is about a girl who survives an alien invasion. As far as she can tell, their sole goal and purpose is to wipe out all inhabitants of earth. The attacks come in waves - with the 5th being the most deadly of all. This book gave me perspective into sci-fi - which was a genre I had never really experienced nor enjoyed. Because of that, I would recommend this book to anyone looking to try something new or if you are into sci-fi, a good sci-fi novel.
The 5th Wave is a science-fiction, dystopian thriller with enough action to keep you flipping the (many) pages. Yancey is a talented author and weaves together a plot that will keep you guessing. However, the language and behavior of the characters had me ready to shut the book altogther at times. Tough femme fatale main character? Sure, I'm up for that. Tough, b*tchy girl who apparently has hardly any emotions and behaves like a guy would? Nope, not so much. Women have, generally, a different though process than men, Yancey. Even - or especially - after enduring intense trauma. This doesn't mean women will break down and cry every five minutes or when a man shows up to comfort them. What it does mean is that our ways of assessing problems is different. Our ways of expressing emotions are different. And our ways of expressing affection are certainly different. I quickly grew tired of Cassie's chip on her shoulder - like that is going to help her survive - that blocked out even common sense. She was a nasty person, who apparently wasn't even very attractive, but manages to be obsessively compelling to her romantic opposite. The suspense kept my attention, the characters and excessive foul language were what made me half-relieved to finish the book.
I read this only because I needed a Sci-Fi book for my library's book bingo, and I ended up really liking it! The Aliens are not really explained that well, and the 4th and 5th waves don't make a lot of sense. However, I was willing to look over that because the characters were well-developed and interesting. All of the characters face numerous moral dilemmas in a post-apocalyptic landscape. Cassie is trying to find her younger brother, Sammy. She carries around Bear, her brother's teddy bear that she promised to protect. Ben is just trying to keep himself alive after barely surviving the 3rd wave (a global pandemic). He cannot get over his guilt because he didn't protect his little sister. The book isn't a masterpiece, but it's an intense take on YA dystopian novels.
I'm glad I picked up this book. The premise was simple, the execution much less so. Rather than a generic alien invasion plot, this story showed hopelessness yet a fierce determination to survive. Campy flying saucers are replaced by devastating diseases and tsunamis that are horrifyingly realistic. The intense story kept me riveted from beginning to end, even on my second and third read.
I loved it ! Intense from start to finish. Can't wait to read the next 2.