I have wanted to read this book FOR AGES so I am so glad that I finally got round to it. I usually give myself a target of 50 pages a day for novels. If I had stuck to that then it would have taken me 9 days to read this one. It took my 4. That was how much I loved it.
The novel starts with a few flashbacks to how the first 4 waves came about after an alien mother ship pitched up in the Earth’s atmosphere. These are told by our protagonist Cassie (short for Cassiopeia – I usually have an aversion to these YA protagonists’ names as they seem to get weirder and weirder with every novel that I read but I thought this one was gorgeous!) Nearly everyone in the world is dead as a result of the 4 waves; Cassie suspects that she could even be the last person left. But then she meets Evan, a mysterious but kind young lad who takes care of her when she is shot by a stranger. The two of them begin to fall for each other. Cassie is torn; she thinks that she should find her brother, who she lost before the novel began, but can she trust Evan to help her when she suspects that he is lying to her? And, there is another pressing issue: will there be a 5th wave?
In parallel to Cassie’s story we are also given accounts of what is happening to Sammy, Cassie’s brother, and another guy called Ben who both find themselves in a military camp where children are being trained to fight the aliens.
I enjoyed having the story told from multiple points of view. I still found that 
I was able to connect with each character despite their stories sometimes consisting of about 10 pages at time (especially in the tense bits). And the characters were all bearable as well. Usually I have a been in my bonnet about at least one YA character but overall I thought they were all written realistically in relation to the situation. On occasion, Cassie did get a little on my nerves but, well, no body’s perfect!
The storyline was excellent. It was exciting, fast-paced and had a surprise around every corner. There was many an occasion when my mouth actually fell open in shock. I thought the entire concept was fantastically thought up. Aliens have been done so many times before but this book had some fantastic, fresh ideas – especially the concept of the 5 waves which had a different but equally shocking effect on the Earth and its inhabitants.
So far so good. But then there was the ending. Argh! I was so disappointed! Picture this: I knew that I was very close to the end and I was on the edge of my seat with anticipation, feeling tense about what was going to happen next. I turn over a page… What?! That’s it?! Noooo! Don’t leave me hanging! There is a second book but still. I wanted a cliff-hanger or just something to end the story with a bang.
Other minor issues that I had with The 5th Wave were, firstly, the military aspect of the story which I think occasionally took away from the seriousness of the story, and, secondly, the writing was sometimes a little too informal in various contexts.
These are only little things though. My main problem was definitely the ending which, unfortunately, lost The 5th Wave one star from me. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed it and I hope that Yancey maintains this level of awesomeness in The Infinite Sea (the second novel).
Rating = 4 stars.
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