The 5th Wave (The 5th Wave, #1) in Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge

Oct 21, 2015 Krissy rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook, buddy-read, pgs-400-499, title-number, 5-motherfucking-stars

As soon as this book started it was ON. It continued to be ON through the entire book. Never once settling down too long. Always go go go. And I loved it!

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Jan 15, 2016 Chessa rated it it was ok

Shelves: sf_fantasy, uptopia_dystopia, series, first-contact, the-mary-sue, book-to-movie, read_harder_2016, popsugar16

Meh. It's fine. If you can get beyond the beginning, where the main character is telling you over, and over, and over again about how the REAL alien invasion is nothing like the movies - we get it. Your version is SO much more realistic. What?

This book almost felt like two different books that the author started about the same thing, from different perspectives and then tried to stitch them together - but with little finesse. I ended up liking the Zombie storyline more than Cassie's, which was v ...more

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May 22, 2013 Chazza Everafter rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: young-adult, own-in-ebook, scifi-fantasy, 2013-read-list

This book is FANTASTIC. Seriously, I don't even know where to begin. I bought this book earlier this week after I hard started to hear some of the buzz around it the week before. I don't read a lot of sci-fi so I wasn't at all sure that I'd be that interested in reading it--ESPECIALLY because it dealt with an Alien Invasion. Anyone who knows me KNOWS that that's just not my cup of tea.

But the reviews were rave, the comparisons to the much-loved Hunger Games series was there. I couldn't *NOT* sne This book is FANTASTIC. Seriously, I don't even know where to begin. I bought this book earlier this week after I hard started to hear some of the buzz around it the week before. I don't read a lot of sci-fi so I wasn't at all sure that I'd be that interested in reading it--ESPECIALLY because it dealt with an Alien Invasion. Anyone who knows me KNOWS that that's just not my cup of tea.

But the reviews were rave, the comparisons to the much-loved Hunger Games series was there. I couldn't *NOT* sneak a peek. So, I downloaded the free sampler version of the book and sped-read through those. I was left breathless and in need of more. It only took a minute or so, and I bought the whole book and recommended that my sci-fi-loving boyfriend pick it up and read it with me.

Then, I just couldn't put it down.

Thank God I waited until the semester was over before I bothered to pick it up, or I for sure wouldn't used more time reading it than I would have studying for my finals.

The deal is: the aliens have come. They've caused disaster after disaster on Earth, and BILLIONS of people have been wiped out. We're down to the last of us, and there's no one you can trust because you know what? They've gotten inside us. They look like us and they know how we think.

This is the world Cassie, Zombie, Evan, and Sam live in. As is typical in most YA fiction, the adults are absent (done away with in this instance). They have to fend for themselves and learn the truth about what's really going on in their world, and they must decide whether they have enough left in them to fight back.

The narrative is choppy, matter-of-fact, in a "deep POV" perspective. This has advantages and disadvantages, I think. One being that you, as the reader, are so highly absorbed in the material immediately. Things are happening so quickly, and they're happening TO YOU (or so it seems). Time seems to be somewhat fluid, as we jump from character to character, from past and present (in terms of memory), and we're so intimately close to the characters when they are speaking in turn that we can sympathize with them individually. Where I think this becomes a disadvantage, however, is limitations the deep POV perspective places on the ability of the reader to paint a picture in their minds. Sometimes, the action sequences are so rapid, it's difficult to get a handle on what exactly is playing out before us. Additionally, writing in first person for every single main character presents the challenge of individualizing each of the voices so that you can tell right away whose head your in. I think the author did a great job of establishing the shift early on, but sometimes, the repetition of phrases across characters can make it difficult to distinguish the characters because it seems that they share a common thought process/terminology.

Overall, the story is fast-paced and well-told. I saw some reviews that protested against Cassie's budding romance with Evan--but I saw no issue with that particular aspect of the novel at all. She is in recovery at the time of the romance's start, and her tendency to fall back into thinking like a teen-aged school girl with a crush was not something I found that problematic--even given the dire circumstances of facing the end of the world. For me, her thoughts that some write off as frivolous and silly only demonstrated her youth and humanity to me. I know it's the end of the world; does that mean a girl shouldn't have the chance to experience something like love, which has power strong enough to sustain a person, to drive them, to feed them? Though I may concede that her romance with Evan does kind of slide along a little faster than I would've liked, I still didn't have much issue with it considering the circumstances.

By the novel's end, I felt satisfied that my anxieties had been answered. I like that the end is not so neat, so perfect, and I like that there is a measure of growth and maturity that is reflected in the main characters. I am most definitely looking forward to the second book in the series, and am basically kicking myself for not waiting longer to read this book. Since it's so new, I'm sure I'm going to have to wait a year for the next one, and that is just pure agony.

In the meantime, I do intend to set about harassing everyone I know to pick up this book. It is FABULOUS. And remember, I hate alien stories and read very little sci-fi (but I do read lots of YA). I'd say that's pretty high praise.

**In all my excitement to give this book 5-stars, I neglected to address the amount of violence and blood in this book. Definitely not for the faint of heart if you can't handle it. For me, while the book has potential to be disturbing based on the sheer violence it contains, I personally did not find it better/worse than Hunger Games or Divergent, or any other dystopian YA I've read. ...more

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Dec 21, 2014 Marcy Jo rated it really liked it

Shelves: signed-copy

LOVE LOVE LOVE!

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Sep 16, 2013 Celeste rated it really liked it

This is a very well written science fiction book. I loved the characters and the action kept me hooked the entire time. There was one character at the end that I'm dying to know what happens to, but I guess I'll just have to wait until May of 2014 to read the next book-which I plan on doing. Good pick Tiff. ...more

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Sep 11, 2017 Amanda rated it liked it

Shelves: science-fiction-fantasy, young-adult

2.5 / 5 ... maybe 3? This book was recommended to me by someone at work who said this was a good series to get lost in. Concept: aliens attack Earth; Earth fights back.

It started out really good ... but then got kind of boring in the middle and other spots. It wasn't horrible. I mostly liked the psychology of it and the layers of truths and falsehoods - "trust no one".

I liked Cassie at times ... thought the stuff with Evan was strange.

I have the 2nd book and I'll give it a go ... I remember f ...more

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Aug 16, 2016 Anastasia rated it liked it

Shelves: fiction, dystopia, 2016

Very entertaining but a bit convoluted. Likeable main characters.

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Oct 20, 2016 Chris Chappelear rated it did not like it

Shelves: could-not-finish

Could not finish this book. I'm a very big sci-fi fan and have read a lot of YA books, but this one could not keep my interest. ...more

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Feb 04, 2017 Angie rated it really liked it

I really liked this book! It was totally captivating and I'm not at all surprised that it was made into a movie. It read like a movie! So much detail and description that it was very easy to see in your mind. I enjoyed the story told from multiple perspectives, although the character voices didn't really seem different from one another, particularly Sammy's, whose voice definitely should have reflected his age more. Totally a just-one-more-chapter kind of book. Fun! ...more

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Jun 08, 2013 Susan rated it it was amazing

Excellent book! Cannot wait for the sequel!

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Jun 13, 2017 Jana rated it really liked it

Shelves: audiobooks, x2017-reading-challenge

An enjoyable YA read.

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Sep 23, 2013 Kath rated it liked it

I liked it, but felt like it was missing something. Maybe more details would've helped me care more about the characters. ...more

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Jun 06, 2015 Marlene rated it it was ok

Shelves: youngadult, listened-to-audio, read-2015

Started out pretty good, but rapidly went downhill once the POV changed and it never recovered. I probably would have disliked this less had the awful romance not existed.

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