The 5th Wave Trilogy Review

The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey

First book in The 5th Wave Trilogy

5 stars

"Because if I am the last one, then I am humanity. And if this is humanity's last war, then I am the battlefield."

There have been four waves. Four alien invasions that have decimated the Earth with each brutal invasion. It has left the human inhabitants broken and untrustworthy. The 5th Wave has arrived and with it something far more sinister than what the remaining humans could prepare for. Cassie Sullivan is on the run. Hiding from any other creature who looks like a human and is hunting her down. She refuses to become another victim. Everything changes when she meets Evan Walker and now the promise of rescuing her brother seems possible. As we follow multiple points of view, we discover that this world is not only ravaged by aliens, but the humans who inhabit it. What does the 5th Wave bring and who will ultimately be destroyed? I read this novel in October 2015. This was one of the novels that stuck with me that year. I wanted everyone to read it because Yancey’s writing style had gripped me to my core and made my heart ache at the promises of upcoming destruction for characters that I loved. So, it is December 2018 as I write this review and I have completed the trilogy. A lot of time has passed since I cracked open the pages of this heart-stopping novel. I remember feeling so exhilarated and mystified because the pages were beautiful. Scattered with stars, but sprinkled with words that hit my younger soul in a place I didn’t know I needed to be hit. Is this the best novel I’ve ever read? No, but for some reason when I look at it, I have such an intense feeling of excitement. Excitement over what I felt as I flew through the pages and didn’t know where Yancey would take me. Excitement over how much darker this story was (and I’m trash for a dark theme and characters with enough darkness in their hearts to need a psychological evaluation). This book is full of foreshadowing to where the series is planning to go and I didn’t realize that when I read it, but it’s all there. It’s all laid out. I’m sitting looking at my annotated copy and the first page hints to where The Last Star ends and my mouth is hanging open because that makes me love The 5th Wave all the more.


Whimsical Writing Scale: 5

Cassie Sullivan is a heroine I love rooting for. She is smart and cunning. She’s analytic and weary to trust those who could potentially harm her. Plus, she is a survivalist who thinks about hygiene. Do you know how rare that is in a YA novel? No one wants to acknowledge that girls need deodorant and tampons, but this girl does and she is well-equipped. One of my biggest nitpicks about Cassie though is her incessant need to moon over her first crush, Ben, and she moons over him so much that it is obvious that he must be alive because why else would Yancey spend pages upon pages on her mooning over someone who is dead when he could be alive to rile up a love triangle? Also, can we take a minute to appreciate my notes: "Trust is an anchor and a detonator". (DANG, YOUNGER ME. That’s deep.)


Kick-Butt Heroine Scale: 5

Zombie’s point of view was hard for me to get through. He wasn’t always the most captivating, but he plays an integral role in this story and while I wasn’t always interested when things did get intense, they got INTENSE. All these kids in the compound training to kill aliens go by nicknames, but we don’t know who exactly Zombie is (but it is so obvious who he is that it is not even funny). I like him, but I don’t love him. I do love Evan, however. I was swooning over him like nobody’s business. According to page 179, this is where Cassie and Evan became a new OTP for me. This makes me laugh because I don’t really ship characters hard like this anymore (every now and then I do), but this love for romance that I had makes me smile. In my heart of hearts before this I suspected many things about Evan and I turned out to be right, but I still love him. I scream on the inside when I think of page 371.
“I open to him, a flower to the rain.”


Swoon Worthy Scale: Zombie-3.5 Evan-5

The Villain- My favorite POV was the Silencer. That was creepy and unsettling. This is a very humanizing portrayal of an alien parasite. It was disturbing and I felt like I was in the mind of a stalker (which I was because he was hunting his prey). I loved it.
“To rid his new home of humanity, he had to become human.”
Also, the villains in this are so multilayered and hard to pin down until about halfway through the novel. This is a darker novel and it doesn’t shy away from having horrible things done to kids for other peoples’ gain.


Villain Scale: 5

“We have survived the death of our childhood.”

Sammy, Cassie’s younger brother, is adorable. I love seeing the world fall apart through innocent eyes of someone so young. It also shakes me up where he goes throughout the novel because to be so young in a world like this means to be someone else’s pawn. His POV is so important to this story and it added a wonderful layer. The other kids we encounter in Wonderland are so complex. There’s Ringer, Teacup, Poundcake, and so many others. It’s so heartbreaking because these kids don’t have their names anymore because they’ve been stripped down to one word that describes them. They’ve been dehumanized and their names are a connection to who they once were and so that means they can’t use them.


Character Scale: 5

Alien invasions sound horrifying, but the invasions in this novel had me scared a bit. They are so easily done. For instance, one of the waves consists of wiping out the vast majority of the population through birds because they are the most common animal on Earth and fly around. Now that’s scary. The 5th Wave is a brilliant novel. It’s predictable at times, but at others, it packs a punch in the plot twist department.


“What doesn’t kill us sharpens us.”

Plotastic Scale: 5

Cover Thoughts: I’ll be honest, I’m not a fan of these covers. I do love the yellow on this one, but it is not a gripping cover.

The Infinite Sea by Rick Yancey Narrated by Phoebe Strole & Ben Yannette
Second book in The 5th Wave Trilogy

4.25 stars

*Spoilers for The 5th Wave (book 1) in this review*
The end of The 5th Wave showed us that the aliens are destroying humans through other humans. The best way to get rid of humanity according to them is to rid humans of their humanity and in turn make them killing machines who will strike first think later. Cassie Sullivan and her companions have lived through some of the worst of the waves and they are still pushing through the 5th wave. The crew must decide whether to stay put for the winter and wait for Evan Walker’s return or to set out in search of other survivors. Now they are sitting ducks because attack is inevitable. The question is when will it come and how long do they have to prepare? The basic consensus around The Infinite Sea is that it suffers from second book syndrome and that you should stop reading after The 5th Wave. I disagree. The hard-honest truth is that this is not a better novel than The 5th Wave and I don’t think it was ever trying to be. The Infinite Sea is its own novel and because of that, fans have dragged it through the mud. I almost never picked up this novel despite how much I loved the first novel because of my fear of not liking it. I listened to the audiobook and that made my experience of this novel so enjoyable. Do I think I liked this book more because of that? Heck, yeah. In fact, if you were struggling to gain interest in The Infinite Sea before, let me recommend changing your reading medium to listening because it’s a much more intense experience. The narration is fantastic and with so many alternating POVs it makes for a fun ride. I love Yancey’s writing. For me it’s one of the best things about this trilogy. He’s a strong and consistent writer who knows how to construct simple sentences that pack a punch and are loaded with thought-provoking ideas. His storytelling is great and while there are times when it took me some time get invested, once I was invested, I was in it for the long haul.


Whimsical Writing Scale: 4.5

Narration Scale: 4

Cassie continues to be a character I root for. She wasn’t my favorite thing about this story because she was frustrating in her choices at times, but I still think she’s a strong character. I do believe that her development suffered a bit in this novel because of the severe tragedy and upheaval she faced in the last one. She didn’t have time to process and because of that it left for a lot of unnecessary arguments. Ringer has a POV in this one. I’ll be honest, she was my least favorite part of this novel. She made this novel harder to get through and a bit infuriating. Her choices were selfish and she is prone to recklessness masked under “using her mind to stay alive”. I was also not a fan of where her story went. After I first finished the novel, I was peeved, but I’m not as angry anymore because after reading the last novel it had to go where it did to progress to the end.


Kick-Butt Heroine Scale: Cassie- 4.25 Ringer- 2.5

Ben is still kicking. I can’t say how I feel about him. I like him. He’s like that candy that you don’t really like eating, but keeping eating anyway because you are craving something sweet. That’s Ben Parrish. Evan is my sweet baby and this novel was all about him. I was living for it. His chapters were my favorite and I was so invested in his story.


Swoon Worthy Scale: Ben- 3.25 Evan- 5

The Villain- We meet a Silencer named Grace. She was annoying. Mainly because she was trying to seduce Evan and I was not having that. I still wanted him to be with Cassie and this girl was pushing it with her psychotic rampages. Colonel Vosch is the bane of my existence. He just loves to torture people and I don’t have time for it. It was just annoying. These aliens are doing the most and I am not a fan. (Mainly because I feel bad for these kids. They need a break.)


Villain Scale: 4.25

Teacup is a small precious flower who needs to be protected at all costs. Naturally, this means that Ringer almost kills her in the first couple of chapters. Good job, Ringer. Megan was another cute introduction, but I felt so bad for her because she has a bomb planted in her throat by the Others. Sammy is a scary killing machine, but he’s still adorable. It’s weird because he wants his teddy bear but also has a gun. Poundcake is an underrated character. I love his comments and he was so brave.


Character Scale: 4.5

This novel goes hard. People die. Important characters. Plots are revealed and thickened. It’s all very frustrating and brilliant at the same time. I know that The Infinite is not a hit with the fans, but it was a hit for me.


Plotastic Scale: 4.25

Cover Thoughts: Not a fan.

The Last Star by Rick Yancey Narrated by Phoebe Strole & Ben Yannette

Third book in The 5th Wave Trilogy

4.5 stars

I’m not going to give a preface of what this novel is about because it’s the final book in this trilogy, so it has a lot going on. The ultimate thing to know is the Final Wave is coming. Honestly, I’m not sure how to review this one. The beginning of this one was slow for me. I was having trouble getting hooked, but I did get invested. It gains its footing and once it does, it goes and then there is a lot of intense action. Yancey creates this dark world filled with dark situations. It should seem hopeless but these characters have a bleak and hopeful attitude towards the future. They aren’t completely lost and it made this novel hard to read at times because Yancey likes to kill characters. He doesn’t mind taking out characters that you may be attached to. The audiobook for this one was captivating. I was on the edge of my seat at times and anticipating what was going to happen next. This novel went there. It went there.


Whimsical Writing Scale: 4.5

Narration Scale: 4.25

Usually I’d talk about characters in a review, but to be honest, I don’t know what to say. This review is hard for me to write. I have to talk about spoilers. The ending scene of this novel because that for me is what made me love this novel. So, if you don’t want to be spoiled, then don’t click the tag. Cassie makes the biggest sacrifice in this novel—herself. I hated Allegiant’s ending because that character felt so unnecessary, but this was brilliant. At the end of the novel, Cassie is plugged into a system that gives her 10,000 people’s memories and emotions. The Mothership comes down with the Final Wave of bombs to decimate all of humanity’s art and civilization (without those things humans will eventually forget and stay in the primitive state of killing). As Cassie sees it, she realizes that she isn’t alone because she has all these people inside of her and she has just killed Evan after her became a monster (completely overtaken by the 12th System- killing machine). She had switched clothes with Ringer and finds a pill that goes off with a person’s breath. She says the prayer that she would always say with Sammy and then bites the pill. She destroys the Others and the ship. She sacrifices herself and it makes sense. It’s heartbreaking and beautiful because she has been coming to this point this whole time. The point where her needs are put aside for others. That is always who Cassie has been at her core. I cried, but I also applauded Yancey for going there. He went there. He killed a character I loved since the beginning and who was the driving force between this story. I didn’t hate him for it because it was brilliant. Also, it seems kind of silly that Ben and Ringer live together with Sammy and Megan and Cassie (Ringer’s daughter), but I honestly don’t mind it. Evan surviving was unexpected, but I’m happy he didn’t die as well because that would have been too much.

Kick-Butt Heroine Scale: Cassie- WOW Ringer- 4

Swoon Worthy Scale: Ben- 4 Evan- 5

Villain Scale: 5

Character Scale: 5

Overall, The Last Star is a hard book to review. I do love this book. Mainly because of the ending. I can’t say much else about it, but that. The ending was one of the best in a trilogy that I’ve ever read. If the beginning was as strong as the ending, I’d have more to say, but that ending was just astounding.


Plotastic Scale: 4.5

Cover Thoughts: It’s the best of the covers, but still not good.


Have you read any of the books in The 5th Wave Trilogy? Did you continue or give up on it? Let me know your thoughts down below in the comments!