The 5th Wave

"Remarkable, not-to-be-missed-under-any-circumstances."--Entertainment Weekly (Grade A)

The Passage meets Ender's Game in an epic new series from 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

"A modern sci-fi masterpiece . . . should do for aliens what Twilight did for vampires."--USAToday.com

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Published May 7, 2013

494 pages

Average rating: 7.62

64 RATINGS

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Community Reviews

Cresta McGowan
Dec 25, 2025
6/10 stars
From Goodreads:

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.

My thoughts:

Eh. Eh. (shoulder shrug) Eh. It's not bad. But, it's not great. Just average for me. Another dystopian novel; another end of the world teens save us all concept. Albeit, there were hidden aliens, and that's pretty cool. I didn't like Cassie - she was whiney, but I do like Ringer (a somewhat minor character that I think it going to become MAJOR in the next book, so I'll keep reading the series). I think the concept is actually plausible, the idea that there are aliens living among us and one day - BAM! They are taking over (yes - I believe in aliens because c'mon - this cannot be all there is). I just hope the human race handles themselves a little better than these guys.
PerpetualRevision
Dec 22, 2025
8/10 stars
I bought this book on sale through Audible without knowing much about it, but I enjoyed the story enough to look forward to the next in the series. I haven't yet read any reviews, but I suspect we may discover that the humans are actually fighting against themselves. Even if that's not what ends up happening, the story definitely raises the question of how you tell the difference between friend and foe!
abookwanderer
Oct 09, 2025
10/10 stars
What an insanely wild and twisted ride The 5th Wave is! I didn't want to set this one down. Well-written. Characters that jump off the page. An antagonist that is terrifyingly real. I will definitely be reading the next installment.
Lavender Loves
Aug 30, 2023
6/10 stars
Eh, it was alright. I think I'm just getting to old for these YA novels.
annaelisa
Jun 28, 2023
10/10 stars
I just finished this book and I LOVED IT. Every single page is just full of action and oh my god it was so good.

One thing that makes me just love this book are the characters.
Cassie, just a total badass.
Ben, or Zombie, totally adorable ( but he could actually kill you).
Evan, well I don't wanna spoiler anything...
Ringer, even more of a badass than Cassie.
Sammy, i swear to god if he doesn't survive the second book...

I liked the idea with the waves and there were some plot twists I really didn't see coming.
There is a tiny little thing at the end that bugged me; Ben suddenly becoming all close to Cassie, which I thought was a bit early. Afterall the didn't really have a connection before and it was kind of sudden. Especially with what just happened with Evan. Or maybe that was just me.
But apart from that the book was just amazing and I highly recommend it.

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