The Others are coming. In five waves, they have been laying waste to everything we are and think of us as nothing more than annoying insects, or a disease that needs to be eradicated. The first wave crippled the world. The second obliterated much of it in a heartbeat. The third took much longer but left the most bodies in its wake. The fourth became a much more up and close encounter of the deadliest kind.
The fifth will end humanity – unless people can find a way to stave off extinction.
Cassie Sullivan is an average sixteen-year-old girl, ignored by the guy she has a crush on, who carries a stuffed bear and a Luger M16 everywhere she goes. Her family gone, she searches for her five year old brother, who was taken from her, leaving her holding onto his bear and a promise to never give up on him. This is her story – and a strong one. Cassie finds herself laid up, injured, in a farmhouse, nursed back to health by a farmboy who is the only survivor from his family. He seems like a dream to a girl who has never caught the eye of a good-looking guy, but he also harbors a secret.
Yancey also establishes a second narrative, told from the point of view of Ben Parrish, the guy who never knew Cassie fell for him. Ben was the high school kid everyone loved, and with good reason. He’s a nice guy, good looking, and had the world at his feet–until the world was turned upside down. He finds himself inside a military base where the personnel “rehab” the wounded and displaced, yet nobody seems to be over 18– except for the officers and trainers. When Cassie and Ben uncover what the 5th Wave truly is, horror grips them– making for a fast-paced, intriguing YA novel that does not slow or falter.
While this YA novel is targeted to tweens and teens, there’s very little that is juvenile about it. Rick Yancey has created a wondrous book will have parents fighting their kids for their copies and will likely find its way onto the big screen sometime soon. It might just be the best YA novel published since The Hunger Games.
David Simms