Review: The 5th Wave

Title: The 5th Wave (The 5th Wave #1)
Author: Rick Yancey
Publisher: Putnam Juvenile
Year published: 2013
How I got this book: I use the app Storytel (not an affiliate link) to listen to audiobooks. I use the Norwegian version, but they have it in several countries.
My rating: 4,5 stars

Goodreads synopsis:
After the 1st wave, only darkness remains.
After the 2nd, only the lucky escape.
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 myst choose: between trust and despair, between defiance and surrender, between life and death. To give up ro to get up.

My thoughts:
This book wasn't originally very high on my TBR-list, but I am SO glad I picked it up. I was browsing the Storytel app after downloading it, and saw this, and figured I could give it a try. 

We read from a couple different perspectives in this book, but mostly from Cassie or Zombie/Ben. I read some reviews and saw that many didn't like the switch between POV's, and that they found it confusing at times. Listening to the audiobook, I had no problem with that. The different POV's were voiced by different people, a girl for Cassie and a boy for Zombie.

This pick up in the middle of the 4th wave, which I really enjoyed. We didn't get to know the whole story immediately, but got to know more and more through flashbacks. A big part of the book, at least Cassie's POVs were flashbacks, but that didn't bother me. 

The plot is faced paced throughout the book, with a few, very small places where it's slowed down a bit. How the alien invade the earth creeped me out, and I just kept thinking "what if this actually happened?". This isn't a book that will stick with me, so those thoughts left me as soon as I put it down, but that doesn't mean I didn't like it.

My only complaint about this book was the romance. I didn't dislike all of it, but I felt like it contradicted Cassie's personality in different ways. She told herself to not trust anyone, and she was so sure that was the way to survive, and the we have this insta-love with Evan. I don't read a lot of books with insta-love, so I'm not too tired of it, but I found it really unrealistic. However, ignoring the insta-love part, I did really enjoy their relationship, though I don't think the book needed it.

I am looking forward to watching the movie adaptation of this book, and see how true it stayed to the book. I've only seen the trailer, and so far so good. This is definitely a book I will recommend to other people, especially teenagers up to my age. I've heard that a lot of people didn't really like the next book, but I will give it a shot. I have a lot of faith in Rick Yancey, and I hope he doesn't let me down.

Buy this book?
Amazon (US)
Amazon (UK)
BookDepository (worldwide, affiliate link)
AdLibris (Norway)