The 5th Wave Review

They had one goal. To wipe out all humans and take over our planet. The first wave that came through was an EMP that fried any electronic equipment. All the planes flying in the air crashed, all the cars driving stopped. the whole world came to a standstill. This took out about half a million people. The second wave took out all the coastal cities and the people who live there when they dropped a huge slab of metal onto one of the largest faults on the planet, causing massive earthquakes and huge tsunamis. The third: an avian virus that wipes out 99 percent of the remaining population.

The fourth: involving “Silencers,” humans who were implanted years ago with an “alien” gene while still in their mothers’ wombs. These Silencers look and seem human, yet are actually programmed to kill any remaining humans. The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey takes the first person perspective of Cassie, one of the last remaining humans on earth. As she resists the aliens who try in every way to kill her, she loses her entire family. Suddenly, she is shot by a Silencer and is trapped beneath a car, bleeding to death.

Evan Walker, the Silencer who shot her then finds her, first trying to kill her, but then revealing himself to be one of the few aliens who originally voted to not use violence against the human inhabitants. He overcomes the alien’s consciousness and helps protect and heal her as she struggles to find her little brother, Sammy. Cassie has two goals: to stay alive, and to rescue Sammy, who has been sent to what is supposedly a refugee camp, but which actually is a paramilitary program where he will be taught to kill.

The advice I would give the main character is to stay low, stay hidden, and take out the government one at a time. The oppressive government is the aliens who faked being military leaders and other positions in power in order to take power over the now nearly extinct Homo sapiens. The type of government depicted in the 5th Wave is similar to a dictatorship. The aliens killed anyone they didn’t like and anyone who tried to oppose or resist them. Humans were tricked into thinking they were at a refugee camp, but they had just actually became permanent citizens of the alien’s regime.

To leave the camp is basically suicide, because as a “citizen”, you have to have a chip embedded under the skin in order for the aliens to track where you are at all times and to exterminate you is necessary. So, if you leave the camp, they will hunt you down and kill you. People live in terror because they know that they can be killed at any time. There are almost no supplies or resources left on Earth, which deprives any remaining human of essential supplies, food, weapons, and water. Another example is how the aliens kill anyone that they see that is not part of their little city.

Anyone who realised what was going on and tried to rebel was also executed. (Pg. 130-131) The aliens are the new leaders of the earth. Cassie is one of the main characters in the novel. She is not a member of the aliens’ society on Earth, so she is constantly being stalked and shot at while she scavenges around looking for essential supplies and her brother all while trying to stay hidden and alert. They try to kill her on sight, but she escapes every time. Another example at the end of the novel, Evan leaves her, Ben, and Sammy to sacrifice himself by blowing up the whole compound where the “refuge” was.

She was insistent on him escaping with her and the group but finally gave in when he kept wanting to. (Pg. 443-444) Cassie’s actions impact this society very little in the beginning, but at the end, she helps destroys the whole alien compound on earth. Cassie’s actions resulted in both positive and negative consequences. The warning given by the author is to not trust anybody. In the novel, Cassie emptied an entire clip into a soldier, killing him because she thought that he was holding a gun, but he was actually holding a crucifix.

She didn’t trust him, but in the end, she didn’t regret her decision because she knew he was in a better place than the now alien-infested Earth. The difference between the Others and a human are impossible to tell, because they possess the human body and the mind. The citizens will eventually have to overpower and take over the government if they are to survive, as the aliens are wanting to rid Earth of all humans in order to take over. (Pg. 223) The advice I would give the protagonist is to help other people more and to not be as selfish.

Another warning is to never travel by yourself, as bad thing may happen to you. The warnings apply to everyone. In conclusion, if aliens take over the world, don’t panic. They may be friendly. However, if they turn out to be evil, be like Cassie and rip out your M16 or a brick or whatever you have on them. In The 5th Wave, Cassie represents humanity’s resistance, one of the last humans to survive on earth. Don’t trust anyone, as the author says. A lesson that is to be learned from this novel is to never underestimate someone who looks and acts of a person who is like you, they may have an upper advantage.