5th Wave

Link to Amazon

This story is told in many different perspectives of the same story. The main characters include Cassie, Ben/Zombie, Evan Walker, and Sammy/Nugget. An alien ship comes to Earth. Instead of invading as people assume, the aliens begin releasing different waves of attack. These waves begin with an EMP that wipes out all technology, cars, airplanes, electricity, and more. The next waves include a tsunami, a plague called the pestilence, and the fourth wave awakens aliens that were placed within human minds. During these waves Cassie looses her mother to the pestilence and her father to the fourth wave. Just before she looses her father her brother is taken by the alien humans of the fourth wave. Ben has lost most of his family to the pestilence and his remaining sister is murdered. After this Ben contracts the pestilence and is then recruited into the same army that took Cassie's brother. Cassie wants to find and rescue her brother and Ben is trying to survive boot camp. Cassie, with the help of her boyfriend/alien, Evan, breaks into the alien/army camp to save her brother. Ben, who in camp is known as Zombie, after surviving boot camp and realizing the alien's plans breaks into the camp as well to save Cassie's brother, who he knows as nugget. Cassie and Ben together break Sammy/Nugget out as Evan blows up the camp. As they are escaping Ben/Zombie's platoon members rescue them in a humvee and they successfully make it away from camp.

This book is part of a series, and if readers like this book they will definitely want to read the sequel since this book ends on a cliffhanger. Also, if readers enjoy this book they will enjoy other apocalyptic books such as H20 and Darkest Minds. This book will also interest readers who enjoy series like the Hunger Games and Cinder. 

Young readers sometimes need a push to get them into reading, maybe they are unmotivated, maybe they don't know how to find books that interest them, this is where the librarian would come in. (p. 34-35) Books like 5th Wave that have a movie made after them, will grab the reader's attention long enough to get them hooked and maybe help them become life-long readers.

Citation 

Yancey, R. (2013). 5th wave. New York, NY: Penguin Group US.