"What doesn't kill us sharpens us. Hardens us. Schools us. You're beating plowshares into swords. You are remaking us. We are the clay, and you are Michelangelo. And we will be your masterpiece." 
 *1.5 stars 
 This book betrayed me. I went into it expecting cunning aliens, brave heroic humans and epic battles between them. What did I get instead? A bunch of angsty teenagers with raging hormones. Of course this is YA, so maybe I should have seen this coming ,but still this is not an excuse for featuring such flat characters. John Green writes about teenagers as well, but his teenagers sound like REALLY INTERESTING AND CLEVER human beings. But in the 5th Wave all teenagers do is FLIRT. Even in the middle of a fight when they are being shot at. Even while trying to escape an alien camp and their lives are seriously in danger. And when they don't flirt,they try to sound cool. But they don't, because obviously Rick Yancey is trying too hard. He just manages to make them rude, especially Cassie. She should really learn some manners and stop telling people to shut up. 
 The writing is pretty bad. Apart from all the tropes- forbidden love, love triangles, the struggles of saving the younger sibling (Katniss Everdeen did it better) - this whole book felt like a script for an adventure film. There wasn't anything original in the way it was written, nothing to make it sound beautiful. I mean, who uses the word ''hardcore'' in a book? Or even worse, who needs to insert things like ''creeeeeak'' and ''thumpa-thumpa-thumpa'' in order to mimic different sounds? 
 Many people complain about the different POVs but I didn't find them confusing. I guess after reading ASOIAF, 3 or 4 different POVs are child's play. But they were unnecessary. They just managed to spoil the story. (view spoiler)[ We know from the very beginning that Evan is an alien, because of his chapter,where he describes how he shot Cassie and the fact that he is attracted to her. So when Cassie was wondering about his real identity,I was just bored. The same goes for Colonel Vosch. Of course he was an alien too. Since he had killed so many innocent people in Camp Ashpit, it was safe to assume that he was lying to Ben Parish all along. (hide spoiler)] 
 The only two things that saved the story for me were pre-Evan Cassie- afterwards she was just a lovesick puppy, and Ringer. She was the only one who seemed to realise that there was a war going on, instead of fooling around like everyone else (I'm looking at you Cassie, there is an alien invasion in the making, stop jabbering about ''impeccable cuticles'' ). Towards the end Ben Parish manages to stand out a little bit, but it's not like he becomes an unforgettable character or something. If these people are humanity's last chance then maybe we should willingly surrender. On the other hand, if the aliens can be defeated by a group of 17-year-olds, they must be even more hopeless.