"Sometimes in my tent, late at night, I think I can hear the stars scraping against the sky. That's how quiet it is." 
 Well, what a ride this book was! 
 I bought this book at the end of last year partly due to the hype surrounding it, partly due to the intriguing concept of the book and mostly due to finding a really cheap copy of it somewhere (I just can't resist a bargain). The whole 'alien' trope is something which really intrigued me, alongside the fact that I'd heard the sentence "this is a YA book like no other" about 900 times. Well, I now agree with every one of those 900 statements because, let me tell you, THIS IS A YA BOOK LIKE NO OTHER! 
 Set in the aftermath of an alien invasion on Earth, the book (initially) is focused from the perspective of sixteen-year-old Cassie. "Not Cassie for Cassandra. Or Cassie for Cassidy. Cassie for Cassiopeia, the constellation, the queen tied to her chair in the northern sky." Cassie fills the reader in on the world and familial events that led to her current forlorn state, alone in the woods with only a teddy bear for company. 
 And up until this part I thought, yes, okay, I know where this book is going. 
 And then I turned the page. 
 And then I had no clue where this book was going. 
 With no warning, Yancey altered perspective, place and plot. I felt dizzied and disorientated. And this feeling never stopped. There is layer upon layer to this book. Time is hard to gauge. Persepctive is hard to gauge. Characters disappear, reappear, change names, grow, become something different to somebody different. There are too many characters to keep track of. There are too many enemies to keep track of. There is action, action, action. Action everywhere. And for all of that? I loved it. 
 This turned very suddenly from a three-star book to a five-star one. The remainder was based from multiple POV perspectives that combined to give the reader a complete overview of the action. I went from being 'filled in' on past events from one character to owning more knowledge than each of the characters at separate moments of the book. And let me tell you, it made for compelling reading! I was a mirror of the characters - tense and waiting for the next attack. The phrases 'unputdownable' and 'what even is sleep?' come to mind. 
 The book, aside from the first segment, was very character-focused and action-driven as the actual story-line was a comparatively simple one: aliens happen, girl goes to save brother. But, for me, the real power was in Yancey's beautiful and skillful storytelling: he could write of absolutely nothing and turn it the most heartbreakingly tragic moment. It was this that made me stop reading this book and start experiencing it. It was this that made me empathize with each and every character: I had no favourites whilst reading (aside from a soft spot for Nugget) and no point of view I was more eager to see the world from. It was this that made it such a different reading experience and raised the questions of if there is no creation of the 'bad' characters then how do we know who the 'good' characters are? And with no binaries to use as a compass, how do we align ourselves with the 'right' side? 
 Short answer: we don't. 
 We are just as adrift as the protagonists. And this is the unique and unifying perspective throughout - that of the individual consciousness mirrored in another. It is what aligns us so tightly with each character, and each character with each other. It is the overall link. Circumstances might be similar for some and wildly different for others (I'm looking at you Evan Walker) but these only reveal the core of the person you are. 
 The question was asked early on in the book of who not to trust in an apocalypse. The answer given was the person with their gun pointed at you. But I don't agree anymore, I now think the answer is the person whose soul you see mirrored in your own.