Despite all the negative reviews that I glanced over before I read this book- I actually enjoyed it! 
 (view spoiler)[ There are some ongoing shortcomings- the romance for example. It was good for the first book and that is where is should have ended. Till the last minute I felt no love from Marika, Razor or Ben. Cassie was slightly obsessive and cheesy and could have passed for an immature cheesy teenage infatuation, but Evan? He was just too much of a silent sufferer goody-goody- unrealistic on many levels. This book could have done without, or significantly less love related descriptions and would have been a lot greater for that. 
 A big plus for the atmosphere of the book (best executed in the 5th Wave). The main character, I mean she is not very likeable, snapping at everyone all the time and incredibly cheesy, but the whole point is that she does everything for other people and she genuinely cares. Even though I found her annoying I did cheer for her. I had no illusions above the ending, I could see it coming since the beginning (the whole hive-alien-kill-the-queen-deliver-one-nuke-kill-them-all has been around since the beginning of alien fiction), but despite it being so obvious it was nicely delivered. 
 A big minus for the constant repetition of the obvious themes and symbols- 'Stars', 'humanity', 'infinity', 'forever', 'sea', 'other' etc. Also a minus for the love scenes (see above). 
 And this is my personal note, what is with the obsession of almost every male character with Ringer (even Cassie)? Vosch, Razor, Ben? The stereotypical Asian beauty, cold, rational, tough and logical (chess and all)? I couldn't find the depth to her that I so desperately wanted to justify her role in the series and the proportion of the narrative she received. I just couldn't reconcile her obsession with the 'risk' and what she decided in the end- I found her decisions to be highly erratic. 
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