After the 1st wave, only darkness remains.
After the 2nd, only the lucky escape.
And after the 3rd, only the unlucky survive.
After the 4th wave, only one rule applies: trust no one.

It’s the end of the world (as we know it). The aliens came and killed off most of humanity–in some actually fairly interesting ways. This is the story of what comes next.

At first, it’s the story of Cassie after the end of the world. How she survives each wave (not told in order), how things keep getting worse, and then finally how she starts to find some other survivors.

“I would kill for a cheeseburger. Honestly. If I stumbled across someone eating a cheeseburger, I would kill them for it.”

But then we start getting a few more points of view. More survivors and their own stories of death. Child soldiers. Human* survivors every bit as bad as the aliens. A possible look into what comes next.

How do you rid the Earth of humans? Rid the humans of their humanity.

On the upside, the worldbuilding and the feel of barely living through the apocalypse was solid–and terrifying.

On the downside, it feels very YA at times. The oldest of our points of view are teenagers and–for reasons–we have to have romance and love triangles. It’s… really weird. *Anything* that tries to make a 10,000 year old / teenage romance work is weird. Full stop.

“I had it all wrong," he says. “Before I found you, I thought the only way to hold on was to find something to live for. It isn’t. To hold on, you have to find something you’re willing to die for.”

All that being said, I liked it. And now I’m curious where in the world it goes from here. A bit apprehensive at a few glances of ratings/reviews of the sequel, but we’ll give them a chance. Onward!