THE LAST STAR

Cassie, Ringer, Ben (aka Zombie), and company fight the final frontier to save the last vestiges of human life on Earth.

On the heels of their mind-boggling discovery of the origin of the “others”—humans who they were tricked into thinking were aliens—Yancey’s cast of child soldiers and assassins plots to stop the planet’s takeover, led by the evil Vosch, who’s responsible for the mass murder of billions of innocent humans. The story takes place over the final four days before 5th Wave soldiers are unleashed to destroy every city in the world. Similar to the first two titles in the trilogy (The 5th Wave, 2013, and The Infinite Sea, 2014), this action-packed conclusion starts with a ghastly, ominous tableau then unfolds through the voices of its various heroines, heroes, and villains. Yancey piles on plenty of gross throughout, including a pit of freshly killed and rotting dead bodies that gets visited and revisited on multiple occasions as well as a very, very scary crazy cat lady that will have readers recoiling in horror and disgust—only Yancey could have imagined it. Religion also plays a fairly strong role this time around, as characters find themselves questioning their own personal beliefs as well as their trust and faith in each other, which is totally understandable give their state of affairs. Although the going gets murky from time to time, readers should be happy to know that by the end all is revealed, even if it’s not necessarily the truth they want.

A haunting, unforgettable finale