The Last Star by Rick Yancey

"We’re here, then we’re gone, and that was true before they came. That’s always been true. The Others didn’t invent death; they just perfected it. Gave death a face to put back in our face, because they knew that was the only way to crush us. It won’t end on any continent or ocean, no mountain or plain, jungle or desert. It will end where it began, where it had been from the beginning, on the battlefield of the last beating human heart."- Goodreads
The Final book in The 5th Wave Series

This ladies and gentlemen, is how you end a series. I'm freaking speechless.

I have a feeling a lot of people are going to be left feeling this way. This review is going to be hard to write... and seeing as it is the last in a trilogy I'm going to keep it spoiler free.. Going to warn you now, if you don't remember a lot from the first two books please take the time to go back and re-read them! You'll need the information you might have lost. The Last Star is everything I wanted out of a final book and then some. I got so many of the answers I was looking for. The mystery surrounding the 5th Wave is finally revealed.

"If they don't need bodies, they don't need a planet. and if they don't need a planet, why did they come for ours?"

The Last Star brings back all the characters you know and love. Giving everything we've been missing over the last year. Since this series is so character driven I was waiting on pin and needles to see how the finale would bring their development. We get a lot more Sammy in this book. Cassie's sweet, loveable, lost in a world of madness brother. We get to really see how being forced to grow up so young really shapes a person and their thoughts. Ringer is still this powerhouse. Still this tough egg that no one can see crack. Now that she's been enhanced she really gets to see what's on the line. That the world isn't just about her. I might have loved her in the first two books, but this one shows there is still so much of her we've never seen. Don't worry though she's still the expressionless genius she was before, but now she's fighting for more than just herself.

"I'm coming, you son of a bitch. You wanted to create a human without humanity. Now you're going to get one."

Then we have Evan Walker, the alien everyone loves to hate. All the mystery and guessing about him finally comes forth, perfectly groomed nails and all. He is still so sexy, forward, and so clear. He was my favorite character in the first two books (though he might have taken a step back in the last) everything about this book reminded me why I love him so much. We figured out why he is human, but not. Why he has been so torn, and now what he must do about it. There are some very yummy scenes with him that I've been dying for so that didn't hurt either. Now on to the last two characters, these were the two I was most worried about. Zombie and Cassie. Zombie and his charming smile doesn't disappoint in this series. This book made him. He is the glue that holds everything together. He is the kind of person the end of the world needs. He gives all his heart in this book. He becomes more than this ex jock girl crush he was before the attacks. And Lastly Cassie. Cassiopeia, the sassy, snarky, silver tongued, last human in humanity. She is everything I want out of my female protagonist. Her characters is so realistic. Her thoughts and actions mirror real life. I was scared with the weight of everything this book was going to bring that we weren't going to get the classic Cassie we were begging for, but we did. She still brings all her witty commentary...

"Whipped cream in a can. Those cinnamon rolls Mom made every Sunday morning. McDonald's French fries. Bacon. No, bacon was still a possibility. I would just have to find a hog, slaughter it, butcher it, cure the meat, then fry it up. Thinking about the bacon- the potential of bacon- gives me hope. Not all is lost if bacon isn't."

But she also brings so many emotions and heartache. She by far has the greatest character development in this series. She has come light years from the girl scared in her tent. From the girl who thought she was the last girl on earth. She is a fighter and will stop at nothing to take back the world. She continues to give everything she has in this final book. There is so much more I want to gush about these characters, but I refuse to go any further with them because of spoilers.

As for the plot of this book... God it had me worried. I'm not going to lie, it's a bit slow at first. It is very Rick Yancey like. It starts out slow, then has you completely baffled about what is going on and who will end up where, it'll twist your mind till it can't take anymore, then hit you dead on with a mind blowing surprise. This is a book that will make you work for the answers you've been seeking, and the battle is worth it. The Last Star just kept peeling back all these layers and everything comes together. This book perfectly ties every book together. It takes pieces from The 5th Wave, and sections of The Infinite Sea and molds them into The Last Star. Most of my time was spent scream WTF is going on... but the ending, Lord the ending. It is everything I wanted. The first three section might have been slower, but they are just setting the table for the last two. There's action, fighting, depth, loss, and love all beautifully crafted in less than 400 pages.

Rick Yancey has no problems taking bold stroke and this book proves it. He had me laughing, crying, on the edge of my seat, then crying all over again. He has proven that a final book in a series doesn't have to be perfectly neat that they can be messy. That they can be all the things you hate and love mushed together to make this crazy cluster F of a read. I had so many theories about how this would end, and they were all wrong and they were all right. Every little detail down to the title was perfectly woven together to make this masterpiece of a series complete.

An out of this world ending to my favorite alien trilogy.

10/10 Stars
-Angela