DISCUSSION GUIDE
ABOUT THE BOOK
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, just one rule applies: TRUST NO ONE.
Now it’s the dawn of the 5th wave, and on a lonely stretch of highway, Cassie runs from
Them: the beings who only look human, who roam the countryside killing anyone they see.
Who have scattered Earth’s last survivors. To stay alone is to stay alive, Cassie believes, until she meets Evan Walker. Beguiling and mysterious, Evan Walker may be Cassie’s only hope for rescuing her brother – or even saving herself. But Cassie must choose: between trust and despair, between defiance and surrender, between life and death. To give up or to get up.
From award-winning author Rick Yancey comes a gripping epic of catastrophic loss, unthinkable odds, and unflinching courage.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Rick Yancey (www.rickyancey.com) is the author of several adult novels and the memoir Confessions of a Tax Collector. His first young-adult novel, The
Extraordinary Adventures of Alfred Kropp, was a finalist for the Carnegie Medal. In 2010, his novel The
Monstrumologist received a Michael L. Printz Honor, and the sequel, The Curse of the Wendigo, was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. When he isn’t writing or thinking about writing or traveling the country talking about writing, Rick is hanging out with his family.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
• Should Cassie have killed the Crucifix Soldier? Why or why not?
• Both Ben and Cassie have the will to survive—to keep going when everything seems lost. How are Ben and Cassie similar in other ways?
• Vosch says, “We know how you think. We’ve been watching you for six thousand years.” How does Vosch’s overconfidence help Cassie and her companions to escape?
• What does Vosch not understand about humans? What does Vosch not understand about his own race?
• Why do the Others need