6 stars out of 5.
Fantastic.
Excellent, well-drawn characters and story. Logical and surprising twists and turns. Handles flashbacks expertly. (are you listening, Station Eleven?)

Clear your schedule before you start reading, you will not want to put it down.
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Predictable, but not in a bad way. Nicely paced, but contains a lot of filler. ( )

I bought this book after watching a guy working at the airport in St. Thomas who COULD NOT PUT IT DOWN. He'd sit there nose in the book until it was time to load or unload baggage and then he'd hightail it back to the book. Any book that has somebody so wrapped up is one that I need to check out.

While I don't think I liked it as much as that guy seemed to, I totally enjoyed this story of a teenage girl making her way in the world after an alien invasion. This has all the now familiar elements of teenage dystopia: feisty female protagonist, two impossibly handsome guys to act as love interests, adorable younger sibling, etc. Just like when I finished Hunger Games, I used my kindle to immediately download the second book in the series.

is this great literature? No...but it's fun and I want to know what happens next.

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I got a galley of this at ALA Midwinter in Seattle and it was by far the most hyped book I came across at the conference, so I sat down to read it this morning with hopes that were high. I just finished it--that's over 450 pages in one six-hour sitting. So, if you're wondering whether this is a fast read that's hard to put down, I would say yes. Let's start with the things I liked:

-The story really held me. Who are the Others? What do they want? What's their master plan?

-The POV changed many times, from Cassie's to Ben's to Evan's to Sammy's. I'm a fan of POV changes, even when they shift from first person to third person, which can be a little jarring, because it's fantastic to see the same situation from different perspectives and to have two narratives to jump between. I'm a fan.

-I'm definitely interested in reading a sequel when it comes, but this book didn't have the cruel cliffhanger ending that some first-in-a-series books throw at you. Thank you, Rick Yancey, for going the distance with this first book and for leaving the reader wanting more at the same time. It's a hard balance to strike, but I think you did it.

Moving on to my dislikes:

-At the end of the book when everyone's almost just died--when one very important character may very well be dead!--our heroine is annoyed by another girl's beauty and "microscopic pores." OMG that makes me so mad! Must teen girls be portrayed as so shallow and same-sex competitive? Even in the midst of death and destruction? When your book aspires to be about something huge like total species annihilation, to have your teen heroine get all insecure when faced with a pretty girl is either the dumbest thing to do or so honest it's troubling.

-If we're going to get right down to it, I didn't like Cassie all that much as a hero (not nearly as much as I liked Ben). From the first pages, I thought her voice too flip to match her circumstances. Later in the book, as we see her face death and survival, she gets a little grittier and cracks better jokes and I started to like her. But, in this reader's opinion, she drifted back and forth between likable and super annoying. It's like Yancey was trying to strike a balance between Katniss and Bella, but didn't really get away with it.

-Though I found the overall story plausible enough, certain major plot points struck me as ludicrous. I can only talk about them with spoilers, which I won't give away (especially since the book's not out yet), but suffice it to say, there were times when the story really challenged my ability to maintain suspension of disbelief.

To sum up, I really enjoyed reading this book, but I don't see as much crossover appeal for adult audiences as with The Hunger Games because it's so much teen-ier. It's definitely better than average, and I think a lot of kids will read it and like it, but I don't know if it will take off like the publishers hope it will. It's due out in May, so we shall see. ( )

Was loaned this book by a friend. Not my typical type of book, but I enjoyed it immensely. Just bought the next two in the series.

Reread this book and still love it! ( )