Mare, her brother Shade, prince Cal, best friend Kilorn and Captain Farley make their way to the island of Tuck, where The Corporal is leading an army of Red Guard and northern Lakelanders.  Mare’s family is there as well, and they are reunited.   The Corporal (who happens to be Farley’s father) does not trust Cal and has him locked up, along with Mare, but Kilorn breaks them out.

The rest of the book is spent with Mare and her crew traveling around the kingdom looking for the other “newbloods” on the list created by Mare’s instructor, Julian, who she thinks is dead. King Maven is also hunting these people; Mare etc find many bodies and empty houses as they are searching.  The newbloods, including some children, are taken to The Notch to train and perfect their skills. Some of the people they pick up:

Nix: impetetrable to bullets and many other weapons

Nanny:  shapeshifter

Ada:  photographic perfect memory, can become an expert on anything by reading about it once

Gareth: can manipulate gravity, and can fly

Cameron: can shut off the abilities of others

??  : who can generate illusionary objects out of nothing

Kesha (?):  can destroy objects with her mind

Towards the end of the book, they stage a massive prison break, freeing many newbloods as well as Silvers who were imprisoned by Maven.  Among the prisoners are Julian and his wife, Sara, who is a healer.  Shade is killed during the break, and some of the other team members go missing.  The mind-manipulate Queen Elara (Maven’s mother) is also killed.

After a brief rest back on  Tuck, Mare takes some of the team to attempt to break through Maven’s lines.  However, Maven traps them, and captures Mare, after she begs him to let the others go. The book ends with Mare imprisoned by Maven.

Clifton Chronicles #6

The book opens at court, where Lady Virginia (Giles’s awful ex) has sued Emma Clifton for libel.  A note written by the newly-deceased Alex Fisher shows Lady V. to be at fault, while at the same time damaging Giles’s political career.  The court finds in favor of Emma Clifton.

Harry Clifton:  in this book, Harry’s  mother Maisie dies, leaving behind a note urging him, Emma and Seb to do more meaningful things with their lives.  Harry is still trying to free Russian author Anatoly Babakov.  Near the end of the book, Babakov is awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, and the Russians agree to free him.  He dies of a stroke on his way to Sweden (suspicious? not sure). His wife returns to Russia for his funeral, and decides to remain there.

Emma Clifton: discovers politics, and becomes a major supporter and friend of Margaret Thatcher.  She also becomes involved in working on the board of one of the hospitals.

Sebastian Clifton:  CEO of Farthings Bank.  He falls in love with a Hindu woman, but her parents have already arranged a marriage for her.  During his attempts to get her out of India and out of the marriage, she is shot and killed.   Later in the book, Seb finally  meets his daughter (age 10), Jessie, and is reunited with Samantha.

Adrian Sloane and Desmond Mellor:  these two are doing everything they can do bring down Sebastian Clifton and Farthings Bank.  They manage to plant drugs on the bank’s chairman, Hakim Bishara, and have him arrested.  Ultimately, he is found innocent, though Seb and Co. have yet to prove that Sloane and Mellor were involved.  They later try to make it appear that Bishara is involved in insider trading, but that plan fails too.  At the end of the book, Mellor has convinced Seb to meet with him, but we don’t know why.

Giles Barrington:  When his political career is put on hold, Giles puts his energy into getting his love interest, Karin, out of East Berlin.  With the help of her father, he pulls it off.  It turns out that she really *is* a spy, as is her “father.”  She is found out by Cynthia Forbes-Watson, who appears to be an old retired politician, but is actually still active in intelligence.  She convinces Karin to work for her.  Karin, meanwhile, has actually fallen in love with Giles, and wants out of the whole business.  At the end of the book, her “father” confronts her with her treachery, and shoots her.

Lady Virginia Fenwick:  is running out of money, so she cons a rich Lousiana man (Cyrus T Grant III) into thinking he fathered her child, when in fact she convinced her butler and housekeeper to give her their child, and shafts Grant for child support for some serious money. At the end of the book, Grant’s wife has had enough of this, and figures out the truth, shutting off Lady V’s income.  Lady V also uses Sloane and Mellor against each other, to give herself some more money.  She also discovers that her father has left her nothing, but has left a property to her “son” Freddie when he reaches age 25.

The action takes place in two locations:

John (#4), Sam (his best friend), Nine and Five are in New York, after Setrakus Ra has basically destroyed the city.  Six, Mariana (#7), Adam (Mogodorian traitor and supporter of Lorien) are in Mexico, having met “The Entity” (the spiritual embodiment of Lorien).  Ella (#10) is still being held on board the Mog ship Anubis, where S. Ra is working on turning her into a Mog.  He still has a charm on her, causing any injuries on his body to only appear on hers.

Sam has just developed a Legacy (telekenesis) and as he and John are running for their lives in New York, they meet Daniela, a native New York teen who has also developed telekeneis.  They meet up with FBI Agent Walker, who urges them to work with the government to come up with a way to defeat the Mogs.  John is skeptical, as the gov’t have not exactly been supportive thus far.  In the midst of the action, John is contacted telepathically by Ella. Her powers have grown stronger, and she is able to communicate from a greater distance, and is capable of seeing the future, although she knows it can be changed.  When he awakes, he and Sam are given satellite phones, and they call Six and Sarah, who is still somewhere with her old friend Mark, trying to gather information. John learns that Sarah made a YouTube video, featuring him, begging the people of earth to help Lorien, and that’s why John is suddenly recognized by people.  Shortly thereafter, they learn Five is holding Nine at the Statue of Liberty, and demands Sam and John find him there.  Five, who is severely injured, clearly wants to commit suicide by way of John, but John knocks him out, removes the metal and rubber balls that allow him to turn into metal or rubber  and heals both Five and Nine.  Just then, a huge Mogodorian creature emerges from the sea, attacking everyone in sight.

In Mexico, Six, Adam and Mariana discover there ship has been disabled by Mog warrior Phiri Dun-ra, who has disabled all the other ships in the area so they can’t scavenge for parts.    They hold her prisoner while they try to figure out what to do.  Sam calls and tells Six that he and at least one other person have developed Legacies, so Six et al know that whatver happened with the Entity, it had far-reaching effects.  John then asks Adam what he knows about Mog ships that might be useful to the US gov’t. John tells them of Ella’s vision of the Anubis coming to Mexico to capture the Lorien temple, and even though Ella said they should run, he tells them he’ll try to get to US military to come down and help. Six, Adam and Mariana begin planning a defense, and Sarah and Mark show up in a Lorien ship, powered by Lexa, a Lorien who’s been in the background all this time.  She has no Legacies, but wants to help.  They continue preparing, but the Anubis arrives early and targets the temple; S. Ra doesn’ want the temple, he wants to destroy it.  He’s using a weapon based on Loric energy, and while he is using it, Ella appears and throws herself into the energy stream.  Suddenly, anyone with a Loric Legacy (including S. Ra), loses consciousness.

They all come to in a library room, and realize this is all a telepathic experience controlled by the Ella, with the help of the Entity’s energy.  She leads them to a large stadium room  Everyone is shown the history of S. Ra and Pittacus Lore:  they were friends, but S. Ra became obsessed with playing with the genetics of Loriens and Mogs, and was banished for it; S. Ra was Loric.  After the vision, suddenly everyone on Earth who has been granted a Legacy appears in the room.  John tries to explain what’s happening, and asks for their help.  People are confused, but some are eager to help.  S. Ra escapes his bonds and swears to hunt down all those people.  Everyone regains consciousness and learns only a second has passed, and they are still locked in battle (with the Mog sea monster in New York, and S. Ra in Mexico.)

Six is determined to kill S. Ra, now that Ella is (seemingly) dead and beyond injury, though no new scar has appeared on anyone’s ankle.  Mog soldiers drag him back to the Anubis, and Six isn’t sure what condition he’s in, though she figures it must be bad since she just impaled him with a large metal pole. Everyone board’s Lexa’s ship to make their escape. Meanwhile, Mariana is seriously injured , leaving her unable to attend to anyone else’s injuries, especially Sarah’s, which are severe. Ella is also on board, but in no condition to do much of anything.

In New York, John discovers he has developed Ximic, a Legacy that allows him to absorb the Legacies of others.  He, Sam, Five, Nine and Daniela battle the creature; Daniela and John eventually bring it down with Daniela’s new Legacy, turning things to stone.  Shortly after the creature is down, John’s phone rings.  It is Sarah, calling from Mexico.  She tells him she loves him, and he should keep fighting, and she dies, with Six, Mark and Adam looking on.

Characters:

Reds: people with red blood. second class citizens. poor, working class, conscripted to fight the ongoing war

Silvers:  have silver blood and special abilities like telekenesis,  mind control, etc.  royals, nobles, merchants and other upper class

Mare: a Red with an ability, controlling electricity.  To keep her quiet, the king hides her in plain sight be declaring her a long-lost silver princess, and betroths her to his son, Maven.  Mare joins the Scarlet Guard.  aka “The Lady Mareena Tiranos”

Kilorn:  Mare’s best friend. Also joins the Scarlet Guard.

Cal: the crown prince, son of King Tiberius.  Betrothed to Evangeline.   Forced to kill his father by Queen Elara

Maven: second prince.  betrothed to Mare.  joins the Scarlet Guard, but it turns out it’s all a plot to get himself on the throne

Queen Elara:   Maven’s mother.  Has the ability of mind reading and mind control.  Uses her ability to force Cal to kill his father

Farley:  leader of the Scarlet Guard

Evangeline: betrothed to Cal.  From a highborn family, she has the ability to manipulate metal.  Smirks a lot.

Julian:  Mare’s teacher. After helping her liberate some captives, he disappears.  Before he does so, he gives Mare a list of people who are like her:  Reds with Silver abilities.  Her brother Shade, who was executed for desertion, is on the list.

Bree, Tramy and Shade:  Mare’s brothers, all sent to war.  As part of agreeing to be part of the King’s plan, Mare insists he bring them home from war, and spare Kilorn from having to go

Gisa:  Mare’s younger sister.  A gifted embroiderer whose hand is permanatly destroyed by a Security person during a mob scene.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When Mare is taken in by the royal family, the secretly joins the Scarlet Guard, a rebellion that is working for Red freedom and equality.  Maven also joins.  Mare is kind of in love with Cal, even though he’s everything she’s against.

A Guard attack kills 3 important court leaders, resulting in even stricter rules for the Reds. The court flees its summer location for the capital palace. On the way there, Mare sees villages poorer than her own, in particular Grey Town.  With Farley, Kilorn and Maven, Mare plans a coup, hoping to get the king to step down and Cal to step aside.  The plan hinges on Maven’s belief that Cal is in love with Mare and will choose her over the throne, but in fact he’s was plotting his father’s death, and his own takeover of the throne.  Cal and Mare are sentenced to death in an Arena battle, but manage to escape.

On the train underground and away from the capital, Mare discovers her brother Shade, who is not dead after all. His ability seems to be incredible speed, moving from one point to another in no time at all.  Cal is with her and the Guard, though the Guard doesn’t trust him and plans to keep him as a potentially useful prisoner. Farley has the list of Silver-Red mutants, but so does Maven.  The Guard must find those people before Maven does….

Key points

Sal is definitely a tapeworm.  She comes to terms with this fairly easily, as does boyfriend Nathan.

Sal and Nathan leave Dr Cole’s lab to rescue their dogs, Beverly and Minnie.  In the process, Sal gets bitten by a sleepwalker.  The blood loss and stress cause her to faint.  Upon returning to the lab, they learn that the blood vessels in her brain are weak, and surgery is required to repair them.

Sal is smuggled into a hospital where the surgery is successful. On leaving, she is taken by USAMRIID, and subsequently taken by her former buddy Sherman, who is also a tapeworm chimera.  He wants to kill of the human race. He’s also obsessed with Sal, and while he’s got her, he takes lots of blood and tissue samples.

In other news, Tansy was left behind at SymboGen, and now Dr Banks has her.  He’s doing lots of awful things to her as well.

Sal escapes from Sherman with the help of Ronnie, a chimera who is in a girl’s body even though he’s sure he’s supposed to be male–he remembers the first two bodies he was in, both male, leading to the question of whether the tapeworms have their own memories.

By this time, Dr Cale has relocated her lab to the former Captain Candy factory.  Just as Sal is settling back in with Nathan, Dr Cale shows up with a woman named Anna.  She turns out to be hosting a version of Tansy’s tapeworm that Dr Banks made.

Nathan, Sal, Fang (pronounced Fong) and Fissy (?) set out to rescue Tansy, bringing Dr Banks along so they can get into SymboGen.  He spends the trip generally being a PITA and trying to convince Sal that Sally Mithcell is still somewhere in her brain.  Just as the crew is leaving SymboGen, Colonel Mitchell and USAMRIID show up. Sal pretends to be Sally and goes with the Colonel, allowing the others to escape with Tansy.

Epilogue:  Ronnie has parted ways with Sherman and is up to some agenda of his own….

The books opens with Cassie, Sam, Ben/Zombie, Dumbo, Poundcake, Ringer and Teacup all holed up in a hotel that they escaped to after the explosion at the training camp. The plan is to head for some nearby caverns but Cassie wants to wait for Evan to arrive, as he promised he would.  The others think he died in the explosion, and Ringer heads out to scope out the caverns.  Teacup sneaks out to follow her, and Ringer accidentally shoots her. Back at the hotel, arguing continues.  Ben and Cassie set out to explore the hotel further, and Cassie runs into an intruder.

Part II tells Evan’s story.  After the explosion, he was rescued by a woman from his past, named Grace.  He and Grace met as teenagers, and Grace is very much one of the Others who does not like humans at all. Evan is badly burned and has broken his ankle, but he is determined to find Cassie.  He escapes from Grace, thinking he’s killed her, but quickly learns he was mistaken.  He finds his way to the hotel, where Cassie shoots him in the leg, not realizing who it is.

Debates continue over what to do, now that Evan has arrived but is injured badly.  A young girl appears out of nowhere; Sam recognizes her as one of the kids from the school bus that took him to the training camp.  With Evan’s help, the gang learns that the Others are implanting bombs into children’s throats, and these bombs are activated by CO2, so when a rescuer tries to remove it and breathes on it, it explodes.  Cassie and Evan manage to remove the device.

Grace shows up and she is sorely pissed.  Everyone manages to escape the hotel, except for Evan and Poundcake.  Poundcake, injured, gets a hold of the explosive device and sets it off.

Meanwhile, Ringer has allowed herself and Teacup to be captured so Teacup can get medical attention.  She finds herself in the presence of Colonel Vosch, who refuses to tell her where Teacup is, or if she’s alive.  This drags on for a bit with lots of back-and-forth.  In the meantime, Ringer is being cared for by a nurse named Razor.  She befriends him and the two of them begin communicating by a complex code that is disguised as a game Razor invented. For reasons that are unclear, a procedure is performed on Ringer that inserts 40,000 micro-robots in her, known as the 12th System.  Over time, she heals, and she and Razor devise an escape plan.  During the escape, we learn that the 12th System has endowed Ringer with superhuman strength, speed and healing ability, just like the Others.  They escape, but Ringer learns the whole thing was just a test.  Then there’s some really weird shit with Ringer having a theorey how there are no Others at all (I think?) and I’m really not sure what happened there, but Ringer thinks Vosch is using her to find Evan.  Evan is somehow off the grid from the rest of the Others, or whatever.  

Back at the hotel, we learn that Evan survived after all.

       At the end of the previous book, Five killed Eight when Eight stepped in front of Nine.  Ella and John had a vision of a future in which the Mogs ruled Earth, executed Six and Sam, and Ella was a Mog princess of some kind.  Ella is then kidnapped by Mogs.

     In Florida, Six, Marina (Seven) and Nine are determined to find Eight’s body.  They find it in a Mog camp, guarded by Five.  Five leaves it behind for them, as he is starting to question his involvement in all of this, on either side. The group steals a Mog warship and flies to Washington DC, where John (Four), Sam, Malcom (Sam’s dad) Sarah and Adam (a Mog teen on their side) are waiting.

     John has sent Sarah, with Bernie Kosar,  to Alabama to meet with her ex-boyfriend Mark, who is apparently heavily involved in the web site They Walk Among Us.  Except for phone calls, Sarah does not appear in the book beyond this point.

     Adam tells John, Malcome and Sam about a nearby suburban development that is actually a Mog base. They take it down with the help of some new Chimaerae. In going through the base, they discover where Six, Marina and Nine are, and remotely access the warship. Adam talks them through flying it to Washington to meet them.

   Ella awakens aboard a Mog warship orbitting Earth. She learns that she is Setrakus Ra’s granddaughter; he is some weird Loric/Mog hybrid that he created himself. He’s all about genetic modifiction for “improvement.” Ella learns he can change his appearnce to a movie-star handsome human, which is part of his plan to win over Earth.  He tells Ella she’s going to meet her betrothed, and it turns out to be Five; this is how she learns of his betrayal. They make a failed escape attempt, during which Ella discovers that the charm S. Ra has placed on her means that any injury inflicted on him will appear on her body.

     Meanwhile, in Washington, the gang are joined by FBI agent Walker, who now believes that the Mogs are up to no good and offers assistance. Malcom has found recordings of himself being tortured, and on one of them he describes a Sanctuary that the Garde (Loric kids) must go to and empty their Chests into so that Lorien can essentially be reborn on Earth.  Marina, Six and Adam head off to Mexico to find it. They bring along Eight’s body.

   Walker explains to John, Nine, Sam and Malcom that many politicians and top cabinet members have been sweet talked by the Mogs and are on their side, though the don’t really understand what’s coming.  They head to New York, where S. Ra and the Secretray of Defense plan to announce the Mogs’ benevolent plans for Earth.  The SOD has since realized his mistakes, wants no part of what’s coming, and tries to end his life.  John heals him of his Mog “improvements” and convinces him to make a different announcement at the UN. 

   In Mexico, the gang battles their way to the Sanctuary, which surprisingly allows Adam to enter as well. They dump all their stuff in, and Lorien possesses Eight’s body briefly to explain that it is an entity/diety and it can’t really affect what’s going on in the Mog-Lorien battle.

     In New York, S. Ra and Ella appear for the big announcement, but the Secretary of Defense instead tries to warn people.  S Ra is seriously pissed, shows his true form and scares the crap out of everyone.  Nine, Five and the FBI agents try to kill him, but John realizes that if they do, Ella will be the one who dies, so he winds up protecting S. Ra instead.  S. Ra returns to the warship, takes Ella with him, and opens fire on New York.   In the battle, Sam uses telekenetic powers that he didnt’ know he had; the book ends with him looking at his hands and saying “Did I do that?”

Forsaken (book 1)

(http://www.lisamstasse.com/blog1/the_forsaken_by_lisa_m_stasse/)

As an obedient orphan of the U.N.A. (the super-country that was once Mexico, the U.S., and Canada), Alenna learned at an early age to blend in and be quiet–having your parents taken by the police will do that to a girl. But Alenna can’t help but stand out when she fails a test that all sixteen-year-olds have to take: The test says she has a high capacity for brutal violence, and so she is sent to The Wheel, an island where all would-be criminals end up.

The life expectancy of prisoners on The Wheel is just two years, but with dirty, violent, and chaotic conditions, the time seems a lot longer as Alenna is forced to deal with civil wars for land ownership and machines that snatch kids out of their makeshift homes. Desperate, she and the other prisoners concoct a potentially fatal plan to flee the island. Survival may seem impossible, but Alenna is determined to achieve it anyway.

Characters (from Wikipedia)

Alenna Shawcross – the sixteen-year-old protagonist and narrator. She is described as having brown hair and blue eyes.

Liam – a mysterious boy who is the village’s best fighter and scouter. Alenna feels connected to him some how.

Gadya – Alenna’s friend and a fighter for the village, Gadya had been on the “wheel” for fourteen months and used to be in a relationship with Liam.  Rika is another friends

Matthieu Veidman – the leader of the village. Veidman has been on the “wheel” for three and a half years. He is in a relationship with Meira.

Meira – often mistaken as Veidman’s sister/twin, Meira is a beautiful girl and Veidman’s girlfriend.

David Aberly – a boy who helps Alenna at the start of the book but is captured by the Monk. Throughout the books there is confusion about whose side David is on.  He claims that he worked with a cell in his home of Providence RI, but his behavior makes Alenna question his motives

The Monk – the leader of four out of six sectors of the “wheel”, not much is known about the Monk, except for the fact that he has been on the “wheel” much longer than any of the others. He turns out to be Minister Hara, who is believed to be running the country but is in fact on the Wheel, ill and dying. 

The drones are the monk’s warriors

Uprising (Book 2)

from pulseit.com

Alenna escaped. It was expected that she would die on the wheel, the island where would-be criminals are sent as directed by the UNA–the totalitarian supercountry that was once the United States, Mexico, and Canada. But Alenna and her boyfriend, Liam, made it to safety. Except safety, they will soon learn, is relative.  The UNA is collecting kids from the wheel and keeping them in stasis so they can study them and figure out why they are immune to the mystery drug the UNA is using to keep everyone under control.

In order to bring down the UNA, they must first gain control of the wheel. If the mission succeeds, the wheel will become a base of revolution. But between betrayals, a new Monk leading a more organized army of Drones, and the discovery of a previously unknown contingent, Alenna, Liam, and their allies might be in over their heads. One thing Alenna knows for sure: There will be a reckoning. And not everyone she loves will make it out alive.

Cass is a new character, a former Drone.  Alenna and Liam have a hard time trusting her at first.  They are also joined by Octavio, Alun and Emma.  When they arrive at The Wheel, they are captured, but manage to escape and find Gadya, who was saved by a third Wheel tribe, the travelers, who have patched up her injuries. The travelers try to avoid contact with others and just live peacefully among themselves. When David shows up with a black box he claims he modified to control the feeler machines, the travelers want nothing to do with any of it, and throw out all of them, including Gadya.  David informs everyone there is a new Monk, who turns out to be Meira. She has been working for the UNA all along, training drones to be soldiers. Meira tells everyone they are on the losing side, the specimens are going to be destroyed.  She kills herself.  Alenna takes the Monk mask and, posing as the Monk,  tries to disarm the Drones.  The travelers suddenly appear and join the fight.  Alenna and company go to the place where the specimens are held.  Mysteriously, Alenna’s mom appears and tells them what to do to destroy the place.  David sacrifices himself.  The groups finds Rika.  They have taken the Wheel and are ready for war.

(Paristology #1)

In the near future, SymboGen, a pharmeceutical company, has created the “designer tapeworm” D. symbogenesis, marketed as the Intentinal Bodyguard.  Everyone is screwed up from lack of exposure to anything as kids, but the IB take care of your immune system.  It’s a huge success.  It was created by Drs Shanti Cale, Steven Banks and a 3rd doctor (now dead). However, lately, people seem to be getting struck by a “sleeping sickness” which basically turns them into zombies.  They are drawn to Sal and moan her name.

Characters
Sally “Sal” Mitchell: severely injured in a car accident, but her life was saved by her Intestinal Bodyguard.  She has regular check-ins at SymboGen.  She has no memory of being Sally, and has trouble with certain vocabulary and appropriate behaviors, since she is essentially 6 years old.  She is employed at the Cause for Paws animal shelter, along with Will and Tasha.  SymboGen is trying to convince her to come work for them (so they can keep a closer eye on her), but she’s not interested.  She has a sister, Stacy, who is infected with “sleeping sickness” near the end of the book.  

Nathan Kim:  Sal’s boyfriend, a doctor.  When Sal starts receiving strange notes, he recognizes the content from a book he read as a child.  It turns out his mother, believed dead, is actually Dr Shanti Cole, who is continuing to do her own resesarch on D. symbogenesis.  He and Sal accidentally discover that a UV light will identify anyone infected with sleeping sickness.

Dr Shanti Cole: one of the founders of SymboGen, she has gone into hiding to continue her research. She has discovered that if D. symbogenesis can actually take over a dead body, which then appears to be a normal living human. She has created a prototype, named Adam (who calls her “Mom”), and also Tansy and, as it turns out, Sherman, who is Sal’s friendly guide when she has appts at SymboGen. At the very end of the book, we learn (not surprisingly) that Sal is actually a sentient tapeworm, like Adam and Tansy.

Tansy: is mildly nuts and will resort to violence if it means helping Dr Cole get what she wants.

Dr Steven Banks:  believed to be the only surviving founder of SymboGen.  He is following Sal’s case very closely, and she doesn’t quite trust him.  At the end of the book, she steals information off his computer for Dr Cale.

Colonel Mitchell: Sal’s father.  He is in this much deeper than we realized.

Beverly:  Sal’s dog, who she rescued when a man in the park succumbed to sleeping sickness

Minnie: Nathan’s dog.

(http://www.studymode.com/5th-wave-notes/plot-summary/)

The 5th Wave takes place in an alternative present-day reality in which an alien race known only as “the Others” is systematically annihilating humanity in order to inhabit Earth themselves. The central protagonist is sixteen-year-old Cassie Sullivan, who is on a mission is to rescue her five-year-old brother, Sammy, from a military compound run by the Others. This compound, called Camp Haven, is one of many locations where the Others–who look and sound exactly like humans, rendering them impossible to identify–are putting the 5th Wave of their annihilation plan into action. At Camp Haven, young humans are brainwashed into believing that the Others are human and that their fellow humans are Others. In this way, an army of traumatized, isolated children is being trained as the instrument of humanity’s ultimate destruction.

As the novel opens, Cassie is hiding out alone in the woods outside of Cincinatti, Ohio. She has been on her own ever since her young brother was taken from Camp Ashpit, a refugee camp where a large number of plague-infected human bodies were burned. After Sammy was moved to Camp Haven, Cassie’s father was shot dead by Colonel Vosch, the alien leader who appeared to be a trustworthy member of the U.S. military. After Mr. Sullivan’s murder, Cassie witnesses Colonel Vosch placing a bomb referred to as “the Eye” in the middle of Camp Ashpit and blowing it to smithereens. Cassie has been hiding in the woods ever since, unable to figure out how to rescue her brother but determined to do so. She tells us that humanity is now in the 4th Wave of the alien destruction, which is characterized by stealthy assassins who are indistinguishable from humans. Because the Others look and sound human, Cassie tells us that the first rule of the 4th Wave is: Trust no one. The second rule is: Stay alone if you want to stay alive.

In flashbacks, Cassie describes the first three waves of the alien invasion, which come in rapid succession. First, a strange mother ship hovers visibly near Earth for ten days but makes no attempt at communication. Many people, including Cassie’s father, optimistically believe that communication with the alien race will bring positive changes for humanity. This hope dies out when the aliens initiate the 1st Wave: an electromagnetic pulse that destroys all technology on the planet, rendering electronics, automobiles, and most forms of transportation and communication worthless. The 1st Wave kills half a million people. About three billion more are killed during the 2nd Wave, in which the aliens cause massive tsunamis to rise up across the Earth, decimating coastal populations. In the 3rd Wave, a viral plague carried by birds wipes out nearly everyone else. Only about 3% of the Earth’s remaining population–those with a natural immunity to the virus–manage to survive the 3rd Wave. Cassie, her brother, and her father all have the immunity. However, Mr. Sullivan does not survive the 4th Wave, the wave that Cassie calls “Silencer.” In the 4th Wave, the Others have finally come to Earth to do their killing in person. The only problem is that the Others are indistinguishable from humans, so it is impossible to trust anyone unless you already know him or her. Alien assassins pop up out of nowhere, simply shooting people dead where they stand. Cassie thinks of these assassins as “Silencers.” She carries with her an M16 and a Luger at all times.

As Cassie makes her way back toward Camp Haven to rescue her brother, she is shot in the knee by one of these Silencers. Cassie regains consciousness inside a clean, well-supplied Ohio farmhouse, where she is being cared for by a nineteen-year-old boy named Evan Walker. Cassie is immediately attracted to the handsome, kind young man, who says he lost his entire family and is living alone in the farmhouse, but she cannot quite bring herself to trust him. Clearly, Evan is in love with Cassie and, after she has recuperated, he insists on coming with her to rescue Sammy. Eventually, Evan admits to Cassie that he is really one of the Others, that he is in fact the Silencer who shot her, but that his love for her saved him from finishing the job. He explains that the Others implanted themselves within a certain number of human beings while the infants were still in their mothers’ wombs. The human hosts were completely unaware of the alien consciousness within them until “the Awakening”–which happened with the arrival of the mothership in the Earth’s atmosphere. Thus, Evan Walker is both human and Other. For Cassie’s sake, he is trying to renounce his alien side.

Meanwhile, the two-part narration of the novel also follows the experiences of Ben Parish, a charming high school athlete on whom Cassie has had a crush since third grade. After surviving the 3rd Wave, Ben has been indoctrinated by the Others and is training to be a soldier in their army. Because Ben has been successfully brainwashed, he believes that the Others are really humans. Led by Colonel Vosch, they appear to be a stronghold of U.S. military forces training the last surviving humans to fight the aliens. Cassie’s brother Sammy is assigned to Ben’s squad for training, and Ben develops an affection for the child. When Ben’s squad is deployed to fight, he promises Sammy that he will return for him. During their first mission, Ben realizes–with the help of Ringer, a talented and intelligent young woman soldier–that they have all been deceived. Ben and Ringer discover that the tracking chips implanted in their necks are also connected to a “kill switch” and that they could be executed at any moment. After removing these chips, they devise a plan to return to Camp Haven and rescue Sammy from the Others, whom they now realize are simply training humans to kill one another.

Ben’s and Cassie’s storylines collide at Camp Haven, which they both infiltrate for the same purpose: to rescue Sammy. With Evan’s help, Cassie, Ben, and Sammy all manage to escape from Camp Haven before it is completely destroyed. They are picked up by Ringer and the rest of Ben’s squad–all of whom now understand the truth about their military training–and the novel closes with the protagonists safe inside a Humvee. Evan Walker is not with them, but it is unclear whether or not he survived the destruction of Camp Haven. Thus ends the first part of Yancey’s trilogy.