History Literature / TheFifthWave

* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:In the end of the final novel The Last Star, Cassie sacrifices herself to destroy the mothership by biting down on the explosive pill which blows up the mothership as a result.]]

* TheChessmaster: Commander Vosch. [[spoiler:By the end of the first novel, you realize that he is successfully manipulating the remaining human youth into bringing about the extinction of their own species by convincing them the humans are the aliens and vice versa]].

--> '''Ringer:''' Chess, Zombie: defending yourself from the move that hasn't happened yet.

---> '''Cassie''': "They hate us. Nothing else makes sense. They're not out to rip the planet out from under us. They're out to '''rip us!'''"

* BloodBrothers: Zombie and the rest of his barrack, especially Ringer.

** Also, Zombie and the rest of his barracks.

* AgentPeacock: Evan is a handsome, PrettyBoy-esque guy whose perfectly-manicured nails Cassie comments on multiple times. [[spoiler: He's also a [[ColdSniper Silencer]], and one of the most badass members of the main cast.]]
* AliensAreBastards: Subverted(ish). At first they appear to be universally evil. But then [[spoiler: Evan turns out to be one, and explains that a lot of the Others actually thought they could live with the humans side by side, but were outnumbered by those who thought the humans had to all be killed off]].

* AssimilationPlot: [[spoiler: In the chapter "Silencer", one of the invading aliens reveals that the purpose for purging the vast majority of humanity, and turning the remaining children into abused ChildSoldiers is to facilitate supplanting their personalites and making them hosts for themselves, so as to secure a future for their dying race.]]

* BeAllMySinsRemembered: [[spoiler: Evan]].
--> '''[[spoiler: Evan]]:''' [[spoiler: I am a shark, Cassie. A shark who dreamed he was a man.]]

* BewareTheNiceOnes: [[spoiler: Evan]]. So much.
* BigBad: [[spoiler: Vosch]].
* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: At the end of ''The Last Star'', the aliens' mothership has been destroyed, but Cassie is dead and humanity will never come back from the devastation the Others' Waves wreaked on them, indicated by Cassie's journal entry exclusive to some versions being titled "The Last Historian's Final Journal Entry."]]

* BreakTheCutie: Every single sympathetic character, but special mention goes to Private Nugget [[spoiler: a.k.a. Cassie's brother, Sammy]]. He's five years old, and subjected to horrible humiliation, not to mention physical peril and abuse, in an attempt to make him into a ''child soldier''.
* BrokenPedestal: Zombie gets to quite admire [[spoiler: Vosch]] before finding out the reality of the situation.

* TheChessmaster: Commander Vosch. [[spoiler: By the end of the first novel, you realize that he is successfully manipulating the remaining human youth into bringing about the extinction of their own species by convincing them the humans are the aliens and vice versa]].

* CuriousQualmsOfConscience: [[spoiler: Evan]].
* DaddysGirl: You get the impression that Cassie was this [[spoiler: before her dad was brutally killed by the Others [[ImpersonatingAnOfficer impersonating the military]]]].

* DeadGuyJunior: [[spoiler: Cassie, Marika's daughter]]

* DoubleConsciousness: [[spoiler: Evan Walker]].

* EndangeredSpecies: By chapter III "Silencer", humans [[spoiler: and the Others]].
* {{Foil}}: Grace to [[spoiler: Evan]]. She's an unconflicted Silencer, completely engaged in her purpose and detached from her human personality; he fights his purpose and embraces his humanity.

* GrewASpine: [[spoiler: The Silencer, a.k.a. Evan Walker, kills people so the Others can colonize, even though he completely disagrees with it. By the end of ''The 5th Wave'', he stands up to the Others and does what's right]].

* HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler: Evan]].

* LoveTriangle: Played with. Cassie had an unrequited crush on Ben (now Zombie), as evidenced in flashbacks, but they are separate for most of the novel, and she develops a relationship with Evan. [[spoiler: At the very end of ''The 5th Wave'' she meets up with Zombie and there is a brief ShipTease.]]

* MeaningfulRename: Every ChildSoldier is given a new name and addressed exclusively by that, in the effort to make them think of themselves only as soldiers and not as the children they were before. On several occasions, Zombie thinks that he did not even know a particular squad member's original name. (Indeed, the reader doesn't learn most of their names, even in their flashbacks.) [[spoiler: At the end of the trilogy, Zombie refuses to continue using the "squad" names, insisting on being addressed as "Ben" and on calling Ringer and Nugget "Marika" and "Sammy," indicating the reclaiming of their civilian identities.]]

* MysteriousPast: Played with. Evan does give a back story, but leaves one thing out. [[spoiler: He's a Silencer.]]

* PunchClockVillain: [[spoiler: Evan]] at first.
* PuppeteerParasite: [[spoiler: The Others. They appear in x-ray scans as a sort of tumor on the brain. (Or so the young soldiers are told.)]]

** [[spoiler: Evan's a Silencer.]]
** [[spoiler: Not all the Others wanted to KillAllHumans.]]
** [[spoiler: The ChildSoldiers are being manipulated into killing off the last human survivors.]]
** [[spoiler: The [[SinisterMinister priest]] at the caverns is a Silencer. So is the elderly cat lady.]]

* SomeoneToRememberHimBy: [[spoiler: Cassie, daughter of Marika and Razor]]

* TheyLookJustLikeEveryoneElse: The Silencers. Used to chilling effect early in the novel when [[spoiler: Cassie finds an injured soldier dying in an abandoned convenience store, but doesn't know if he's a Silencer or not and so shoots him out of fear. It turns out he was perfectly human.]]

* VillainWithGoodPublicity: [[spoiler: Vosch.]]

* WouldNotHurtAChild: The Others repeatedly exploit human unwillingness to hurt children, including by using [[spoiler: ChildSoldiers]] and [[ActionBomb literal Tyke Bombs]].

* ArtisticLicenseMartialArts: The gun disarming technique Evan teaches to Cassie, which involves gripping the gun and striking the gunner's hand away while leaving the weapon pointed at you, is SuicideByCop at its world's finest. Even if you somehow achieved the grip without the gunner shooting you point blank at the very first contact, the strike would only increase the chance for the gun to fire accidentally while placed in the perfect position to pump you with a hole, not to mention the motion might even make the gunner instinctively pull the trigger in the attempt to retain his hold on the weapon even if he didn't actually intend to shoot in the first place. Being held at gunpoint, especially at very close quarters as in the film, is enough reason not to try anything, but seriously, do ''not'' try that move in real life.

* KillEmAll: The Others' motto.

* AliensAreBastards: Subverted(ish). At first they appear to be universally evil. But then [[spoiler: Evan turns out to be one, and explains that a lot of the Others actually thought they could live with the humans side by side, but were outnumbered by those who thought the [[KillEmAll humans had to all be killed off]]]].

** [[spoiler: Not all the Others wanted to KillEmAll.]]

* {{EMP}}: The first wave consists of this, shutting down everything running on engines and electricity including cars and mid-flight aircraft, ultimately resulting in half a million deaths.

* WorldOfCardboardSpeech:
--> '''Evan:''' I had it all wrong. Before I found you, I thought the only way to hold on was to find something to live for. It isn't. To hold on, you have to find something you're willing to die for.

* BadDreams: Cassie has them often, occasionally compounded with a CatapultNightmare.

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: At the end of ''The Last Star'', the aliens' mothership has been destroyed, but Cassie is dead and humanity will never come back from the devastation the Others' Waves wrecked on them, indicated by Cassie's journal entry exclusive to some versions being titled "The Last Historian's Final Journal Entry."]]

* DepopulationBomb: The Waves. By the beginning of the series, there are less than 120 million people left.

* ChildSoldiers

* CrapsackWorld

* JustBeforeTheEnd

* [[spoiler: PuppeteerParasite]]: The Others. [[spoiler: They appear in x-ray scans as a sort of tumor on the brain. (Or so the young soldiers are told.)]]

* TheReveal: [[spoiler: Evan's a Silencer.]]

* ScavengerWorld

* GenreSavvy: Cassie lampshades tropes all the time, and she ''has'' been able to survive an [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt alien apocalypse]] that has [[KIllAllHumans killed off 99% of humanity]].