EDITORIAL REVIEW: *These are the secrets I have kept. This is the trust I never betrayed.But he is dead now and has been for more than forty years, the one who gave me his trust, the one for whom I kept these secrets.The one who saved me...and the one who cursed me.* So begins the journal of Will Henry, orphaned assistant to Dr. Pellinore War throp, a man with a most unusual specialty: monstrumology, the study of monsters. In his time with the doctor, Will has met many a mysterious late-night visitor, and seen things he never imagined were real. But when a grave robber comes calling in the middle of the night with a gruesome find, he brings with him their most deadly case yet. Critically acclaimed author Rick Yancey has written a gothic tour de force that explores the darkest heart of man and monster and asks the question: When does a man become the very thing he hunts?

Dr. Warthrop ist auf der Jagd nach einem legendären Monster, das die Fachwelt als den "Heiligen Gral" der Monstrumologie bezeichnet. Er lässt Will Henry in New York zurück und nimmt stattdessen einen neuen Assistenten mit. Für den jungen Will bricht eine friedvolle Zeit an, ganz ohne mitternächtliche Sezierstunden, rasante Fluchten und Monster jedweder Art. Monatelang hört er nichts vom Doktor. Dann kehrt eines Tages der Assistent zurück, mit einer schrecklichen Nachricht: Der Doktor ist tot. Will traut dem Assistenten nicht über den Weg und macht sich selbst auf die Suche nach seinem Lehrmeister. Seine Reise führt ihn nach Socotra. Die Insel des Blutes, wo roter Regen vom Himmel fällt -

With a roaring sense of adventure and enough viscera to gag the hardiest of gore hounds, Yancey’s series starter might just be the best horror novel of the year. Will Henry is the 12-year-old apprentice to Pellinore Warthrop, a brilliant and self-absorbed monstrumologist-a scientist who studies (and when necessary, kills) monsters in late-1800s New England. The newest threat is the Anthropophagi, a pack of headless, shark-toothed bipeds, one of whom’s corpse is delivered to Warthrop’s lab courtesy of a grave robber. As the action moves from the dissecting table to the cemetery to an asylum to underground catacombs, Yancey keeps the shocks frequent and shrouded in a splattery miasma of blood, bone, pus, and maggots. The industrial-era setting is populated with leering, Dickensian characters, most notably the loathsome monster hunter hired by Warthrop to enact the highly effective “Maori Protocol” method of slaughter. Yancey’s prose is stentorian and wordy, but it weaves a world that possesses a Lovecraftian logic and hints at its own deeply satisfying mythos. Most effective of all, however, is the weirdly tender relationship between the quiet, respectful boy and his strict, Darwinesque father figure. “Snap to!” is Warthrop’s continued demand of Will, but readers will need no such needling.

Will Henry, assistant to monstrumologist Pellinore Warthrop, finds a woman at his doorstep who seeks Warthrop's help in recovering her missing husband. He vanished while in search of a mythical creature known as the Wendigo, a vampirelike monster whose hunger for human flesh is insatiable. Will Henry and Warthrop travel to Canada to find Jack Fiddler, a Native shaman who was the last person to see Chanler alive. While he puts forward a supernatural scenario for Chanler's disappearance, Warthrop is convinced that there is a rational scientific explanation for everything, even when faced with seemingly incontrovertible evidence to the contrary. His stubborn commitment to the rational is challenged by his own mentor, Dr. von Helrung, who is about to propose that the Monstrumology Society accept mythological monsters as real. Refusing to accept what Chanler has become, Warthrop ends up endangering not only himself and Will but also the only woman he has ever loved. The style is reminiscent of older classic horror novels, such as Bram Stoker's Dracula, mixed with the storytelling sensibilities of Dickens. The ever-present, explicitly detailed, over-the-top, disgusting gore, however, is very much a product of modern times. The Curse of the Wendigo is certain to be popular with fans of The Monstrumologist (S & S, 2009), and the horror genre in general, but the disturbing, cynical tone makes the most appropriate audience for this book uncertain.

From

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, only 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.

How do you rid the Earth of seven billion humans? Rid the humans of their humanity.

Surviving the first four waves was nearly impossible. Now Cassie Sullivan finds herself in a new world, a world in which the fundamental trust that binds us together is gone. As the 5th Wave rolls across the landscape, Cassie, Ben, and Ringer are forced to confront the Others’ ultimate goal: the extermination of the human race.

Cassie and her friends haven’t seen the depths to which the Others will sink, nor have the Others seen the heights to which humanity will rise, in the ultimate battle between life and death, hope and despair, love and hate.

A l’inici de la cinquena onada, la Cassie fuig per un tram d’autovia desolat. Fuig d’ells. D’aquells éssers que, malgrat el seu aspecte humà, deambulen pel camp eliminant a tothom, dispersant i aïllant els escassos supervivents. La Cassie sap que l’única manera que té de continuar viva és seguir estant sola. Sense confiar en ningú. Fins que troba l’Evan Walker, un jove enigmàtic que sembla capaç d’ajudar-la a trobar el seu germà. Ha arribat el moment deprendre una decisió definitiva: confiar-hi o perdre l’esperança, desafiar o rendir-se…, abandonar o lluitar.

DESPRÉS DE LA CINQUENA ONADA… ELS ALTRES BUSQUEN SUPERVIVENTS AL MAR INFINIT. La Cassie Sullivan i els seus companys han sobreviscut a les quatre onades destructores dels Altres. Ara que la raça humana està pràcticament exterminada i la cinquena onada ho arrasa tot, s’enfronten a un dilema: esperar l’Evan Walker o bé fugir per buscar d’altres supervivents abans de caure en mans de l’enemic. Consumits, però no derrotats. Assetjats, però no sotmesos. Ara ja no és una guerra d’humans contra alienígenes. És la lluita de l’esperança contra la desolació. De la fe contra la por. De l’amor contra l’odi. I la humanitat és el camp de batalla.

DESPRÉS DE LA CINQUENA ONADA… HEM ESTAT TRAÏTS, PRIMER PELS ALTRES. ARA, PER NOSALTRES MATEIXOS. L’última fase de la invasió està a punt de completar-se, plouran bombes sobre les ciutats i la cinquena onada executarà els supervivents. La fi de l’espècie humana està assegurada i la Cassie Sullivan i els seus companys saben que ha arribat el moment d’escollir: entre l’amor o la por, la confiança o la sospita, l’odi o el sacrifici, la fe o la barbàrie… Entre salvar-nos a nosaltres mateixos o salvar allò que ens fa humans. I és que tot acabarà on va començar: l’última batalla tindrà lloc en l’últim cor humà i acabarà amb el seu últim batec.

En el amanecer de la quinta ola, Cassie está huyendo por un tramo desolado de autovía. Huye de esos seres que aunque parezcan humanos, deambulan por el campo matando a cualquiera. Dispersando a los últimos supervivientes en la tierra, aislando a los resistentes, intentando vencer, así, los últimos vestigios de la humanidad. Cassie sabe que mantenerse a solas es la única opción para seguir con vida. Hasta que se topa con el cautivador y misterioso Evan Walker. Un joven que parece capaz de ayudarle a encontrar a su hermano. Así que Cassie deberá tomar una elección definitiva: confiar o perder la esperanza, desafiar o rendirse, vivir o morir y abandonar o levantarse y luchar.