Book Review: The Scorch Trials by James Dashner

By: James Dashner

Published by: Delacorte Books for Young Readers

Released on: October 12th, 2010

Source: Bought

4 stars: I Enjoyed It!

Purchase from: Random House | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Solving the Maze was supposed to be the end. No more puzzles. No more variables. And no more running. Thomas was sure that escape meant he and the Gladers would get their lives back. But no one really knew what sort of life they were going back to.

In the Maze, life was easy. They had food, and shelter, and safety . . . until Teresa triggered the end. In the world outside the Maze, however, the end was triggered long ago.Burned by sun flares and baked by a new, brutal climate, the earth is a wasteland. Government has disintegrated—and with it, order—and now Cranks, people covered in festering wounds and driven to murderous insanity by the infectious disease known as the Flare, roam the crumbling cities hunting for their next victim . . . and meal.The Gladers are far from finished with running. Instead of freedom, they find themselves faced with another trial. They must cross the Scorch, the most burned-out section of the world, and arrive at a safe haven in two weeks. And WICKED has made sure to adjust the variables and stack the odds against them.Thomas can only wonder—does he hold the secret of freedom somewhere in his mind? Or will he forever be at the mercy of WICKED? - quoted from Goodreads

Talk about a sequel that picks up right where the first book in the series leaves off. I went from finishing The Maze Runner right into The Scorch Trials, and boy was I naive in thinking James would give me a moment to catch by breath and let my heart rate slow down a bit. James Dashner doesn't shy away from throwing readers right back into this series' dangerous, thrilling, intense world. Instead of maze this time, it's a scorched world and wow do the twists in this series keep on coming.

Unlike The Maze Runner, The Scorch Trials is set in a land that's barren, dry, and really could be defined as hell. This land is void of anything beautiful and good. Living in this land are savage people who have been infected with a disease called the Flare. Here's the thing that James Dashner does with this series, he introduces you to people who you'd normal despise, but in a twisted way he makes you fell sympathy for them, when normally that would be the last thing you'd want to do. Case in point, The Cranks. The innocent people who've been infected and basically banished to live in this horrid condition. That's the thing that got to me, the fact that they were forced to become something they're not, and in turn it made them go wild and crazy. I really felt bad for them.

Someone I didn't feel bad for, WICKED aka "the Creators". These people make me so mad. I get that the feel their actions are just in trying to save their world, but holy crap, I can't excuse the stuff they do. If I thought stuff that happened in the maze was cruel, the things the WICKED do are far worse. I'll just leave it at that. I'm sure I could go on and on about all they do, but then I'd give things away and I don't want to spoil this for anyone. It's seriously shocking what they do, but surprisingly through all this Thomas grows into the leader I thought he'd become in The Maze Runner.

Thomas for me is the character that's grown by far the most. He's really stepped up and taken control the of the situations that the Gladers are constantly put in. Just when I think that things can't get worse for them, they do. It's the knowing that some thing has to give for them that keeps me reading this, well and that and the fact that I'm completely hooked on finding out who's behind on all this and what's going to happen next.

Let me just say, James Dashner knows how to write action, butt kicking scenes, mystery, and killer cliff hangers! He reveals just enough for me to understand as much as Thomas does about this world, which intrigues me more than it irritates me. Normally I'd want to know what's going to happen next, but before I can start listing all my questions something else comes up and the story's action filled plot leaves me clinging to the edge of my seat. This is one series I think even the most reluctant reader will enjoy. Since we get a lot of questions about what books we'd recommend for guys, I'd definitely recommend picking this series up!