Book Review: The Scorch Trials

The Scorch Trials: Where do I begin?

I first started reading this book in March (of 2012) when I was on vacation. I had finished The Maze Runner and absolutely loved it and was ready to dive into the next one, but I had a really hard time actually getting into it. I put it down and said to myself that I would read it again when I was “feelin’ it”. I started “feelin’ it” at the beginning of summer when I found out they were making the trilogy into a movie.

Here’s a little bit you should know about the book: it’s the second book in James Dashner’s The Maze Runner trilogy, which is a dystopian- esque series. If you haven’t read the first book, it’s about a boy, Thomas, who found himself waking up in an elevator having no memory of anything. He woke up inside this colony of sorts with other boys his age in what they’ve named “the Glade”. The Glade is surrounded by a maze that opens in the day and closes at night. During the day it’s safe to roam and investigate, but as soon as the gates close the the Glad, it’s a complete danger zone. Thomas finds himself stuck out in the maze after the gate closes and manages to survive the night. He’s also discovered that they were all sent there by an organization called WICKED. What the rest of the “Gladers” plan is to escape the maze with the help of Thomas. The Scorch Trials picks up after they have escaped the maze. Another note, a few days after Thomas arrives in the Glade, another person arrives, this time a girl. Her name is Theresa and she is the only girl in the Glade. Her and Thomas are also able to communicate telepathically. 

So I picked up The Scorch Trials again and made my best effort to finish the book. It took me another month to get into it again, I felt like it progressed really slowly. Unlike the first book, Thomas was constantly battling Grievers, and was developing relationships, which kept me interested, the first quarter of the book consisted in them wandering in the middle of the desert (they call it the Scorch). In this novel we pick up right where Thomas and the rest of the Gladers left off. They have escaped the maze and are now told by WICKED that they have been infected by a disease that will slowly turn them mad called the flare. They have  It wasn’t until the group found themselves meeting some friendly Cranks (people who were left outside the glade when the apocalypse happened, and are slowly going mad). We are introduced to Jorge and Brenda. It’s here that the book picks up. Thomas and the other Gladers make a deal with Jorge and Brenda that if they help them get to The Safe Haven, they will be able to receive the cure. 

From here on out Thomas runs into a lot of different obstacles and I had no trouble at all following this story line. There’s a bit of a love triangle that happens between Thomas, Theresa and Brenda, and I really enjoyed Thomas’s concern for Minho and the rest of the Gladers during a part of the book when they gang gets separated. Being the second book of a series, I was glad to see there was more character development, particularly with Thomas. At the beginning of the novel Thomas is still struggling with the Newt situation, and his feelings for Theresa.

I give this book:

Three and a half Leia’s. I have to say, that although the beginning of the novel was a pain to get through, and took me quite some time to be interested in, I did enjoy the character development, the fact that Dashner introduced only a few more core characters, and the action. By the end of the book I was already wanting to pick up the third book.