The Scorch Trials (The Maze Runner #2)
by James Dashner
Summary: Solving the Maze was supposed to be the end.
Thomas was sure that escape from the Maze would mean freedom for him and the Gladers. But WICKED isn’t done yet. Phase Two has just begun. The Scorch.
There are no rules. There is no help. You either make it or you die.
The Gladers have two weeks to cross through the Scorch—the most burned-out section of the world. And WICKED has made sure to adjust the variables and stack the odds against them.
Friendships will be tested. Loyalties will be broken. All bets are off.
There are others now. Their survival depends on the Gladers’ destruction—and they’re determined to survive.
Source: I purchased a paperback.
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Review:
I hated The Scorch Trials, despite absolutely loving (and CONSTANTLY recommending The Maze Runner). I hated The Scorch Trials so much, I am embarrassed I always recommend the first book and I am dreading reading the other two in the series.
My first issue with the book is that it does absolutely nothing for the plot. Nothing happens worth mentioning. There’s no point. In just a couple of chapters, the author could have weeded out the survivors of the Maze or just had them never complete the maze the begin with and then just had Thomas dream and remember some stuff from the past. And they could all still be in the room they started the book in. In fact, why couldn’t they have just added that in at the end of The Maze Runner and went straight to The Death Cure? This book is literally that pointless.
My second issue with the book is the writing. At first, I thought it was just me. I did just finish an epic adult dystopian novel and it’s hard to sometimes shift back into YA. But I was in the mood for everything that the series should have offered and after reading other people’s reviews, I realized I wasn’t alone. The author totally was not nearly as annoying in the first book. But in The Scorch Trials, Thomas did and Thomas felt and Thomas hated and Thomas slept and Thomas was hungry and Thomas didn’t know why that girl was looking at him like that but he thought he kind of liked her. I felt like every sentence was written that way and everything was TOLD and not shown. Every bit of dialog got on my nerves, along with just about every paragraph in between the dialog. If these characters are the future of mankind, mankind is doomed because I’m not convinced Thomas exited the maze with a brain.
All of the characters from the maze melted away in personality and became Thomas and all the female characters became Teresa. And Thomas’s own personality became that of a rock, along with Terera’s, so I felt like I was reading a story about inanimate objects.
If it wasn’t for the violence, I would have said The Scorch Trials is middle grade. Not YA. In fact, even with the violence I feel like it still should be middle grade fiction. There’s just nothing about the book that was remotely complicated or mature.
I apologize if my review is a giant rant or if you loved the book, but I’m incredibly annoyed and disappointed. I feel like this series is turning into a science fiction mystery geared towards people that don’t get science fiction mystery on a regular basis. Nothing about this book furthered the plot or gave me much in the way of clues aside from what the end of The Maze Runner already told us. My brain is already wanting to leap ahead to some actual clues and I feel forced to sit and wait for Rock Thomas and Teresa to figure out things.
