Review of James Dashner’s the Scorch Trials

Summary

The Scorch Trials by James Dashner is a sequel to The Maze Runner book. This story follows Thomas as he continues his journey through WICKED’s trials. In this book, though, he and his friends have escaped the maze and venture through the Scorch instead. They enter a town and encounter many people with the Flare. Battling through the Flare-infested people, Thomas and his friends desperately search for the safe zone where WICKED will give them the cure for the disease.

Review

The Scorch Trials was by far my favorite of all of The Maze Runner trilogy. While The Maze Runner left me a little uncertain regarding how I felt about the book, I can confidently say that I thoroughly enjoyed The Scorch Trials.

Positives

This book was much more exciting than the first in the series. The characters became more real to me. The setting also seemed more like a place that might actually exist in the future. The action was non-stop. I actually even cared slightly more about Thomas and his relationship with Theresa! The Scorch Trials was much more mysterious than The Maze Runner, which made it infinitely better. There were a lot of unanswered questions sprinkled throughout the book, but there were also many questions raised that were answered. I think this balance is what kept me intrigued.

Negatives

Although I enjoyed the book, there were still a few problems I had with it. I said that I cared more about Thomas and Theresa’s relationship, which is true, but I only cared slightly more. As with the first novel in the series, the connections between the characters just weren’t very real to me. Also, a lot of things seemed a little too easy for Thomas. Yes, there was a lot of death. Yes, Thomas is put through a lot of tribulation. However, he was always given an easy escape.
Spoiler Alert!
For instance, when Thomas was shot, WICKED swooped in and rescued him. I understand that they did this because Thomas was the Final Candidate, but it really just seemed too easy. When people with the Flare were chasing Thomas and Brenda, Brenda just happened to know of a convenient hiding place around the corner. Once the groups both found the safe zone and the Griever-esque monsters appeared, they simply had to pop the bulbs to kill them. It just seemed to me that every time Thomas was in a tricky situation, Dashner provided him with an easy escape.
The other problem I had with this book was Theresa’s deception. It just seemed random. And once again, Thomas was given an easy way out of that situation with no harm done. It also bothered me that Theresa had spoken to Aris in her mind back in the Glade and had never told Thomas about it. Nor did she mention to Thomas that there was another group just like theirs. Weird.

Overall Opinions

I may have ranted a bit about the things I did not like about The Scorch Trials, but overall, I really did enjoy the book. From mid-way through til the end, I couldn’t put it down. It also definitely made me want to run out and buy the third book in the series! I would definitely recommend reading this book if you read The Maze Runner.