Customer Reviews

The Scorch Trials (Maze Runner Trilogy, Book 2)

5 star:		(72)
4 star:		(35)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

The Scorch Trials picks up right where The Maze Runner left off and it certainly starts with a bang. James Dashner incredibly makes this installment even better than the first. There is non-stop action and unexpected twists and turns in every single chapter. Thomas is once again thrown into this crazy environment, fighting for his life, as well as the lives of his friends.

WICKED is more involved in this one, but we still don't really know much about them. Is WICKED good or is WICKED bad? That really is the question to ask throughout this entire book. Dashner really made me question everything and everyone. Like Thomas, I wasn't sure what to believe.

Be prepared for more than a little creepy action going on because the Cranks sure are terrifying. Dashner vividly describes the pure nastiness that exudes from the zombie-like creatures. The short chapters kept me completely enamored with the story. It was more than a little difficult to put the book down because things just keep on happening. Whenever the action seemed to slow, Dashner did something that had my jaw hanging open. I frequently found myself asking what? How? Why? Why? Why?

Nothing is what it appears in this book and Dashner perfectly captures Thomas' confusion, his anger, his fear, his every emotion about being thrown into this hellish world and trying to come out of it alive and relatively unscathed. His dreams about his memories were one of my favorite aspects about the book and the tiny clues they offered made me want more and more.

The Scorch Trials is a jaw-dropping thriller filled with the most insane and unexpected twists. Dashner will blow your mind with everything that WICKED puts the Gladers through and for every question raised, we get the teeniest insight into what is really going on. It will keep you on the edge of your seat and have you begging for the final installment.

Opening line: She spoke to him before the world fell apart. ~ pg. 1

Favorite line(s): He didn't care about the others anymore. The chaos around him seemed to siphon away his humanity, turn him into an animal. All he wanted was to survive, make it to that building, get inside. Live. Gain another day. ~ pg. 136

Food to eat while reading: Scorched Crème Brulee ([...])

I am not usually a fan of middle books in a series, but this middle book in The Maze Runner series reads like a great beginning--all over again.

What I liked:

The setting kept changing and with each new place came dangers, creatures and people that kept me on the edge of my seat.

The main characters remained consistent and believable, yet they changed and grew from their experiences, like good little characters should. In fact, I almost cheered at the end for Thomas on the last page when he makes a difficult decision. Hooray for characters that change and show us that we can too.

Brenda, and Jorge are a great addition to the cast. They throw more variables into the equation and complicate the trials. And I love that Dashner introduced a second love interest for Thomas. Let the cat fights begin!

The balance of intrigue in this story is perfect. The questions and answers are braided together so that I am always wondering what will happen, but satisfied by the questions I have already received. Dashner has gained my trust, and though I still have unanswered questions, I am willing to read through quite a bit before I get the answers because I know that he will deliver.

I am eager to see why all of these horrible things are happening to these kids and how Thomas had a hand in creating the trials that he now is subjected to. I have an idea of why the variables are there and what the patterns are for, but I am content to wait until 2011 for The Death Cure.

I can't wait to see this on the movie screen-it will lend itself easily to media.

What I would have changed:

The Scorch Trials is quite a bit more violent than The Maze Runner. My son is currently reading the first book and I am unsure about giving him the second one just yet.

It bothered me that Aris' character is so underdeveloped. He mozies along with the Gladers, only showing spunk when he is required to act out a role for WICKED. Perhaps the author has hidden Aris from us for a reason and we will see his character unfurl in The Death Cure.

Much of the jeopardy was killed for me by a scene in the middle of the book. I just didn't worry so much for Thomas' safety and that led to a loss of intensity.

The verdict:

The Scorch Trials is an excellent addition to the very popular dystopian genre. It will leave you scratching your head and chomping at the bit to read on.

I loved this book, frankly the crazy, hap hazardous, rushed, psychotic things that happened fit perfectly with the plot line. The whole point of the Maze Runner and the Scorch Trials are to trick the readers' heads. Do we trust Teresa? Who is Brenda? Thomas should be the leader! No Minho should! The whole trilogy is an experiment on us, we don't know what is real, or what is fake, and at the end of the day we don't know if WICKED really is good or bad.

Thomas, wow what a character. Since we're basically living in his head and experiencing his emotions I feel for him. Do you trust your best friend? Isn't she the Betrayer? I completely understand why he's concerned about WICKED when the only things he can remember from it, are tests, subjects and Teresa. Scorch Trials is a harder book than Maze Runner because people die in the book for seemingly no reason. I mean we know it's for `patterns' and `killzones' but it is so seemingly pointless from Thomas and the other Gladers' perspective. How does lightning killing roughly half of your group help these `patterns'? And who do you trust when Cranks try to shoot you and drug you up. I trust Dashner though and know that what he reveals in the final book will be completely unexpected yet perfectly fit with everything we have gone through.

I don't know how I personally feel about WICKED, throughout the entire story they are eluded to being good, to trying to save humanity, yet their actions show otherwise. What was the point in the final battle? Were they really trying to wheedle down their `perspective candidates' but then what about the rest? I read this book in three hours because it was that good and I couldn't put it down. I feel as if Dashner captured human character and emotion perfectly. You have to remember these kids lived together in the Glade first, they know about death and dangers and how WICKED can change things in the blink of an eye. It doesn't take much more to believe that WICKED would set up elaborate games and plans that would force people into doing something they don't want to. They have the power of life and death absolutely. After so long of being under that kind of power you either are dead or accept it. I am anxiously awaiting the third book, and know that it's going to be one heck of a kicker.

The Scorch Trials / 978-0-385-73875-0

As full disclosure, I wasn't a huge fan of The Maze Runner - gave it 3 stars, if I recall correctly - but I really love dystopia fiction and I really hate not finishing a series, so my curiosity got the best of me and I picked up The Scorch Trials at my local library, prepared to dive back down into the futuristic mind games perpetuated by W.I.C.K.E.D.

First impressions were initially good - the book starts off a lot faster than "The Maze Runner", with disaster setting in almost immediately after the daring rescue of the first novel. It's nice to see a dystopian future come up with a creative merge of massive global climate change and zombies, and it's especially good that we start the first chapters off with a strong and steady dose of creepy-bordering-on-terrifying.

After the first few chapters, though, the paces slows drastically, and the novel starts to suffer from "middle series syndrome". Despite being out of the Maze and immersed in the "real" world, we actually learn very little of the details of this dystopian future, which makes it very difficult for the reader to connect to the global problems that W.I.C.K.E.D. is supposedly trying to solve, which makes it hard to get attached to these increasingly nebulous "experiments" that are somehow supposed to come up with some kind of cure...for something. Around the halfway mark, it starts to feel like we're killing time to get to the end of the book so that we can then get the THIRD book and find out some actual answers, and after awhile one starts to wonder if the ending will be worth it. And then the reader actually does get to the ending, only to find that really one could skip over this second novel entirely and be none the worse for wear - just like the first book: nothing is explained, everything is a mystery, please buy the next book, kthxbye.

Some of the things I didn't like about "The Maze Runner" the first time around crop up again here. Thomas continues to have more than a whiff of Mary Sue about him; way too much angst is expended on the designated love interests (and, really, I think Thomas has more romantic chemistry with Newt than with either of the two girls provided here); and almost the entire "cast" of Gladers are anonymous red-shirts - in fact, whenever anyone other than Minho, Newt, or Thomas is suddenly granted a name and/or minor personality, it's pretty much a given that they're about to die horribly for insta-angst. I understand that it's difficult to write a group of 20+ well-rounded individuals, but Thomas' continued insistence on not learning the names or personalities of the people fighting and dying around him starts to inadvertently make him seem like a psychopath or - immersion-breakingly - the only important character in a story.

I guess a recommendation for The Scorch Trials depends on your reaction to The Maze Runner; if you loved the first book and want more of the same, this sequel delivers. If you were less than completely enthralled with the first novel, however, and are more interested in answers than in dragging out the Thomas/Theresa love shipping, I'd recommend giving this book a pass and skipping over to the third book entirely. I didn't feel like it was a waste of time reading this novel, and there were definitely several high notes in the first half, but I just can't help but feel that it could be a lot better with a little less ham-handed "mystery" and a little more character development.

A word about the audiobook for this novel: The audiobook is fairly well-narrated. The reader paces and pauses well, although his voice could perhaps be a little more animated during the "action" scenes. My favorite parts are when he speaks as Newt, because he brings out this wonderfully outrageous accent that I suppose is meant to be Scottish. Overall, though, the audio is well done and worth listening to.

~ Ana Mardoll

This book got 3 stars because even though I enjoyed it very much, (although not as much as Maze Runner) I also found it unbearably frustrating. The biggest thing to get me down was that all the characters seemed to go through all the trials from some whacko's say so, without any real motivation that I could see. Or at least it could have been made a bit clearer. After everything they had gone through, one would think that at some point they'd stop and refuse to be an experiment.

Sure, they were told that they had been infected with the flash, but that the same group of people killed half their friends in book one, lied about who they were and their motives, and kidnapped one of the party. Trustworthy? I think not.

The only real motivation I saw was that Thomas wanted to find Theresa, and that along with the question of who WICKED really is was what got me through the book. Was it answered? No. Will I read book 3? Yes. At this point I also dislike Theresa with a passion and if the author has Thomas forgive her in book 3 I will probably tear it in half and burn it.

There was also too much Thomas and not nearly enough of everyone else in the story. I really liked Minho and Newt from the first book and hated seeing them nearly reduced to an afterthought.



DISCLAIMER: I tend to give very harsh reviews. This doesn't mean I didn't like the book. I won't finish a book I didn't like. I just don't have that kind of dedication.

4.5 stars

James Dashner's writing just gets better and better. The Maze Runner was good but I wasn't sold on it...but this latest installment has made me a complete fangirl of this series. The stark writing is perfect to tell this grim (yet hopeful), mind-bending tale. There's this stirring sense of these characters struggling to hold on to their humanity in the midst of all these trials and confusion that has me invested in their fate. As these characters persevere and fight and SURVIVE with their hope intact and pushing them forward, I can't help but cheer and then hold my breath for them...because Dashner is a master at creating that exhilarating feeling where you really, truly NEVER know what's going to happen next.

I love the Lost-esque feel to everything. And I do not evoke the Lost word lightly.

What an electrifying series! I can't wait to see what crazy twists James Dashner has in store in The Death Cure.

I thought that The Maze Runner was amazing and couldn't imagine how the series could get any better but of course I was proven wrong by the evil genius that is James Dashner. I had no idea my emotions could go through this kind of turmoil that The Scorch Trials put me through, it was intense, thrilling and creeptastic beyond belief.

The Scorch Trials starts off immediately after The Maze Runner ended, the kids realize just as the reader does that the whole rescue thing was a fake and just another part of the tests by WICKED. In this one they have to make their way through an abandoned city in the middle of nowhere that they call The Scorch, where they are given pretty much nothing to survive or protect themselves with against the people that are infected with the Flare. The beginning to me was a little slow but definitely had the intrigue factor that sucked me right in and kept me flipping the pages, it also kept giving off creepy vibes that just escalated until the point that I got actual chills and goosebumps, and at one point I was so freaked out that I thought I would have nightmares. Of course the pace quickly picks up and the story is once again very unpredictable that I found myself at the edge of my seat glued to the pages while chewing my nails, afraid of the type of horrors these kids were going to have to go through next.

I loved that in this one we get to know just a little more about WICKED and find out clues about this whole trial throughout the entire book from memories and dreams that Thomas has. We still feel just as confused as the characters in this one, there's betrayal and mind games, lies and danger all around that just like the characters you feel that you don't know what to believe or who to trust. I pretty much immersed myself into these characters and this story that I was feeling the rollercoaster of emotions and frustration, the sadness and the anger, it was very intense but I loved it! I was glad to see that we get a little backstory about what happened to the world and about The Flare, we get introduced to a few new characters and also get a close up and vivid description of what the disease does to people, Yikes!

The ending once again left me gaping and with a mind full of questions that I'm hoping will get answered in the next one. I'm just as confused as I was at the beginning of the book, because even though we got a little more clues there still just wasn't enough to solve this puzzle that James Dashner has sucked me into. I'm keeping hope alive that nothing bad will happen to my favorite characters in The Death Cure and wondering what else will the evil James Dashner throw at us, cannot wait!

I think that I liked this book better then the first one. For starters, i like Brenda and Jorge as new editions to the Gladers pack. Those Cranks were so scary and really left me on edge. Im wondering what WICKED really did have control of during the trials and what just happened spontanuosly. I was a little upset that random people were dying for no reasons and everything going on with Teresa left me heartbroken. I cant wait for the next installment and for all of my questions to be answered. Is WICKED good or bad? Who is Brenda? What is real and not real? and many more...

Excellent.
Incredible.
Fantastic.
I don't know what else to say. I loved the first one so much, I bought this one before I was done with it, and I was not let down. This book is a perfect continuation to The Maze Runner, and you'll find it has the same infectious "HELP I CAN'T PUT THIS BOOK DOWN" feel to it. Especially for the middle novel of a trilogy, which can be really dull in comparison, this one almost completely shoots down that stereotype. As soon as you finish it, you'll be researching the release date of part three!

I had a hard time deciding how to rate The Scorch Trials. I think 3 is really a little low because I did enjoy it and found it hard to put down. If 3.5 stars was an option, that's closer to how I feel about it.
THINGS I ENJOYED: The book starts out more quickly than The Maze Runner, and moves along at a good pace, especially at the beginning. I liked that Thomas has a little bit of a sense of humor in this book, although obviously this series isn't going to be a big laugh-fest. I enjoyed the interesting plot twists, the way I'm still not sure about the motives of several characters or whose side they are really on. Or whose side is the right side to be on, for that matter. There were some genuinely scary moments (although I agree with another reviewer who said the narrative POV is oddly detached, even in moments of extreme crisis) that were well done. (The kids' game "I got your nose!" will probably always remind me of one particularly horrifying Crank encounter Thomas has. Yuck!)
The setting and landscape were described very well. I really got how brutally bright, hot, dry, and awful it was, and I appreciated the explanation of how certain parts of the world came to be that way from the Solar Flares.
The character of Brenda was an interesting addition to the mix, and I liked how Dashner teased it from the beginning that there was more to her role in the Scorch Trials than she let on. But there's more to EVERYTHING than what we know at this point, which leads me to...
Things I Wasn't Crazy About: While I enjoy a certain amount of open-ended questions, I was hoping for at least a bit of solid information about what WICKED is doing. We still don't know much about WICKED, and the majority of questions from the Maze Runner are still hanging, with a few more added. Characters talk and think about what WICKED is doing, what the trials mean, what Thomas' visions mean, etc., but they get nowhere and neither do we.
There are too many nameless, faceless characters and it's weird that Thomas doesn't seem to know all these people he spends every moment of every single day with. They've been whittled down considerably, so maybe we'll find out more about a few of them later on. Speaking of numbers of Gladers dwindling, this book was certainly full of maiming and death, but it started losing shock value after a while. At one point near the end, Thomas notes that the dead bodies he sees aren't people he knew well or cared about so he doesn't really feel anything about their demise. Neither did I.
There were times when I expected some revelation or event to have a big pay-off, to explain something or lead to a discovery, but nothing much came of them. Example: The Crank city with signs posted everywhere saying, "Thomas is the real leader" really didn't amount to anything.
When I finished the last page, I found myself kind of wiped out from the whole thing and wishing I had a better grip on what was going on. I realize the middle book in a trilogy exists in part to build up suspense for the final installment, where (hopefully) all will become clear and we'll understand how and why we got to this point.
I'm involved enough in the series to want to find out what WICKED is up to and what role Thomas and the others play in their plans. I'm encouraged by Thomas resolving that he's not going to be a pawn in WICKED's game, and curious to see how this new resolve of his plays out. I will certainly read The Death Cure when it's released, and I'm holding on to hope that Dashner has a really tight plan for wrapping things up and answering the many questions left unanswered in The Scorch Trials.