Review: The Scorch Trials by James Dashner

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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?

The Scorch Trials is the second book in The Maze Runner trilogy.  I'm sorry I'm not reviewing them in order - my friend kindly lent me this book recently but I had read the first one some time last year.  Don't worry, I will review the first and the last one when I read them so it's going to be reviewed as a set :)

Just because you will have no idea what I'm rambling on now unless you've read the first one, here's a really basic version of the plot: the real world has gone psycho (more is revealed in The Scorch Trials) and so an 'organisation' called WICKED has formed.  What is WICKED?  They put a bunch of children up to test for a certain reason...

If you liked reading The Hunger Games trilogy, I'm sure you'll love The Maze Runner trilogy as well :)  Or at least, you will enjoy reading the first two, I can't say about the final one since I haven't read it yet.  But I do have expectations, and hopefully it'll be even better than I'm thinking right now.

First, let's compare The Hunger Games with The Maze Runner trilogies.  The Hunger Games are basically about a group of people selected to compete with each other to get to the goal.  There are no fixed teams so anyone can do as they like.  The Maze Runner is more about teamwork - instead of 'I kill you so I get to live longer' it is 'We work together so we all can live longer'.  In both novels we can see an obvious similarity, and that is that there are troubles and things hunting them that are getting in the way.  Of course, the two main characters fall in love and ... I will now stop before I get too detailed and give everything away.

I liked The Scorch Trials more than The Maze Runner because it was a lot more complicated and puzzling.  It relates back to the basic plot that I mentioned above, about the real world going crazy and about WICKED, but it's also disconnected to the sub-plots.  At the end of The Maze Runner I seriously thought that it would be the end.  I was pretty satisfied with the ending result even though there was more I wanted to know, but that may have been what the author wanted.

The Scorch Trials is a bit like the second season of a TV show.  After the first season, you're pretty content but sad that it's over.  When you begin watching the second season, you'll see how it all relates back to the first season but there are also distinct differences and new ideas being introduced.  In both first and second books, the characters are running towards a different goals and being pursued by similar but different monsters.  The challenges that they face are also different, however if you compare them carefully you can actually see how they are only slightly altered.

Having said this, many of the differences lie in the relationship of the characters.  There is more romance in The Scorch Trials than there is in The Maze Runner, but other relationships are changed.  There are also many more characters introduced, most of them being minor characters.  The 'truth' of the real world slowly unravels every few chapters or so which really keeps you on your feel if you're desperate to find out.

Overall I really enjoyed reading this.  Sure, there were some ups and downs but it's hard to satisfy everyone.  I give this four and a half stars. Also, thank you to my awesome friend who lent me The Scorch Trials!

.5