Saturday, December 4, 2010

The Scorch Trials by James Dashner



Published: September 2010
Publisher: Random House Childrens Books
# pages: 360
Copy provided by: Library
Summary: Goodreads



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?

Review

Every now and again you find a book that just grabs you and won't let you go. That's what happened for me with 'The Scorch Trials' This sequel to 'The Maze Runner' lived up to all my expections.

The premise is not new - people struggling to survive after an apocalyptic event - but the way it has been executed is. Kids are being manipulated and they don't know why. They are pawns in someone else's game. In this book, our main protagonist, Thomas, has had some of his memories return, but instead of helping him, they just serve to confuse him even more. Thomas and the other gladers that survived the maze have even more trials to complete - and even less resources to help them this time around.

There is lots of emotion in this book. Fear, anger, dispair, disappointment, betrayal - all of it negative. I found myself empathizing with the characters. How could they be expected to carry on? There were some parts where I actually felt my stomach turning, and I became nervous. I wanted to stop reading, because I knew another bad thing was going to happen. But you can't stop reading, because you have to find out if ,and how they all survive.

' Someone said "You better hold him down. Legs and arms." Though his mind still floated in fog, those words didn't sound good. A flash of light on silver in his vision, the fading sun's reflection on ... a knife? Was it glowing red? "This is gonna hurt somethin' awful."

In my heart I know that the end of the next book will be positive. It has to be! These kids can't survive much more. I have to read it and find out what happens, even though I know it will be a struggle for the characters. What is going to happen to Tom and Theresa, Brenda, Minho, Newt and all the others. I don't know, but I can't wait to find out.

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