Review of The Scorch Trials by James Dashner

Sequel To The Maze Runner
  
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?

~Add To Your Goodreads Shelf~

The Scorch Trials sees us thrown right back when we left off – Thomas and the rest of the Gladers have apparently been rescued by some resistance or other and are now in a safe house. They wake up the next day, to find their rescuers hanged, Theresa taken and replaced with a Aris. After talking with Aris, they learn they they are group B – group A being almost identical to theirs, except they're girls. When they leave the room however, they find the bodies suddenly gone and the walls bricked shut. And that's just the start of the weirdness...

The first scene in the house is my favourite throughout this book, it's really surreal and I had no idea what would happen next, which turned out to be a rather amusing rat faced man in a white suit. Now, you trying picturing Professor Snape in a suit and not laughing. Because that's exactly how I pictured this guy. Don't get too attached to him though, he's only around to tell the Gladers that their next trial is to walk 100 miles across The Scorch, in two weeks, to a 'Safe Haven'. Of course, that would be boring if it wasn't for the Cranks, really crazy diseased people – a few who like noses...

Minho and Newt are my two favourite characters as they really keep the group going. I have difficulties connecting with Thomas due to not really knowing who he is, which I'm hoping will be cleared up in The Death Cure. Of course, Theresa is an immensely difficult character to like in this book and I was never quite sure if she was telling the truth or not. The new character, Aris, past the house we never really get to know properly which is shame. Then there's the problem of not wanting to get too attached to any of the characters – as they're being killed off left right and centre!

Although the story is slow going once they reach The Scorch, there's loads of action and plenty of twists and turns that kept me reading as much as possible. WICKED throws as much as it can at the Gladers and I was never quite sure (still aren't) of who to believe. I worked a couple of things out but mostly I'm more confused than when I started reading! I really hope The Death Cure ties up all the loose ends and answers all the questions I have, I have very high hopes for it.

5/5

Received free from Chicken House in exchange for an honest review