The Scorch Trails

The Scorch Trails

by James Dashner

Synopsis:

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?

My thoughts:

I enjoyed this novel. It met all of my standards, and surpassed some. The story moves at a perfect pace, and Dashner doesn’t spend too much time on the backstory of Maze Runner, like authors often do in sequels. He jumped straight into the action, and I like that, because if the exposition is too long in a story, readers often lose interest in the book. He made an excellent job of the character development; Everyone from the old, nose-eating crank, to Thomas himself have been developed excellently, and in such a way that the reader becomes even more interested all of the time.

Reviewed by A.C. Grade 10 Scona Student