on
3.5/5
Non-Fiction
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Read via audiobook.
Rating: 3.5/5
Pages: 368 (8hrs55mins)
Started: 2 February 2024
Finished: 4 February 2024
Summary:
Though Thomas and his friends survived the Scorch Trials, WICKED is still not done with them--and Thomas is tired of it. Enraged, exhausted, and afraid, Thomas and his friends nevertheless decide to escape. As they foray into the real world, and see cities divided made for the rich, healthy, and afraid, and those made for the Cranks slowly losing their sanity to the Flare disease, Thomas can't help but question if a cure for all the suffering might truly be worth signing away his life.
Thoughts:
Again, this series is so engaging. It is imperfect in a lot of ways, but it has very much held my attention. Thomas is a very interesting protagonist for not having many actual character traits, and once again Dashner releases information at a speed that keeps the reader on the edge of their seat without boring or confusing them. This time, the zoom has shifted to the real world, still framed by WICKED but much messier an real without being overly disorienting. Leaving questions of loyalty and goodness open for the reader to guess at also aids the immersive nature of the novel, as does the fact that Dashner has no issue with killing off beloved characters--in very satisfying ways, I will add. Though things aren't overly hinted at, the very YA-appropriate pieces of foreshadowing lead to very satisfying scenes (read: deaths) that are genuinely sad to read but also very fulfilling to the plot.
Something I haven't mentioned in prior reviews, but that remains true for the whole series, is the effectiveness of the violence in this series. I'm not sure if it's a product of reading the audiobook rather than a physical book, or the combination of young characters and disaster, but the violence is very well done. Dashner doesn't take it too far, but also doesn't shy away from gore, and the horror of the awful things that happen to his characters are pretty palpable. I'd be curious to see a horror book written by him; I feel like he would handle that genre in a visceral and effective way.
I can feel myself slightly losing interest in the series as I keep reading; too much guessing and revealing gets boring after a while, but I'm willing to hang on for one more book.