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3.5/5
Non-Fiction
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Read via audiobook.
Rating: 3.5/5
Pages: 360 (10h23m)
Started: 26 January 2024
Finished: 1 February 2024
Summary:
Thomas and his friends may have escaped the Maze, but their trials at the hands of the organization WICKED are not over. This time, they've been released into the desert with one goal: armed with only bedsheets and plastic bags of water, they must journey across the scorching desert infested with Cranks--people who've succumbed to the madness that accompanies the Flare disease--to a compound, or die trying.
Thoughts:
Though this book didn't have the narrative roundness or intense interest that the first book in the series did, it was still an interesting and investment-inducing read. The character dynaics remained interesting, especially with Thomas taking much more of a leadership role. Plus, the constant questioning of hwat was real, what was a WICKED-designed test, and what was entirely in the character's heads, made it a fun book to ponder your way through.
Dashner may not be the greatest writer, but he's very adept at releasing the perfect amount of information at the perfect time. This series is a brilliant example of the perfect Dystopian zoom-out. Unlike in Divergent, where halfway through the final book, the characters discover there's a world outside the city they live in, Dashner has created a very effective zoom in this book. The first novel is defined by confusion and confined to a single maze and compound. This book is one step broader, defined by a lack of surety and confined to a desert and a few compounds but still all within the scope of a test run by WICKED. This slow zoom out keeps readers engaged without throwing them off the deep end.
The think I disliked most about this book was the role of women. While I thought gender was explored in an interesting way in the first book, it was significantly less interesting here. Theresa and Brenda did not have any obvious traits to differentiate them, and they were set in a supportive love-v situation that was awkward and jealous and quite pointless in my opinion.
That being said, I read this book very quickly for an audiobook, enjoyed it very much, and look forward to reading the rest of the series.