The Scorch Trials by James Dashner

Because I'm a glutton for punishment I continued on with the series. I was not left completely wanting, but I did find more questions than answers yet again. Is the old maxim third time the charm really true? I truly hope so because I really need some answers to how this series was a bestseller.
Sitting pretty in a bunker with comfortable beds, clean clothes, and plenty of food, Thomas and the Gladers are ready to find out why they have been living in a maze for two years. Why they have been modified to remember only the basics of human functionality. Why they have these tattoos on their necks. The frustration is palpable as the reader ends up experiencing it right along with Thomas.

Bad news, kids. The testing is not over. The cure is not even close to being formulated, and we have infected you with the humanity genocide virus. You will be thrown out as another trial phase 100% aware we are monitoring you. But you won't know which part are tests and which are just figments of the environment. You must also complete all of this while missing a member. Meet Aris, the only boy from all girl Group B. He will be replacing Teresa.

The Gladers are banished from the cushy WICKED bunker into the tunnel of death only to enter the Scorch. The zone between the tropics that were hit the worst by the solar flares that devastated the planet. There is nothing but heat, dust, and infected. It is, after all, the place that the world felt most comfortable dropping all the people infected with the Flare.

The Gladers plus Aris have two weeks to cross this wasteland of insanity and cannibalism. Extreme bad weather and complete lunatics are traumatic enough, but then Thomas is separated from his group with a complete stranger, Brenda. Trials bind they say, and Thomas starts to feel angsty emotions towards Brenda and Teresa and can't quite sort himself out. So when he is kidnapped by Teresa, it is a whole smorgasbord of relationship issues. 

Thomas realizes he has finally had enough of WICKED and sets his resolve to get himself and the Gladers free of their influence and testing.

All of that sounds like it should be interesting and action-packed. Unfortunately, the pages are hard to turn as each new paragraph is not an explanation but more dialogue and intrigue. If a problem is solved, it is done so in the background; no reasoning or rationale on the foreground. Even with a creative imagination it is disappointing when the author leaves a plot hanging.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ga-ga-ga-gas-Lit City

Image
Welcome to February everyone. Hope you have all unburied from the snowmagedpocalypse readers in the Northeast. Just in time for some new powder to flurry down and send you back indoors to read my reviews on what to read to get you through the winter doldrums. Today we certainly have just that. The Custodian of Marvels by Rod Duncan And my world has been righted! We are back with Elizabeth Barnabus as she was in The Bullet-Catcher's Daughter. I'm all tingly. Not that Unseemly Science  was a complete let down; I just really feel that the magic (or circus dust?) wasn't there from the first novel. Apparently that is because it all built up and got swept to this novel.  We have the original troupe together for some Ocean's Eleven shenanigans as they attempt to rob the International Patent Office (gasp for dramatic effect). The humor and wit have returned to the original level because everyone knows all about best laid plans. While I like Julia, her relegation back to ...
Read more

The most mind-boggling book I've ever read

Image
... and the mind-boggled review to go with it. This book was the most unique reading experience I have ever had in decades of reading. Assassin Queen by Anna Kashina This week we have the final novel of the "Majat Code" trilogy. I previously reviewed the first and second novels and have read a short companion novella as well. Some may recall me raving about the first novel and being slightly disappointed about the turn of the second novel. The novella was more in tune with Blades of the Old Empire  and added to the hype for The Guild of Assassins . So with the letdown from the latter book, why did I get the third? More importantly, how did I feel about it? Redeemed and exacerbated. How can you feel both of those at once? That is the mystery of the third novel of the "Majat Code." There were some extremely awesome, butt-kicking scenes reminiscent of "Blades," and the romance from "Guild" was still included. I was excited and disappoint...
Read more

Traitor Born by Amy Bartol

Image
This whole novel is just page after page of tension.  I really didn't even care that this is just a repurposed Kricket series.  The world and characters are different enough to make this an entirely different read.  The author found a plot formula that works for her writing style and created another success. While this is a book about political intrigue and love at its heart, there is something about the world and characters that make me want to read more.  Sure, the male characters are all identical in appearance and personality--and Roselle seems to fall in love with them at the drop of a hat despite having fallen in love with someone else 10 pages ago.   Sure, the plot has been done and done again in YA novels presently--it's a badass young woman who is learning how to be herself while contending with being a badass.  The action scenes are fast-paced and thrilling while being completely unrealistic.  So many cliches! But, that just doesn't...
Read more