Review: The Scorch Trials

Title: The Scorch Trials
Author: James Dashner
Publication Date: 2010
Genres: Young Adult, Science Fiction

Synposis from Goodreads:

Solving the Maze was supposed to be the end.

Thomas was sure that escape from the Maze would mean freedom for him and the Gladers. But WICKED isn’t done yet. Phase Two has just begun. The Scorch.

There are no rules. There is no help. You either make it or you die.

The Gladers have two weeks to cross through the Scorch—the most burned-out section of the world. And WICKED has made sure to adjust the variables and stack the odds against them.

Friendships will be tested. Loyalties will be broken. All bets are off.

There are others now. Their survival depends on the Gladers’ destruction—and they’re determined to survive.

My Thoughts

After reading The Maze Runner, I felt a bit obligated to continue on with The Scorch Trials. I guess it's a good thing that my experience with the first novel was encouraging enough for me to actually be excited to find out what happens next.

The story picks up with the Gladers in some sort of old building. Thomas wakes up to chaos, and we are given a glimpse of infected humans, or Cranks, as they are called. They are tasked by WICKED to travel through the Scorch, which is more or less a burned out area of land, and they are forced to catch the Flare to motivate them to finish their journey. Thus they find themselves walking through long-deserted lands, trying to find their way to the cure. There find new friendships but uncover betrayals as well, once again begging the question: who can they really trust?

Just like in the previous book, there are a lot of questions being thrown around here. I hoped that I would actually get some answers, but all I got were even more questions, and although I understand that that’s part of the suspense that Dashner wants to build, it could get frustrating to be kept in the dark for so long. I suppose it also had its intended effect, though, because it got me really curious for the next installment. I think what makes the plot different in this one is that instead of the characters having a main goal to achieve (like solving the maze in the first book), they don’t actually have a concrete plan to fulfill, other than that they had to get through the Scorch, supposedly to be cured of Flare. Nevertheless, there is enough action and mystery in it to have had me keep on flipping its pages.

The characters were kind of still the same. I felt bad for Thomas because constantly being controlled by WICKED can’t be easy to deal with. He is not a particularly likeable character because he doesn’t really have any special or fun traits about him, but for some reason that didn’t really bother me. Minho and Newt are as awesome as ever. We are introduced to Brenda, who seems to be a new love interest for Thomas. Until now, I’m still not too sure whether I like her or Teresa for Thomas, but I guess they each have their own good qualities. I finished this book wanting to know more about these characters’ backgrounds, something that I hope will be touched in The Death Cure.

The Scorch Trials is a fairly good novel with its own engaging twists and turns. It left me a bit excited for the next one, if only to finally get answers and find out how the whole thing will turn out. If this review got you even the least bit interested, then I suggest you check this one out!