The Scorch Trials by James Dashner

"He didn't care about the others anymore. The chaos around him seemed to siphon away his humanity, turn him into an animal. All he wanted was to survive, make it to that building get inside. Live. Gain another day."

Synopsis: "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."

Ughh... The Scorch Trials has got to be one of the most disappointing books I've ever read (along with The Maze Runner). I read The Maze Runner about a year ago and never really bothered to look for it's sequel. So after spotting this at the library, I decided to give the series another chance. Talk about disappointment... The Maze Runner was bad, and The Scorch Trials was even worse.

Let's start with the deceiving cover. It's neat, it's epic-looking, the blurb introduces you to the book nicely. Then you actually read the content and it's nowhere near as exciting as the synopsis claims it to be. Dashner doesn't build conflict and therefore, the plot is simple and predictable.

*Contains SPOILERS*
1. When Thomas gets shot, WICKED saves him.
2. Teresa claims she's on Thomas' side throughout the betrayal...and she is.
3. When Thomas is finally "betrayed" by Teresa, he leaves without a scratch.
4. While the Grievers were nearly impossible to kill, the box creatures at the final battle were easily defeated by popping the bulbs. The teens with supposedly high IQ win by just popping "light bulbs"...seriously?!
5. When Thomas and Brenda are being chased by the Cranks, they conveniently have a secret hiding spot nearby.
6. There's a lot more...but i'll stop here :P
*End of Spoilers*
It seemed like whenever Thomas got into a tight spot, Dashner provided him with an easy escape.I had a lot of trouble with realistic issues like these that inhibited me from enjoying the book and I constantly found myself criticizing the unfolding story.

It also doesn't help that Thomas is the most boring character, ever. He's described as a serious, bland and humorless boy. ([After attempting humor] "When not a single person laughed, or even smiled, he [Thomas] coughed and hurried on.") How are we supposed to relate or even bond to that?! I can't decide if Dashner did it on purpose (though I can't imagine why) or to prove a point (that I haven't figured out yet)...

Which brings me to one of the biggest problem of the series so far. We are two-thirds through the story and Dashner still hasn't explained why the kids are needed to save the world. >:O Who are the antagonists if "WICKED is good"? Unnecessary "side stories" have been explained, but the vital information in keeping interest is not revealed!

As you probably know, successful authors "show, not tell." Dashner has a tendency to spell out Thomas' feelings for us, which simply does not flow. (i.e. Instead of saying something along the lines of "Thomas' eyes grew cloudy with suppressed tears", he would instead say "Thomas was really upset.") Therefore readers are not provided with the opportunity to realize the emotions going on by themselves.

On the positive side of things... I really enjoy reading the background of characters and organizations and The Scorch Trials did get into the specifications of WICKED. The idea of an organization all for the good of humanity, yet commits careless murder over dozens of unsuspecting people was really interesting.

Despite my ranting, I love dystopians and the plot idea wasn't that bad so... 5/10 :)