Reviews with content warning for Violence - The Death Cure

The only reason I wouldn't give it 5 starts is because sometimes I felt like there was somethings that really didn't have to happen and he just added them in there to make the book longer. It is over all very entertaining and a very easy read. I just feel a lot of some of the stuff that is happening in the series as a whole is getting very repetitive, but I still am very much enjoying it. Most of the characters are all very lovable. I feel like somethings he did go over/move on way to fast; but I guess that is also the point of the book, because most of the time they are in dire circumstances where you can't really linger on one thing too long or you'll end up dead. Overall I very much enjoyed it!

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adison_smith's review

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adventurous dark mysterious sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

I am very disappointed with James Dashner. This was a horrible book. Plot wise, he had a great idea. The Maze Runner is an amazing book. But he failed in his mission. This book is nothing but trash for the heap. The characters have no development, and therefore major plot points have no affect on the reader because the characters are unlovable and cannot be related to. Newt dying was literally the worst. Because there was no point. And Thomas didn't even grow from that. He stayed the exact same. Thomas, THE MAIN CHARACTER, has literally no character development through books 1-3. I can somewhat understand in book 1, but in books 2 and 3 not to help him realize his flaws at all?? There is no hero in this book. No one really wins. They are all people lacking morals. I would not recommend this book to anyone.

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tbs250's review

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adventurous challenging emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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rachelditty's review

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adventurous tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

I really enjoyed analyzing this series again after watching the movies. Looking at the differences in medium and how those differences influenced the perception of characters was a fun challenge. These books are so much more brutal than their movie counterparts, and the characters are much bitchier and more hardened in the best way possible. I really enjoyed Dashner's usage of full-circle plotlines in this book, and that we can see elements and themes from all the way back in book one resurface in this installment of the series. It was fun to revisit this series after reading it in middle school. My opinions on a lot of things have definitely changed, and I'm guessing my perception on the prequels might have changed as well. Dashner did a great job with this trilogy. I'm glad I picked it up again. Also, Mark Deakins has a great reading voice for this audiobook.

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ishouldbereading's review

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adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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wiktoria88's review

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adventurous emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

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faefires's review

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adventurous funny sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

the death cure does what many dystopian franchises struggle to do: exit the original premise of their world and still satisfy the readers who came for that premise. hunger games did it, divergent did not. the death cure finds the perfect balance between the mystery of WICKED that the readers want to unearth and the development of the characters we’ve grown to love.

it starts strong, with our three musketeers showing they are yet again the gayest bunch of straight boys ever. (dashner, you missed an opportunity to make this the pioneer of gay science fiction) it slows down in the middle (probably because minho is not there to keep the plot moving by punching people) and then races to the finish with all the emotions.

many people criticize page 250. to them, i simply say: get a grip, it was needed. the book would be a 4.0 and not a 4.5 if that page didn’t happen. emotional sacrifice, character growth, it was a crucial part of the story and has been foreshadowed in his character. did i cry the first time? yeah, of course. was it one of the better emotional tugs that cinched the franchise as epic? yeah.

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nytephoenyx's review against another edition

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slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? N/A
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

Ugh, what a slog.

It's been a long time since I've read anything of Dashner's, so the writing style came at me like I was reading it for the first time. I want to call it a lot of "telling, not showing", but there's something to his verb choice that aggravates me. There's an awful lot of "Thomas now saw..." and "Thomas understood that..." and "It was obvious to Thomas." The deeper I got into the audiobook, the more grating these descriptions were. Thomas was at all times both omniscient and clueless. Always making the exact right choices to get in the exact wrong situations from which he'd make the exact right choice to get out of... and then end up in another wrong situation, from which he'd make (you guessed it!) the exact right choice to escape. And on it goes. It was repetitive and monotonous.

Usually when I continue a series I'm not particularly in love with, I'm in it for a character. And almost always, *somehow*, I pick the character that the author chooses to kill off or otherwise destroy in the next book. I don't know how I do it - it's a knack, I guess. But that happened again here where we were and will forever be stuck with THOMAS. Boring, shallow, unexciting Thomas. If you're going to have a Chosen One (which now he indisputably is) at least make him interesting. The concept of this series remains really interesting, but its execution is subpar.

I'm definitely done with this series. THE DEATH CURE was a long walk to nothing. There was little to no character development, little to no plot progress, and the writing was grating. There are so many better books to read by authors who do not sexually harass women and then gaslight them.

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