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4.0 AVERAGE
4.0 AVERAGE
Much better than any movie
I loved the movies but the books are even better and they give you a better perspective of what each person is thinking and why. There are numerous differences between the books and the movies. I would say the movies only capture about 40% of the books plot. Reading the books will definitely shed light on some of the characters behaviors.
I loved the movies but the books are even better and they give you a better perspective of what each person is thinking and why. There are numerous differences between the books and the movies. I would say the movies only capture about 40% of the books plot. Reading the books will definitely shed light on some of the characters behaviors.
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Back in October 2014, I was gifted the Maze Runner trilogy. I quickly started reading. The first book was great. I had no idea what was going on, and everything was a surprise. Where were they? What were these things, these rules, etc.? The second book was not as good. It seemed to be following the same formula, but in another setting, and it’s getting a little old. Still, it was kind of interesting… what’s going to happen?? Then the third book happened. Oh, so dull. It’s like a tv show when it needs to be over, and yet it drags on for years again. Before the year was out, I gave up, thinking maybe I’ll come back to it. It’s now December 2016 and I might as well review this thing and put it to rest. I recommend that you read the first book, then skip the others. At least for sure, skip the third.
Some spoliers ahoy! Actually, for this review to make sense, I think you should have read the books as I do not summarize them too much.
First, a review of the original trilogy (The Maze Runner, The Scorch Trials and The Death Cure):
Wow, that was quite an intense ride. These books just did not stop! It was a rollercoaster ride right up to the end with all the shit these poor kids had to go through. I didn’t know anything about this series going into it and I am so glad I didn’t, because it has allowed me to be completely unbiased. I went into this book just as clueless as Thomas was and it has been really exciting uncovering the mystery about the maze and the world beyond. This story is well-written and the language has a good flow to it.
I particularly liked how the books are told from Thomas' point of view. That way I became just as clueless as him as to what the hell was going on. And what a hell it was! Grievers, people going nuts without anyone really knowing why or how, beetle blades spying on you for God knows who, and just the basic what-the-actual-fuck of kids being kidnapped, robbed of their memories and put in a godforsaken maze! There was always action and something happened all the time so you never had time to be bored. The fact that the author managed to create so many “oh fuuuuck, now what are they gonna do?!”-moments speaks to his ability to captivate the readers in the story so much that they forget about all the things that can come back to bite the characters in the ass. And that can be a hard thing to do!
The ending of book one was really intense, heartwrenchingly sad and had me right on the fence thinking "Are they safe now? They must be safe now. But how can I trust that? These people are ruthless. Is this even real??" That is something else I liked about this book: you never know what is real and what is not. What is true and what is not. It definitely keeps you on the edge, turning those pages!
And then I started book two. And it all went to hell in a handbasket. Here, our band of ragged heroes are subjected to new and fancy mindfucks such as dead bodies hanging from the ceiling, flying silver balls that eat your face, boiling heat, cranks and gross bulb monsters. By the way, the grievers are also so gross! I mean, metal arms and a squishy, soft, yucky body. Eeewww! Anyway, Thomas and the others are put through even more shit, both physically and mentally. Especially mentally, as he starts to doubt Teresa more and more. One moment she seems like the most trustworthy person ever, the next she has you doubting everything she ever said or did! As before, the reader knows nothing more than what Thomas knows, the POV doesn't even shift as the group gets separated, and so I could not decide whether I loved or hated Teresa. It did not help that everytime she and Thomas talked she was so distant, never explaining in detail what was really going on. It drove me crazy! Spill, girl!! Well, this book ends with the gladers escaping the Scorch, so maybe someone finally would.
In the third book we (I/the readers and Thomas) are just as confused as ever to begin with and it doesn't get better for a while when Thomas, Minho and Newt refuse to have their memories given back to them. Thomas has decided he can't be the person he was before because of all the inexcusable things WICKED has done. I admire the fierce loyalty Thomas feels for Newt and how he is desperate to try and save him even though Newt is way on his way past the Gone. The scene in the bowling alley and the one right before Thomas goes back to WICKED's headquarters, both involving Newt were gutwrenching, raw and almost frightening. How awful it must be to watch your friend go through something like that, knowing it will only get worse.
The ending was kind of hasty and anticlimactic for me. I really thought they were going to to try to get The Right Arm with them through the flat trans. And, why, God, why did you not kill Rat Man when you had the chance(s), Thomas!?! You knew he would come back to bite you in the ass if you didn't. Come on! He had the Flare, so he was gonna die anyway. Also, why did it have to end with everything WICKED blowing up? I wanted a long and grueling trial for those cold-blooded motherfuckers. And I am not satisfied with Teresa dying that way. And I am not satisfied with Brenda (who the fuck is Brenda, anyway?) just waltzing in and becoming Thomas' new love interest (although, if Thomas had chosen to get his memories back, maybe he would have remembered how close he and Teresa were and ditched that other bitch). And I am not satisfied with Thomas not being that sad about Teresa at the very end of the book. I always wanted them to work it out in the end. And I am definitely not satisfied that we don't get to know what happens to the rest of the world after the gladers steo through the flat trans! Did the virus die out? Are there people left on Earth? Where are the gladers?
So many unanswered questions, but not a terrible read at all.
Oh, and one thing about this series that I had a hard time swallowing was the whole idea of sun flares causing this much damage. I am definitely not an astrophysicist, it just seems a little unlikely. Can anyone elaborate on this subject? Is it possible for solar flares to do what they did in these books?
In my opinion The Kill Order was the best of them all. The relationship between Mark and Alec is really sweet, despite the horrible circumstances that brought them together. Part of what made this book so good was the graphic descriptions of what this virus actually does to people, how it tortures them and eats away at their humanity. The scene where Darnell basically kills himself was especially harrowing. It was a raw and gritty read.
However, there were some things I found unlikely and hard to believe. As mentioned before, the solar flares. It seems that only minutes, perhaps some hours, after they have struck New York, the water flows down to the underground station, perhaps due to a tsunami, but perhaps also due to the ice caps melting. The ice caps melting! Of course, they would indeed melt (I guess), and fast, if the Earth was struck with solar flares, but that fast? No way. Come on. I refuse to believe this unless someone shows me scientific studies and simulations.
Also, there must have been some sadistic, irrational, egoistic motherfuckers who took over the governing of the remaining world for them to release a damn virus upon the people! And as population control, nonetheless! Granted, there must have been limited reources left after half the Earth got scorched to hell, but didn't also the solar flares kill of a sizable part of the population? Why would you make matters worse by killing off the survivors?! They were doing fine in their settlements. This whole setup is a little hard to accept.
Again, the end was a little unsatisfying to me. As in the original trilogy, the main character's love interest becomes uninterested/fades away and we don't know what happens after the end!! What happened when DeeDee arrived in Alaska? What did they use the poor girl for? Does she have any connection to Thomas and Teresa? Even more unanswered questions!
A little warning in the end: reading all these books in rapid succession had me enter a pretty negative mindset. The characters are put through so much crap and physical and emotional strain it's a wonder they're alive at all. There are just so few moments when things actually go their way, it seems kinda unbalanced. Basically, it's saying the world is crap and it's about to get worse. But I guess that was WICKED's plan all along, in order to get their goddamn blueprints. I suggest a light and happy read after this :P
First, a review of the original trilogy (The Maze Runner, The Scorch Trials and The Death Cure):
Wow, that was quite an intense ride. These books just did not stop! It was a rollercoaster ride right up to the end with all the shit these poor kids had to go through. I didn’t know anything about this series going into it and I am so glad I didn’t, because it has allowed me to be completely unbiased. I went into this book just as clueless as Thomas was and it has been really exciting uncovering the mystery about the maze and the world beyond. This story is well-written and the language has a good flow to it.
I particularly liked how the books are told from Thomas' point of view. That way I became just as clueless as him as to what the hell was going on. And what a hell it was! Grievers, people going nuts without anyone really knowing why or how, beetle blades spying on you for God knows who, and just the basic what-the-actual-fuck of kids being kidnapped, robbed of their memories and put in a godforsaken maze! There was always action and something happened all the time so you never had time to be bored. The fact that the author managed to create so many “oh fuuuuck, now what are they gonna do?!”-moments speaks to his ability to captivate the readers in the story so much that they forget about all the things that can come back to bite the characters in the ass. And that can be a hard thing to do!
The ending of book one was really intense, heartwrenchingly sad and had me right on the fence thinking "Are they safe now? They must be safe now. But how can I trust that? These people are ruthless. Is this even real??" That is something else I liked about this book: you never know what is real and what is not. What is true and what is not. It definitely keeps you on the edge, turning those pages!
And then I started book two. And it all went to hell in a handbasket. Here, our band of ragged heroes are subjected to new and fancy mindfucks such as dead bodies hanging from the ceiling, flying silver balls that eat your face, boiling heat, cranks and gross bulb monsters. By the way, the grievers are also so gross! I mean, metal arms and a squishy, soft, yucky body. Eeewww! Anyway, Thomas and the others are put through even more shit, both physically and mentally. Especially mentally, as he starts to doubt Teresa more and more. One moment she seems like the most trustworthy person ever, the next she has you doubting everything she ever said or did! As before, the reader knows nothing more than what Thomas knows, the POV doesn't even shift as the group gets separated, and so I could not decide whether I loved or hated Teresa. It did not help that everytime she and Thomas talked she was so distant, never explaining in detail what was really going on. It drove me crazy! Spill, girl!! Well, this book ends with the gladers escaping the Scorch, so maybe someone finally would.
In the third book we (I/the readers and Thomas) are just as confused as ever to begin with and it doesn't get better for a while when Thomas, Minho and Newt refuse to have their memories given back to them. Thomas has decided he can't be the person he was before because of all the inexcusable things WICKED has done. I admire the fierce loyalty Thomas feels for Newt and how he is desperate to try and save him even though Newt is way on his way past the Gone. The scene in the bowling alley and the one right before Thomas goes back to WICKED's headquarters, both involving Newt were gutwrenching, raw and almost frightening. How awful it must be to watch your friend go through something like that, knowing it will only get worse.
The ending was kind of hasty and anticlimactic for me. I really thought they were going to to try to get The Right Arm with them through the flat trans. And, why, God, why did you not kill Rat Man when you had the chance(s), Thomas!?! You knew he would come back to bite you in the ass if you didn't. Come on! He had the Flare, so he was gonna die anyway. Also, why did it have to end with everything WICKED blowing up? I wanted a long and grueling trial for those cold-blooded motherfuckers. And I am not satisfied with Teresa dying that way. And I am not satisfied with Brenda (who the fuck is Brenda, anyway?) just waltzing in and becoming Thomas' new love interest (although, if Thomas had chosen to get his memories back, maybe he would have remembered how close he and Teresa were and ditched that other bitch). And I am not satisfied with Thomas not being that sad about Teresa at the very end of the book. I always wanted them to work it out in the end. And I am definitely not satisfied that we don't get to know what happens to the rest of the world after the gladers steo through the flat trans! Did the virus die out? Are there people left on Earth? Where are the gladers?
So many unanswered questions, but not a terrible read at all.
Oh, and one thing about this series that I had a hard time swallowing was the whole idea of sun flares causing this much damage. I am definitely not an astrophysicist, it just seems a little unlikely. Can anyone elaborate on this subject? Is it possible for solar flares to do what they did in these books?
In my opinion The Kill Order was the best of them all. The relationship between Mark and Alec is really sweet, despite the horrible circumstances that brought them together. Part of what made this book so good was the graphic descriptions of what this virus actually does to people, how it tortures them and eats away at their humanity. The scene where Darnell basically kills himself was especially harrowing. It was a raw and gritty read.
However, there were some things I found unlikely and hard to believe. As mentioned before, the solar flares. It seems that only minutes, perhaps some hours, after they have struck New York, the water flows down to the underground station, perhaps due to a tsunami, but perhaps also due to the ice caps melting. The ice caps melting! Of course, they would indeed melt (I guess), and fast, if the Earth was struck with solar flares, but that fast? No way. Come on. I refuse to believe this unless someone shows me scientific studies and simulations.
Also, there must have been some sadistic, irrational, egoistic motherfuckers who took over the governing of the remaining world for them to release a damn virus upon the people! And as population control, nonetheless! Granted, there must have been limited reources left after half the Earth got scorched to hell, but didn't also the solar flares kill of a sizable part of the population? Why would you make matters worse by killing off the survivors?! They were doing fine in their settlements. This whole setup is a little hard to accept.
Again, the end was a little unsatisfying to me. As in the original trilogy, the main character's love interest becomes uninterested/fades away and we don't know what happens after the end!! What happened when DeeDee arrived in Alaska? What did they use the poor girl for? Does she have any connection to Thomas and Teresa? Even more unanswered questions!
A little warning in the end: reading all these books in rapid succession had me enter a pretty negative mindset. The characters are put through so much crap and physical and emotional strain it's a wonder they're alive at all. There are just so few moments when things actually go their way, it seems kinda unbalanced. Basically, it's saying the world is crap and it's about to get worse. But I guess that was WICKED's plan all along, in order to get their goddamn blueprints. I suggest a light and happy read after this :P